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!