Two years have passed since we left London and have been back in Montana.
Hard to believe. It feels like it's been twenty.

Our life couldn't be any more opposite than it was two years ago. We've gone from living in one of the world's largest and most diverse cities to a town of 40,000 people -- 400 miles (650 km) away from any population center over 1 million people. We went from having 30 days of vacation per year to 5. We went from a 37.5 hour work week to 50 hours or more. We went from free health insurance to a $6,000 yearly deductible. We went from "weekend globe trotters" to "weekend home renovators."

Yes, much has changed from two years ago. Between having new jobs and moving into a new house last year at this time, finding time to write the compulsory Chistmas letter completely eluded us. So too apparently has the ability to keep in touch any other time throughout the year!

To give the brief synopsis of our current state of affairs, we left London in January of '08 and camped out at Marcy's parents' house while Dave sent "cold call" letters to print shops in Montana and Wyoming. He got calls back from (an impressive) five different shops. Two of which developed into serious offers. After much deliberation he chose the offer from a shop right here in Helena, my hometown. He started working at Allegra Printing in March.

Once we established where we were living, I started my job-hunting process. I was still unemployed by June when a customer service girl at Allegra had gone on maternity leave and they were short-handed. I filled in for her and at the end of the 6 weeks, they offered to create a graphic design position for me.

I really like my job. Um... Dave... not as much. But despite any indifferences about our employer, they did create new jobs for both of us so we are extremely fortunate for that, especially in this economy. We both work way too many hours though, which is something we need to change in the new year. But we probably won't.

Just before Thanksgiving last year we closed on a house and our life has since been reduced to being slaves to home repair. We didn't necessarily buy a "fixer-upper" but the curse of being two creative people is that we foolishly conceived loads of stuff we wanted to change. Consequently our present living situation is quite disastrous. Our living room has become a wood shop and the entire main floor of our house has become a construction site -- a very slow moving job site since all the work so far has been done by ourselves or with help from our families.

Dave spends his summers in the saddle. Not the kind that goes on a horse as you would logically assume considering we live in Montana, but rather a bicycle saddle. He joined the local bike club and logs hundreds of miles every season. In the winter he runs up and down the basketball court, chasing after kids a fraction of his age. He joined the Montana Officials Association and became a referee for junior high and high school basketball games. It's his part-time job but he wishes it could be his day job.

As for Marcy, she's tragically too obsessed with home repair to maintain any sort of normal, healthy hobbies or activities.

Between battling long work hours, home renovations, readjusting to a Montana pay scale and fighting frequent Boston homesickness, it feels like it's been a long two years. But it's not all bad. It's nice to be closer to family and old friends. And we're also lucky to live in a beautiful part of the world. Every so often we do manage to escape the shackles of our obligations. To see a little of what we've been up to, you can visit the year(s) in pictures. Note that it's not necessarily "the year in photos" because we've had to improvise a bit.

Anyway, enough about us. Please know that even if you don't hear from us often (okay, barely ever), we're still thinking of you and we wish you a wonderful Christmas and all the best for 2010.

David and Marcy