The Christmas letters share the chaos of family life, highlighting the blend of comedy and drama that accompanies the journey of parenthood and familial relationships. Episodic tales portray a tableau of life's quirks, challenges, growth, parenting and changes that the family undergoes.

Reflections were precipitated from the author's unique approach to addressing "wicked" problems, embodying a pragmatic blend of humility, interdisciplinary insight, and a method referred to as "muddling." Muddling is an innovative form of problem-solving that leverages a broad spectrum of knowledge, supported by systems engineering skills, to navigate the uncertainties of such problems. While facing the breadth and depth of his ignorance, the author's need to know what he didn't know resulted in hundreds of pages of notes and essays that precipitated the sixty 2-5-page reflections that: