We started the New Year early and with a bang by travelling to Thailand on Christmas Day. What a fantastic, magical trip. There are so many memories that it would take two holiday letters to share. But, distilling the trip down to its essentials gives us serenely peaceful golden Buddhas, insane tuk-tuk drivers, majestically plodding elephants, gracious hospitable Thai people and delicious exotic food. One of the highlights had to be celebrating the New Year in Siem Reap, Cambodia along with a mob of crazy people from all over the world.

There was news on the employment front this year. While Pamela continues to enjoy working at Infinera with longstanding friends and co-workers, Bruce started a new job in September. RHUB Communications is small and Bruce's role overflows from his traditional QA role into customer support, documentation, and IT. Everyone does everything at a startup! It is a great benefit that his company is located just 2 miles from our house.

All work and no play makes us dull, so fortunately, we are blessed with wonderful cultural and musical events right in our back yard. Our relationship started out with a visit to the theater and now in our 5th year of marriage we have kept up that tradition. We saw many great plays and heard some fantastic music. Berkeley Repertory Theatre is our favorite theatre company and we saw a wonderful original musical based on Green Day's punk rock album American Idiot. This show is heading to Broadway and it was great to see its initial run.

We also attended the annual Bridge School benefit - a day-long concert benefiting a school for disabled children. The Bridge School benefit is hosted by Neil Young and featured many great musical groups who generously donated their time for this cause. These included Fleet Foxes, Adam Sandler, Chris Martin from Coldplay and a fantastic No Doubt. You'll recognize many of these names from our Christmas CD; we hope you enjoy their music as much as we did.

Our travels did not end at the beginning of the year. Somehow, unexpectedly, we packed this year with several other great trips. In February, we flew down to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for a wonderful, warm and relaxing stay. We soaked up lots of sunlight and enjoyed the wonderful Mexican food and friendly people. Then, in September we visited Boston - Pamela for the first time. Boston is a wonderful city and we now appreciate the hometown pride that every Bostonian expresses.

For Pamela, the highlight of the year was our family reunion at Cannon Beach, Oregon in August. Mom, Dad and all the Partlow siblings were there along with spouses and kids. We had so much fun sharing that huge beach house, walking on the beach, playing Wii and just visiting with each other. Pamela is so grateful for her family.

We are both grateful for the wonderful friends in our lives. It is our family and friends who add color and texture to our lives. Thanks for all you do for us. We would like to wish you Happy Holidays and the best New Year. Good fortune and happiness to you and yours.