Letter

Holiday Letter 2025, here we go! Some big happenings this year, so without further ado I'll get into it....

On New Years' Day we went up to Ft. Funston again, only this time we had a different dog. So far Reese hasn't been quite as willing to swim in the ocean as Splash was (it may be a name thing), but she still had a great time there (as did we all).

Reese posing with a bit of kelp at Ft. Funston.

Reese with the boys at Ft. Funston.

Evan has always wanted to have Reese sleep in his bed, but so far she's not been interested. Still, he keeps trying.

Reese with Evan in his bed (not for the night, just for a picture).

Alex is not as pro dog-in-bed, but he's willing to have company for short stints.

Reese with Alex on his bed (definitely just for a picture).

In February we took Alex to see one of our favorite bands, Guster, when they played a show in Oakland (Evan opted out of joining us to do stuff with his friends). This isn't the greatest picture ever, but it's the best we got while we were there, and I only talk in these letters about events that have pictures so I've got to include something. And I really wanted to make sure to mention this show because it comes up again later in the year (you'll see below).

At the Fox Theater in Oakland to see Guster.

Later in February we went up to Tahoe for our annual Presidents' Week ski trip. We went to Northstar again this year after enjoying it so much in 2024, and it didn't disappoint. The weather was particularly warm this year (you can see in the picture below that only Stephie is really bundled up, and even she wasn't that bundled), which was kinda nice.

Skiing and snowboarding at Northstar.

Both boys played soccer for their high school team (Alex on JV, Evan was captain of the varsity team), and had pretty successful seasons. They both got awards at the end of season banquet as well, Evan was All-League 1st Team and Coach's Player of the Year, and Alex was Most Improved.

Evan and Alex with their high school soccer awards.

Some of you may remember from the last two years' letters that we did a number of college tours during the last two fall breaks, and the school that Evan clearly has the most positive reaction to was Oregon State University. Well, he applied there early admission and got in to his preferred major (Mechanical Engineering) and to their Honors College (which he was very interested in). And once all the other acceptances and rejections and wait listings came in, OSU is where he decided he wanted to go to school. (There are more pictures about moving in and Fall Family Weekend below.)

All of us in the OSU gear that Steph's sister Melissa got us.

We did a little day hike at Villa Montalvo in May, and we got the dog to pose well for once, so I'm definitely including that picture.

Hiking at Villa Montalvo

Later in May and then on into June the end-of-school and graduation-related events started piling up. First on my birthday was Evan's senior honors ceremony, where pretty much all of his friend group received honors of one type or another (Evan for being one of 14 valedictorians, among a few other things).

Evan and his friends at the Senior Honors Ceremony.

Next up was prom, which Evan attended (the first and only school dance he ever went to!) with most of that same group of friends.

Evan before he heads off to prom.

Then it was time for graduation! We had both sets of grandparents in attendance, and we got pictures of all of us attendees in the stands:

The family in the stands for graduation.

And with the valedictorian on the field after the ceremony.

Everyone with Evan after graduation.

Our little family with Evan after graduation.

It should come as no surprise that both our boys are pretty accomplished artists, especially when it comes to drawing. Evan recreated a scene from one of his favorite animes for his cap decoration.

Evan's graduation cap, inspired by Evangelion.

Our other big family news from graduation day was that Northrop Grumman, where I've worked for 25 years, announced they were closing our San Jose site and moving all the work there to other locations (primarily Sacramento). I had several offers to move to any of a variety of sites around the country within the company, but we Metzes are pretty happy in Silicon Valley, so I was laid off on Halloween. As of this writing I'm still interviewing for my next position (and I'm hopefully really close to what I think will be an excellent new opportunity, but nothing's final yet), and enjoying some time off (for the first time since I was 20 or so).

[UPDATE 1/20/2026: I accepted a position at Google as a Site Reliability Engineer with the Google Distributed Cloud Air-Gapped team and started today!]

Anyway, back to happenings in June. Steph answered a call back in January from a new arts space in downtown Seattle, Cannonball Arts, to create a soft-form rideable sculpture over a mechanical bull base. She submitted a couple proposals, one of which was selected (out of 80+ submissions), and in February she started work on creating a realistic, 10ft long nudibranch (a sea slug) out of foam and felt.

Steph with one set of volunteers around the finished nudibranch.

Steph with another set of volunteers around the finished nudibranch.

With the help of many many volunteers, Steph finished Toxic Beauty in early June and rented a truck to road trip it up to Seattle with her good friend Shelley from college. Actually, they were friends from well before college, but they both did go to the University of Oregon, where they got to stop along the way.

Toxic Beauty loaded into a U-Haul and ready to transport.

Once it arrived in Seattle and they got it off the truck and onto the mechanical bull base (which was apparently even harder than it sounds), Steph had a few former students and studio assistants who live in the area help her put on some finishing touches (like felting over the panels where the sculpture was bolted to the bull form).

Jen, Steph, Mercer, and Jen with the finished nudibranch.

While Steph was on this adventure, Alex and I were down in Los Angeles for SoCal Cup, his first club volleyball tournament. Alex has played volleyball with his school team all through middle school and this past year on the high school JV team, but this summer we let him try playing for a club team as well.

Alex with his team (he's the tall redhead in the middle) at SoCal Cup.

His cousin Delaney (who played volleyball practically her whole life, including through college) lives in the area and was able to join us one day to watch his games, which was a treat.

Delaney came to watch Alex's games one day of the tournament.

Then at the end of June/beginning of July we went to AAU Nationals in Orlando. (The whole summer season was just two big tournaments, first in LA and then in Florida.)

Alex with his team at AAU Nationals in Orlando.

My parents happened to be road-tripping across the country to see my mom's sister in Daytona Beach, and they were able to come through Orlando and see two days of the tournament.

Scotty and Linda joined us in Orlando to watch some volleyball.

And also, who on earth thought The Licking was a good name for a restaurant chain?! Only in Florida....

Alex posing in front of The Licking.

Alex and I flew home on the 4th of July from the tournament (Steph had to come home a few days earlier to deliver some artwork to a show), so we mostly missed the normal festivities and fireworks. We were able to see cousins Finn and Parker a few days later, though.

Seeing Finn and Parker in Pleasanton.

Steph was in Minneapolis, MN a week after that teaching a felting class at Textile Center, which was a new venue for her.

Steph with many of her students exploring Minneapolis.

Before Alex started school again in early August we took one last quick family trip to go canoeing on the Russian River with our friends (and the boys' classmates) the Bustas. Unfortunately our phones were packed away in dry bags for most of the canoeing, but we at least go a few pictures at the glamping place we stayed at the night before.

Eating breakfast before heading out to the river.

Just a few days later Evan and I flew up to Corvallis (well, we flew to Portland and drove to Corvallis) to attend his orientation at OSU.

Hayden and Evan at Reser Stadium during Launch.

A week after that Steph and I were up in Seattle for the official opening of Cannonball Arts and Toxic Beauty.

Mercer, Steph, and Jen with Toxic Beauty during the friends and family opening.

Hayden riding Toxic Beauty for the first time.

While we were in Seattle we also went to to the top of the Space Needle for the first time and went to the Chihuly Garden, which was pretty awesome.

Hayden and Steph at Chihuly Garden and Glass.

And this wasn't really something we'd planned, but we got lucky that the same weekend we were going to be in town anyway Steph's cousin Joanna was getting married, so we got to attend her wedding and catch up with a lot of Steph's extended family.

Steph and Hayden at Joanna's wedding.

But August was not done yet! Remember how I mentioned that in February we saw one of our favorite bands Guster in Oakland? Well, in late July they mentioned in their email newsletter that they were playing their first ever show in Hawaii in late August at the Four Seasons Lanai, and everyone staying at the resort got to go to the show for free. We didn't have any other plans for our anniversary, so we made a snap decision to go to Oahu and Lanai for our anniversary and see Guster again!

First we spent a few nights on Oahu at a nice little resort I found in Kaneohe (on the northeast shore of the island), Paradise Bay Resort. We'd been to Honolulu before but we'd never seen the rest of Oahu, so we really wanted to get outside the city and Paradise Bay didn't disappoint.

Snorkeling in Kaneohe Bay.

Unfortunately we were only able to stay at the resort for two nights (they were all booked up on the third night), so we spent one night in Waikiki at the Royal Hawaiian just doing beachy things. Then the next morning we got on a little plane for a half hour flight over to Lanai for two nights at the Four Seasons.

Eating lunch at the Four Seasons Lanai.

We had activities booked for each day, so between all the lazing around we did a ropes course:

Pausing for a picture on the ropes course.

Took a snorkel trip:

Catching some sun (turned out to be a little too much) after snorkelling.

And went to the archery range for a lesson:

Showing off how we can both hit fake reindeer in the antlers (definitely not by accident).

The highlight of the trip, though, was defintely seeing Guster in an absolutely amazing setting.

We watched pretty much the whole show from right up front.

And we even got to meet a few members of the band and chat with them for a few minutes during the trip (they were all staying with their families at the resort as well)! All in all it was an amazing trip!

Unfortunately we did have to come home eventually, though. And not a moment too soon, because the day after we got home Steph had to install work at a solo show at Felix Culpa Gallery in Santa Cruz. Fortunately Evan was still home (OSU is on quarters, so he didn't start college for another few weeks), so he was able to help her install.

Evan helping Steph install her show at Felix Culpa Gallery.

Evan dragged his feet forever taking the driving test (he waited so long his learner's permit expired and he had to retake the written exam), but he finally got his driver's license just a week before he started college (we had to mail his license to him at his dorm when it arrived).

The newest licensed driver.

Speaking of which, at the end of September we rented a big SUV and drove Evan up to Corvallis to move him in at Oregon State.

Evan's dorm room, at least partially decorated.

At the very end of the month Steph and I went back to HopMonk Tavern, the small concert venue in Novato we found last year, and saw Stroke 9, which was a real blast from the past (which is true of most of the bands we've seen at HopMonk).

Steph and Hayden seeing Stroke 9 at HopMunk Novato.

Remember how I said I'd been at Northrop 25 years, and that I was being laid off at the end of October? Well, earlier in October Steph and I went to a company banquet in Beverly Hills to celebrate peoples' 25- and 50-year anniversaries (yes, there were 2 people in attendance who'd been with Northrop 50 years!). Ironic? Certainly. But it was a pretty good party, and we got a free trip down to LA out of it.

Hayden and Steph at Northrop's 25-years of service banquet.

While in LA we also went to the Getty Museum, which we'd wanted to do for years but had never made the time for before.

Hayden and Steph at the Getty.

And Steph got us tickets to see Chappell Roan play at the Rose Bowl, where our neice Riley and her friend Alex joined us for the awesome show!

Steph, Hayden, Alex, and Riley seeing Chappell Roan.

In November we all went up to see Evan at OSU's Fall Family Weekend (which was Alex's first time back to campus since we did a tour last fall when Evan was still figuring out where he wanted to apply). We got to see a football game (although we only stayed through halftime, since it was kinda cold):

Hayden, Evan, Alex, and Steph at the OSU football game.

And walk around campus now that Evan knew his way around better:

Hayden, Alex, Steph, and Evan in front of Weatherford Hall.

We had Evan home briefly for Thanksgiving, and that's when we able to take our Christmas card picture:

Our Christmas card picture.

2025 has been quite an eventful year for the Metz family. Some big changes are afoot to say the least. I feel like I say this every year, but it was all more good than bad, so I'll call that a win. We hope you had a good year too, and 2026 brings you more of the same!

Letter

Another year, another Christmas letter. I'm mostly going to work chronologically, but we had two big dog-related events that kinda book-ended the year so I'm going to address those first. Then I'll work through the rest of the year.

First, we had a fairly rough March, when we had to unexpectedly say goodbye to our spectacular dog, Splash. Steph wrote a very poignant letter to many of you when it happened, so I'm just going repeat it here:

Dear friends and family,

I’m writing to share sudden and devastatingly sad family news; today we said goodbye to our incredibly good dog, Splash. Since you’re receiving this you probably know to some extent how much she’s been an important part of our family since we first adopted her in the Covid summer. For the past nearly four years she has been a constant source of joy, laughter, comfort, and the forging of new friendships, canine and human alike.

I still can’t wrap my head and my heart around this. Four weeks ago she was perfectly healthy; we went on a sunset walk at Ed Levin county park; they’re my last ‘normal’ photos of her. Over the past three weeks she suddenly developed an autoimmune disease called pemphigus vulgaris, in which the skin and mucous membranes break down, painfully. We sought every answer and solution possible; it took over two weeks to really get a diagnosis. We took her to specialist vets; we treated her there and nursed her at home. This is a very rare disease, and the treatments didn’t work. She held up and held on, but after another hospital stay and a lack of a miracle, we helped her let go.

She was a remarkably clever dog, AND loved to eat anything and everything-- which helped her learn lots of tricks as well as the names of all of her family members, many of her dog/human friends from our extended neighborhood dog community (and she knew, of course, which dog went with which person), and she could identify by name and bring over many of her toys. It seemed like she understood compound sentences; at least she certainly learned ways to get what she wanted by paying attention to what paid off. She was affectionate; she was barky when excited, although she could also ‘whisper’ if there was food in it for her. When you would stop patting her she’d paw at your hand for more. She will be missed.

We will never know if it was a genetic disease waiting like a ticking time bomb, or if it was triggered by something external; none of the testing revealed any source. We have to settle, somehow, for the nearly four years we had. Her fourth birthday would have been tomorrow.

It has been terribly hard on our whole family, and we’ll get through it bit by bit. If you see us soon, just hug us through bouts of sobbing, or else give us a moment to figure out what we need. Her presence was felt through every part of our lives, so there are dog-shaped holes all over the place. I didn’t want to have to explain it over and over, thus the somewhat impersonal email.

Here is a sampling of pictures we took of her earlier in the year, before she got sick (those last two are from the sunset walk Steph mentioned in her letter):

We took the Spring and Summer to mourn her passing, and I'll confess there were some benefits to not having a furry friend to take care of everyday. We are kind of a dog family, though, and as Fall rolled around (and Steph finished installing her big solo art show In The Glow... more on that below) we started looking more earnestly at puppies that were out there in the world.

After we returned from a trip to the Pacific Northwest visiting colleges in early October (more on that below too) Steph connected online with a breeder of Australian Shepherds in Turlock who had one puppy in her litter that unexpectedly became available (the person who was going to take her backed out at the last minute), and two days later Steph was coming home with Reese:

Reese was 8 weeks old at the time, so she's almost 4 months old as I'm writing this. She's turning into a wonderful little dog (although she obviously won't be little forever, we're expecting her to top out a smidge under 50lbs when all is said and done), but the first month we had her was rough. Having a young puppy is somewhat akin to having a mobile infant with very sharp teeth, and Reese was extremely willing to use her teeth. Just in the last few weeks it's gotten a lot better, though, and we spend significantly more time with her snuggling than we do being nipped at.

Anyway, here are a few more pictures of her the first week or so she was home:

OK, so that's our big dog news, the bad and the good. Now, on to the rest of the year....

On New Year's Day we went up to Fort Funston with Splash and some dog friends (sadly, it turns out this would be our last trip to the beach with Splash).

Walking at Fort Funston.

On MLK Day Alex and some friends wanted to go hiking at Alum Rock Park, and I somehow got elected as the one parent who would accompany them.

Hayden and Alex hiking with some of his friends at Alum Rock Park.

At the end of January Steph and I took our annual trip to Las Vegas to see friends for Super Bowl weekend (this year since the Super Bowl was in Las Vegas we went for the conference championship games instead).

Hayden, Steph, and Elizabeth at the Year of the Dragon display at the Bellagio.

We also went hiking at Red Rock Canyon at the end of the weekend, which has become pretty much a tradition as part of this trip. If you click on the second picture to make it bigger you can see the Strip in the background down in the valley.

Steph and Hayden hiking at Red Rock Canyon.

Steph and Hayden at Red Rock Canyon w/ the Vegas Strip in the background.

We went skiing a few days at Northstar this year for our annual Ski Week trip. I remember not really liking Northstar that much when I was coming up to Tahoe a lot more often back in grad school, but we had a great time there on this trip. I think it probably helped that I found us a condo where we could ski-in/ski-out, so we just came back to the condo for lunch. Fingers crossed that we can find something similar next year.

On the slopes at Northstar.

The rest of the Spring was relatively uneventful (at least as far as the family photo album is concerned). Alex graduated from middle school in June, though, which kicked off a busy start of Summer.

Outside the stadium gate for Alex's middle school promotion ceremony.

Our big vacation this summer was a trip to the east coast to see my extended Metz family and celebrate multiple milestone birthdays (my cousin and I both turning 50, and my aunt 75, all within a month of each other). We were meeting everyone in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, which meant the closest airport was Norfolk, VA. We spent an extra day in Norfolk before driving to NC and visited Colonial Williamsburg.

Visiting Colonial Williamsburg.

Then it was on to Corolla, NC in the Outer Banks with the extended family. We rented a huge house  (14 bedrooms) right on the beach together, all 26 of us, and spent a week doing beachy things.

Hayden and Steph in the gazebo at the end of our private boardwalk to the beach.

Steph can't help but sculpt things, even on vacation.

The boys got to do a little ocean fishing.

Evan and Alex with their cousins Dylan and Finn.

The wild horses that live in the Outer Banks dunes came up on our deck at one point!

We all went go carting one day.

Hayden and the boys with our beach vacation towels on the pool deck.

Back home, Steph and I went to see Toad the Wet Sprocket (a favorite of Steph's from high school) perform at a small outdoor venue in Novato, Hopmonk Tavern.

Steph and Hayden at the Toad show in Novato.

At the end of summer Steph was up on Whidbey Island in the Seattle area teaching at the Pacific NorthWest Art School. While she was there she also got to visit with some friends and family before and after her class. 

Steph with her cousin Aaron on a beach hike.

Steph kayaking around the Johnson-Pate's cabin on Marrowstone Island.

Then the summer was over and it was time to start school. Both boys are in high school this year, Evan a senior and Alex a freshman, so this is the last year that they'll both be at the same school (barring attending the same college, I suppose).

First day of school.

August and September were largely consumed with doing final preparations (including finishing the artwork) for In The Glow, Steph's big installation and solo show at the Triton Museum in Santa Clara. Obviously Steph was doing all the real work, but the family helped with getting the art ready to transport to the museum (among other things).

At Steph's studio getting artwork ready for In The Glow.

We had another date night around then to see Foo Fighters (one of my favorite bands) in Concord. 

Hayden and Steph at the Foo Fighters show at Toyota Pavilion in Concord.

Content Magazine did a profile of Steph in their Fall issue, so they wanted to show a few of her pieces at the magazine pickup party.

Steph at the Content Magazine Fall issue pickup party.

We got Alex a new (to him) mountain bike over the summer (he'd long outgrown his previous bike and was always stealing mine or Evan's), and the family went on a biking excursion around the summit of Mt. Umunhum. A not entirely successful excursion... the climb killed us all, and my bike popped a tire early on in the descent. Still, we had a good time, and got some exercise. ;-)

Mountain biking Mt. Umunhum (Steph and Evan are pointing at the old radar tower).

The Mesa Contemporary Art Center featured several of the Hanging Pods from In Touch in a show that opened at the same time as In The Glow (it was a very busy summer and early fall for Steph!). The opening reception happened to be on our wedding anniversary, so we flew to Phoenix for the weekend, stayed with my parents, and brought both sets of parents to the opening.

The week after our Phoenix trip Steph went down to San Diego for the weekend for her friend's birthday with her high school friends, and they all went to see Indigo Girls (we went to more concerts this past year than we have in a while).

Steph seeing Indigo Girls in San Diego with friends from high school.

The opening reception for In The Glow was the following weekend, and Steph's sisters Melissa and Kim both flew in to town to attend.

Melissa, Steph, and Kim in the City the night before the opening.

Uncle Roger, Aunt Linda, Melissa, Steph, Kim, and Cousin Lauren at the opening.

Kim, Evan, Alex, and Melissa at Alex's soccer tournament the same weekend.

For the boys' Fall Break we went up to the Pacific Northwest to visit a few colleges, University of Oregon, Oregon State University (the winner of the weekend), and University of Washington. We also got to see some friends in both Portland and Seattle, and most importantly PLAY WHIRLYBALL! For those of you who don't know (probably most of the non-Metzes out there), Whirlyball is sort of a cross between lacrosse and basketball played in bumper cars, and it's awesome. We used to go every year to play at a place in Detroit for Thanksgiving when I was a kid, but that was well over 20 years ago. It was a blast to get to do it again, and take our kids this time.

Visiting University of Oregon, Steph's alma mater.

Playing Whirlyball!

Walking around downtown Seattle after taking the Underground Tour.

For Halloween the boys didn't want to get dressed up or go out trick-or-treating, but they did have a bunch of friends over to carve pumpkins, cook for each other (and us!) and give out candy. Given Reese's name we had to get her a little dressed up, though.

Reese in her "costume".

The kids' pumpkins lined up on the front porch.

We didn't go anywhere for Thanksgiving and it was just the four of us at home, but my sister Hallie and her family came up from Monterey for the day after.

Hayden, Steph, Parker, Finn, Alex, Evan, Hallie, and David on Thanksgiving Friday.

Both boys made the high school soccer team (Alex the JV, Evan is captain of the Varsity team), which means twice a week all winter we're going to be watching cold soccer games in the dark for 4 hours. So far Reese is doing pretty well as a soccer dog... it helps that she loves the cold. ;-)

And that pretty much brings us up to now. Well, once I add in or Christmas card photo (taken outside the Triton) and one of us posing in front of In The Glow.

Our Christmas card photo.

Standing in front of In The Glow at the Triton Museum of Art.

2024 was certainly busy, and had some pretty dramatic ups and downs. Easily more ups than downs, though, and you can't ask for much more than that. We hope you had a wonderful year as well.