Happy New Year 2012

Francois graduated from Plymouth State University in June 2011 with a BS in Marketing and a minor in communications. He is back home living with us and works as a management trainee for Enterprise Holdings in their rental car division. For Christmas this year, he gave us a home theater system. Louis and I bought him a 2000 BMW 528i with 160k miles as a graduation present. We found it at our local small-town mechanic’s garage, the place where Francois spent a couple of summers working part-time. Dad has a proud and rewarding moment every time Francois leaves the house for work in the morning before anyone else in the house has to get out of bed.

Caroline is in her Junior year at Purchase College where she is studying towards her BFA in Drawing and Painting. We have paintings all over the house. She is working on several portfolios that she intends to use for job applications.

Veronica has started her freshman year at SUNY Buffalo (UB.) She finished her first semester in their Nursing program but found Anatomy challenging. She is transferring into a double major Business and New Media program. She is enjoying college and appears not to have a clue -- nor care -- what she wants to do. During orientation, Dad and Vern visited Niagara Falls, about 20 minutes from UB.

Matthew is 15 and a sophomore in high school. He is still playing drums, has started wrestling for his high school JV team, and is on the debate team. He is also doing a science research project. He is working on time management skills, and has just discovered it is difficult to learn math without doing the homework.

Nicholas is 11 and in 6^th grade. He seems to have an aptitude for math but is only interested in video games. We have a bunch of games and an Xbox. Playdates now-a-days are no longer on person but on line through the Internet. Dad and Nick spent a day in New York City. They visited the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center, the Museum of Natural History, the decorations on 5^th Avenue, and Central Park. They walked over five miles with no complaints.

Dad is finally remodeling the second bathroom. He has finished modifying the plumbing under the concrete slab and now has closed up the hole in the floor. We are getting ready to build the shower walls, tile, and set the toilet.

IBM continues to get leaner and meaner. Dad’s office staff has been cut 50% from three years ago. He’s the oldest guy in the office now. His department and others have moved to another building, so the rest of the Research staff could be consolidated in the main building. One satellite building was closed this year.

I continue to wish I had more time to spend with friends and family, more time to knit or walk the dogs. But too much time is spent circling around a house littered with construction debris and holiday recycling. An ocean of cardboard boxes, eggnog containers, wrapping paper -- all the flotsam and jetsam a holiday leaves in its wake and it's going to get worse before it gets better because at some point in the fast-paced celebrate-o-rama whirlwind we've been on over here, both of us have lost all touch with reality and have absolutely no idea what day of the week it is.

That's how it gets around here at the holidays. Somewhere in between Thanksgiving with friends, Christmas with family, Boxing day with houseguests from out of town, herds of small children and not-so-small teenagers all over the place, holiday parties, concerts, services and cookies, meals, candles, dinners, brunches and deadline knitting, not to mention that much of this is accompanied by bottles and bottles and bottles of very good wine (and even if you don't drink them and other people do it still can lead to a lack of clarity that's disorganizing) and suddenly you've got two adults who have no hope of pinning down the fact that it's actually Tuesday. Brilliant move.

Happy New Year to all. From our house to yours,

Peace.