Preface: The Blog -- The Modern-Day Family Letter to the World

From the day I began college -- some 13 years ago -- my father encouraged me to write regular letters. This was in the days before flat-rate long-distance and mass cellphone proliferation. It was also in the earliest days of the internet, and most of us had no idea what email was (much less how to use it). In any event, it was good practice for my two-year LDS mission in Sao Paulo, Brazil, during which practically all contact with "home" came in the form of weekly written correspondence. (My understanding is that LDS missionaries now typically use email for this function.) Years after my mission, and after I had married Jen and we started to have kids, my father again requested -- this time as a birthday present of all things -- that his children send out at least a monthly letter (by that point, distribution by email was deemed appropriate -- even preferable). I did this quite faithfully -- for a while. But then we moved into our house, life became increasingly busy, and -- except for our annual Christmas letter -- the monthly Grant&Jen Willis family update quietly ceased operations.

In time, and after thinking about the best way in this day and age to share information about our family with our kin and friends -- many of whom are now flung all over the world -- we decided to jump on the "blog" bandwagon. The price is right, the medium is sorta hip, and it's available for the whole world to see. What could be better.

So, dad and everybody else, welcome to the gift that keeps on giving -- welcome to The Willis Way.