Annual Holiday Letter to Friends and Family

Happy Holidays!  This is the annual letter that George composes every year (except last year).  It is too big a file to send via e-mail, so my blog is a great way to share!

There is much to be grateful for from 2013 and to look forward to in 2014!

Is it December already? Again? Yes, I was negligent last year, and did not send an annual report. So please accept our apologies, and let us now get on with it. There is much to tell.

For 3 weeks during this past July and August, Lori and I traveled through Maine and some of Atlantic Canada. We went with our friends Steve & Lynn, the same couple we went to South America with in 2006. We sailed on Penobscot Bay in a rented 2-masted ketch for four days and nights. We visited the Bay of Fundy, and spent a week exploring Prince Edward Island by bicycle. We sampled traditional food and music during the festival of the blessing of the boats in Caraquet, on the Acadien Peninsula. And then we spent 3 days in Quebec City, which must surely rank as one of the most beautiful cities of the world. I even got to use some of my High School French, which many of the locals were kind enough to tolerate.

Lori is in the process of trying to reinvent herself professionally. In the third year of her tenure as President of the Oregon Science Teachers Association, she has worked hard to make that organization more effective in serving the needs of its members. What's more, she is trying to take a leadership role in the dissemination and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards, a new approach to science and technology curricula. She was the local-area coordinator (or, as I call it, clipboard-in-chief) for the National Science Teachers Association Area conference, held here in Portland in October. She has traveled to conferences in San Francisco and Mesa Arizona, learning about programs that help science teachers, and searching for leadership opportunities. She is working half-time this year, teaching 3 sections instead of 6. Consequently, I get to see a little more of her...not twice as much, to be sure....but a little more.

On a personal level, she has been spending more time in the garden, and in the kitchen. She has a perennial garden in a raised bed outside the kitchen door. We've got kale that will probably survive the winter, and with our new Vita-Mix, we have healthful green smoothies (mmmmm!) whenever the mood strikes her. She has also found time to take up an old skill: knitting. She's making me a new sweater, to replace the one that was attacked by South American moth larvae.

I've been singing in two different groups for the past year. In addition to the barbershop chorus, where I have been involved for the last 14 years or so, I joined a mixed choir. The music, mostly classical and jazz, is much more challenging. I am singing with some very skilled musicians....and managing to keep up. We have completely new material every 9 weeks or so. All in all, I spend about 4 hours a week in rehearsals, which is a wonderful thing. I'm singing more now than I have since High School, and loving it. Between now and the first of the year, I have 15 performances scheduled. There is something uniquely gratifying about making beautiful music with others.

For the last couple years, I've been doing volunteer work in schools. I spend two mornings a week as an assistant in an elementary library, and coach Middle School students in speech at 2 other schools. It is a continuing reminder of all that I loved about schools, and all that frustrated me. Its a total of about 12 hours a week, and it's enough.

Ben is now a project development leader at his software firm. He and Abby and their baby boy Maddox (he'll be 2 in May) live in a beautiful home in Tempe, outside of Phoenix. They've just had their kitchen rebuilt. Ben continues to play mandolin with his consort of contributors, and their house is full of instruments. Maddox loves to sing and dance.

Miriam and Skye are both taking some big steps professionally. Along with her work as a doula and Nia dance instructor, Miriam is the new Executive Director of United Way of Eastern Oregon. Skye has left the Forest Service and is now a licensed Landscaping contractor.  And Asher (I gasp as I write this) is in kindergarten. His fine motor skills are quite amazing. Some of his drawings are displayed proudly in our home and other places. He has started piano lessons.  His little sister Eden Pearl turned 2 a month ago. She has developed powers of concentrated effort, communication, and persuasion. She can dress herself, feed herself, speak in complete sentences, and listen attentively.....when she wants to. Skye built a field-stone retaining wall for the front yard of their cozy home, high on the hillside overlooking La Grande.

In March of this year, we traveled to New England to help celebrate the 90^th birthday of my father's sister, my Aunt Lisl. She is the oldest member of our family. Although she doesn't hear as well as she used to, and has difficulty moving around, she is as sharp as ever, cracking sarcastic jokes and keeping everybody on their toes. We will be back there again next summer, as there are a couple of weddings on the agenda.

It is very good to be back here in Oceanside, as I write this, the weekend after Thanksgivinuka. It is very quiet here. The place is consistent and familiar. It's like a nest. I find old unfinished crossword puzzles, and listen to KLCC. There are one or two pink rosebuds left. The kids were all here at the end of the summer, when it was warm. We want them to come every year.

We send our love and best wishes for a healthy and prosperous New Year.