My Perfect Family Christmas Letter

Well, friends and family, here we are again at the end of the year and what a glorious year it has been! I’ve just finished wrapping the last Christmas present with some homemade wrapping paper I made. I gathered a few fresh greens from the backyard to adorn the presents and I think we are ready to go. We will be celebrating Christmas at home on the 25th, making it by both sets of grandparents on the 26th and 27th before heading to Maui for a few days of rest and relaxation. We’ve not gotten to be in our home in Kaanapali nearly as much as we’d like to in 2005, but have really enjoyed our place in Newport this year and look forward to some really good skiing at the St. Moritz condo in February. I know…I know…condo living can be such a bore, but the great skiing and fine shopping make up for the cramped quarters and limited staff. Can you believe I’m expected to maintain 5,000 square feet with a staff of only 4! I guess I just love a challenge!

Kelly’s work has been exhilarating for him this year. He’s been quite busy with special projects here and there, but thankfully has not missed any of Blake’s concerts. One of his biggest accomplishments that he was happy about was helping to lower Blake’s handicap to 5. Musically speaking, we have really enjoyed this year of instruction with Van and feel that Blake’s progress is superb for a 2 year old. Blake is currently working on Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody 6 and is having the time of his life! We’ve enjoyed our practice sessions at the Cliburn’s and especially Blake’s getting to play at one of their holiday celebrations. Blake also enjoys his polo classes but seems to be really taken with his new pitching coach. Blake’s change-up is really beginning to take shape and Nolan thinks that he should have it by opening day in the Spring. We have had several private institutions contact us attempting to convince us to enroll Blake in their early childhood program, but with our commitment to his sports, music, and the time he takes to read to other 2 year olds at the homeless shelter, we simply do not have time for preschool. Blake continues to amaze the professors at the University with his intuition in foreign language. It was fun for him to serve as President Bush’s translator during the meetings with President Hu Jintao in Beijing in November.

I am really enjoying this holiday season and looking back on the last year, I realize how truly blessed we have been. Working on the Board of the American Cancer Society has really reminded me how important it is to appreciate your health. I was so thankful to be in a position to co-author a paper on ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation, and the Nobel Prize nomination was such a bonus. It truly is an honor just to be nominated.

We hope that 2005 has been a blessing to your family too. We invite you all to join us on our new boat whenever possible during 2006. We’ve only taken her out once, but it was a nice trip around the Cape. We were thrilled to learn to communicate with dolphins and even were lucky enough to find a new region of deep-water volcanoes. We’d love to share the sailing experience with any of you that can work it into your schedule.

So, from our household to yours, all the blessings of the season and may your New Year be prosperous.

The Morrisons

Dolphins, Scooters, and Cannons

We had the greatest trip to San Antonio with the grandparents. Blake really loved it all - and is still imitating a hungry dolphin and wanting me to feed him a fish now and then.

Feeding the dolphins is really fun. They are such social animals...it is really enjoyable to watch them. Blake got so excited when they swam by. I got to pet one of them, but they aren't very interested in you until the fish come out.



Kelly and Blake did the feeding. I thought Blake might be confused by throwing the little fish to the big fish...but he didn't care one bit about that.



Here we are waiting for the seal/walrus show to start. Cute, silly show - but still fun. It was so much fun to watch Blake watching the show....possibly more entertaining than the show itself!


Shamu was great. Actually, there were 4 Shamus...not sure what Blake thought about that either. We'd been building up "seeing Shamu" for a while, so when there were 4 of the killer whales, we just called all of them Shamu.



Blake decided to take a little rest break in the penguin house. It was nice, cool, dark and relatively quiet so we all enjoyed hanging out there and watching it snow on the penguins.


The grandparents had a good time too. Blake loved riding on G's scooter.

After a long day at Sea World, there's nothing like kickin' back in the hotel.

Remember the Alamo. We rushed this visit and didn't take time to read every little thing, but it was still a great place to be.

Another cannon to climb on.

If you haven't been down to San Antonio recently, it sure is a nice place to visit. I've been there in the summer when it was NOT fun...though Sea World has a big waterpark to cool down at. I'm just glad we got the chance to go and have some grandparent bonding time. Nice family memories.

Bad Boy, Bad Boy, Whatcha Gonna Do?

The streets are no longer safe.


This bad boy wants some candy for his punkin.



Bad boy shows his softer side while chattin' with Little Bo Peep.


Now this is what I call a RIDE!



Even biker dudes need a break...and sometimes a paci.

A Boy and His Dog

Abby and Blake are quite a pair. She is the greatest pup - very sweet, very gentle, and has always just sort of left Blake alone, which was a really good thing when he was tiny. She just turned 13 years old last week. She has breast cancer. She recovered nicely from her mastectomy (it seems funny to talk about this in such human terms) and they think they got all of the tumor.


I just hope that Abby lives long enough for Blake to have true memories of her. I know that I don't remember much from when I was 2 years old - so probably we'll just keep having to talk about her so he can keep her in his memories. There's just something about a boy having a dog that is important to me. I thought I would never let myself be without a dog, but now I am thinking I might take a break for a few years until Blake can appreciate a new dog a little bit better. We've decided not to treat her cancer, which wasn't really a difficult decision for a 13 year old dog. We will just wait for it to reappear make sure she isn't in pain.

We are headed down, with Abby, this weekend to let her run and play on the 12 or so acres that my aunt and uncle own outside of the little town of Chappell Hill, about an hour northwest of Houston. The property is completely chain-link-fenced, so it is a great, safe place to let your dog go wild. It makes me sad that this may be her last trip down there. We call her Country Dog when she is down there because she loves that setting and just goes crazy with all the room to run, the pond to play in, and all the other benefits of country living.
Anyway, Abby has been the best dog I've ever owned (OKOKOK...so I've just had 3 dogs my entire life) and I'm so glad my son gets to love on her and hang out with her. They are a great pair!