Christmas Letter 2012

Dear friends and family,

As 2012 comes to a close, we hope all of you are happy and healthy. This year has brought an even deeper appreciation for family for us as Sheryl’s father was diagnosed with leukemia in January. Although Mr. Price participated in a clinical trial where much was learned that will benefit other potential cancer treatment recipients, the disease and treatments eventually took their toll in June. We miss Paw Paw every day.

	We are so thankful that Steven returned home safely from Afghanistan in September, and we are very proud of him. Though he was involved in heavy fighting and has a small facial scar and 95% hearing loss in one ear to show for it, we are blessed to have him home. The families of six of his fellow Marines cannot say the same. It was great having both children home for Thanksgiving. Making the most of the holiday, Steven donned his dress blues and helped with the Toys for Tots drive at the Brighton store. Hopefully Steven will conduct training exercises at the 29 Palms base in Southern California until his discharge next October. When he has weekends free, Steven often makes the trek to Phoenix to visit his high school buddies. For the following spring, he plans to attend ASU while a member of the United States Marine Corps Reserve, serving one weekend per month plus two weeks in the summer.
	Stephanie made the switch from Allstate to Hyatt Hotels & Resorts in January and continues to do public relations and social media (including the Hyatt blog). Her strong work ethic can’t shake her of the long hours, but she loves the job and is excited to come up on her one-year anniversary which means free hotel rooms. Swapping her over an hour long commute (each way) for a fifteen-minute bus ride made the decision to change jobs an easy one – so much so that she is now a carless, mass transit Old Town Chicago resident. She recently moved from her studio to a one bedroom (oh what a difference a door can make!) with a beautiful city view. Three years in, and she’s still saying Chicago is the best place on Earth, and that’s really saying something in the winter.
	Sheryl continues to work at the Brighton store in San Francisco. When parking for the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train was raised to $8 per day, Sheryl switched and now rides the ferry to The City with Scott. It’s a very pleasant way to commute and only takes 16 minutes from Alameda. Sheryl continues to be an active member of her book club and Mahjong group – both of which involve long-time friends and new acquaintances (and, of course, good wine).
	Stephanie clearly takes a page out of Scott’s book, who also works long hours, and likes it like that. His Autodesk blog has up to 50,000 readers each month which provides an incentive to create fresh content each day. He continues to give tours of the Autodesk Gallery to help tell the company story through the work of customers that use its software. Scott maintains the homeowner association website and – to prove how nerdy he is – he considers this fun. Stephanie likes to say Scott and Sheryl are living the high life in their empty nesthood, since it seems like when she calls they’re always out with friends. (We admit we have no complaints, but we do miss our kids.)

We are all looking forward to gathering in Houston for Christmas. The celebration will be marked by fond memories of the past as well as the blessings that are ahead in our future.

Love,
Scott and Sheryl