| Hope spent 2019 doing her job at the National Academy of Sciences, which keeps her busy, and then traveling off to visit her adorable grandsons, which keeps her happy. There was another wonderful family wedding this year--Hope’s niece Anna got married in NY, and it was a beautiful event with family and friends rallying around. Very best wishes to you all for a fine 2020! |
| Kip and Aaron spent 2019 with Kip studying for her Master's Degree in Limerick, Ireland until August when they moved to Liege, Belgium so she could work on making that degree a double one. Aaron continues to work in the DC region as well as Estonia so has grown mighty used to airplanes. Their three bunnies are now seasoned international travelers but look forward to returning to the green grass of America in 2020. |
| Except for a wonderful kickball reunion and a great trip to LA to visit Jacob, and to meet Gloria and Hudson, Arabella’s 40th started off a little rough. Her cat Astro had to have 10 teeth removed, with a heart murmur. And her dog Muttley had to have two surgeries for cancer. All while she was battling her own health scare at the same time! But all of them have recovered and are now doing really well. And despite having to spend most of the year working to pay for all the medical bills as a result, she turned the struggles into a reminder of how short life is and made up for them by doing loads of spontaneous fun things to end the year well! And succeeded! |
| Alec went out on tour with KISS for 9 months of utter hell; happily the three of them were able to get together for a mid-tour 2wk holiday in Scotland and the UK, where Squab was introduced to British 'Cuisine', taught a Scottish friend to say NO with a New York accent, and developed his Naturalist tendencies while streaking through his Uncle Lawrence & Aunt Joy's lovely house in Leeds. Beatrice and Dino also spent their annual month destroying Ios, Greece - their last September there (sob) since the Squab is scheduled to start pre-K in fall 2020. In the past year, Dino has gone from 'Needs BOBUN' to 'See that fish? We can EAT it. We can EAT ITS EYES.' He has also agreed to use the toilet as it was meant to be used almost all of the time. Alec and Beatrice applaud one of these developments and question the other. |
| The year started off with Gloria and Jacob on parental leave and Hudson at 2 months old. Then in February, by a great stroke of luck, Hudson was accepted into a wonderful daycare in Santa Monica which he loved from the start. At first, Hudson was the youngest baby in the infant program and looked up to the other babies as he learned how to crawl, drink from a cup, and push his chair to the lunch table. Now he is one of the oldest children in the infant room and has a wonderful group of friends there. We made two trips to the east coast where Hudson got to visit his grandparents, and also several family members came to visit us in sunny Los Angeles, including Arabella (holla!) We've explored lots of local attractions with Hudson in between nap times. Hudson loves climbing up to the top of the play structures at the park but has not yet learned to walk. Appropriately, his first word was "up." We love the little life that we've created in Los Angeles and are so lucky to be able to spend 3 more years here as Gloria was recently accepted into the Allergy and Immunology fellowship program at UCLA. |
| Joy and Lawrence had a fine year working at the University of Leeds and at the boundaries of art and science, respectively. They have continued to work on the house and now have a shiny new bathroom and a front and back garden, though none of these were in place before Beatrice, Alec and Dino visited - not that anyone minded, and luckily Diggerland (where kids get to drive construction machinery) was fully operational. Lawrence wants to go back there soon. They abandoned their vegan ways to eat chocolate in Brussels and had an amazing trip to Crete in late summer. They also made it to Joy’s highschool friend (and Aaron’s prom date) Hillary’s wedding in Toronto, and cousin Anna’s wedding in NYC - both wonderful times. |
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