Happy New Year 2006!
Happy New Year from the Santa Cruz Mountains! Two Thousand Five flew by so fast—we never mailed out last year’s New Year Photo card though as we have done here, we did manage to post our annual holiday letter to our website. We suspect that other than the hardiest grandmothers (Hi!), few friends or family members really care to read all the exploits of our prodigious clan. So the letter remains here for the curious—instead of in your mailbox.
Click either picture for more photos
NIKOLAI is 25 years old. This has been a major life-changing year for him. He and Kim lived with us for a year and a half while they saved money for a trip to South Africa this past summer. They had a fabulous, two-month trip and returned for a few months so Nikolai could finish up his work at Davey Tree company while searching for a job in Oregon. He was hired by a sustainable forestry company in Corvallis, Oregon and he and Kim moved there in October. We REALLY miss them but are overjoyed with their good news. Besides being happily settled into their new community, they are engaged to be married!
TARAN is 23 years old. He still lives in Chico and works as a senior counselor at the Boys and Girls Club there. He really loves the work—the kids, his colleagues—and even facilitated the Club’s receiving a grant for a Suzuki Violin program he has started. Jeff surprised him by being in attendance at a recent banquet where Taran received an award for “Staff Member of the Year.” He has decided, finally, that in January he will return to school (Chico State), which he will do while still working full-time, thanks to a flexible and supportive work environment.
CALEN is almost 18 years old and a senior at Harbor High School. He has applied to a number of liberal arts colleges with good art programs, hoping (for now) to major in art and become a credentialed art teacher. He has been accepted at Humboldt State and awaits news from a couple UC’s, San Francisco State and others. He continues to coach at Santa Cruz gymnastics and has enjoyed taking a number of courses each semester at Cabrillo College. He and his girl friend, Heather, and other close friends play in a wonderful band (mostly acoustic) called “Zephyr.” Calen is the drummer (djembe and bongo). It was especially fun to see him and Heather cast together in “Grease” last spring. He played, “Doody”, the exact role Correll had a year ago, and Heather was “Sandy.”
CORRELL is almost 15 years old and a freshman at Pacific Collegiate School, a highly academic public charter school. We are all astounded by his time management skills and his drive to “do it all.” He has managed to keep up a heavy rehearsal schedule for such plays as “42nd Street and “Oliver” (he was “Dodger”) while training 18-20 hours a week as a Level 8 competitive gymnast. And he’s still an honor student.
SAGE is 12 and has joined Correll at PCS. He also trains long hours and will compete as a Level 7 gymnast. After the fun of starring in small school productions, Sage decided to try his hand at acting in community theater, too, and enjoyed being cast in “42nd Street” this fall. What a challenging show for a first-timer! Sage is also a good student and is proud to have had his school science fair project be selected both for the County and State Science Fairs.
ANYA is 9 years old and a happy fourth grader at Happy Valley School, our tiny elementary school "in the country." She lives and breathes for gymnastics, trains the same number of hours as Correll each week (though at a gym 45 minutes away) and competed at Level 6 this past season. We wish we could say she is “well rounded”—both literally and figuratively. But as much as she loves school, and her school friends, and reading, and her dolls, what makes her happiest and what consumes all her focus is: tumbling and swinging and twirling and leaping. She has an amazingly strong little body and an intense work ethic and is a pleasure to watch in action.
TRISTAN is six and flourishing in first grade at Happy Valley School where, as he is proud to say, he “gets to do second grade work”. He schleps to gym every week like his brothers and is actually competing “Level 4” this season. He may even accompany his brothers to Las Vegas where all three will compete next month. His enthusiasm exceeds his athletic ability—but he does everything with gusto and had fun playing T-ball and soccer this year, too. He is a constant source of joy to all of us!
JEFF and LISA continue to play catch-up with the kids. Jeff is still with IronPlanet. Lisa continues with a full violin teaching load—about 75 students. Together we have explored the possibility of fostering or adopting an infant and have enjoyed the training and application process as we wait for the “time to be right” for our whole family.
We wish you and your family a Bright and Happy 2006!!