January 2004  HAPPY NEW YEAR!
	We decided to post our annual missive on our web-site this year instead of mailing it. We happen to love reading our friends' and families' holiday newsletters. But we realize it takes a bit more patience for readers to make their way through the news from our family of nine! So here it is for the stalwart and curious; others have been spared the bragging details of our brood!
Nikolai is 23 now and we were thrilled to see him graduate from Cal Berkeley in May with a BS in forestry. He worked through the summer in a research position for a forestry professor, spending most of his time sleeping in a tent in the forest where he took samples from various trees to study their fire history back in the lab (he and his colleagues also spent a week or so in Baja similarly studying the Mexican forest). The “care-free” fun of camping wore off by the end of the summer and he was glad to begin his first “real job” with the Davey Tree Company in October. This company contracts with Pacific Gas & Electric (utility company). Nikolai is responsible for examining properties within his assigned territory and making recommendations to the company as to which trees pose a hazard. He is still living in Berkeley with his wonderful girl-friend, Kim, who will graduate this May with a forestry degree. When Kim and Nikolai come home to visit, the whoops and cheers that have always greeted Nikolai are now even louder for Kim, whom all the kids (and Jeff and I) adore. After two and a half years, Taran (age 21) has decided to leave his position as Editor of the Capitola/Aptos/Scotts Valley Times, where he has been responsible for the content, layout and production of three local community newspapers (one biweekly and two monthly). He has decided to return to school this semester, though not to George Washington University, where he spent his freshman year. He will be moving to Chico (home of Chico State University), sharing an apartment with friends and majoring in Business. It will be quite a change for us not to have Taran living in the little cabin in our woods. We’ll really miss him, especially Tristan, who calls Taran on the intercom every morning to “wake him up”, and enjoys “helping him park his car” when he comes home at night. Calen is now almost 16 years old and a sophomore in High School. He decided to quit competitive gymnastics this summer so as to experience a little broader sampling of what High School has to offer. He enjoyed taking Spanish 1, 2 & 3 this summer at Cabrillo College as well as coaching gymnastics. This fall he worked on the technical crew for the school’s drama production and continued working at the gym. He is currently playing JV soccer and looks forward to pole-vaulting in the spring. Indeed, now that he no longer spends the long hours in training in the gym, he has experienced a much broader sampling of what High School has to offer—but it seems to be in the social department, not academic! Correll is almost 13 years old (seventh grade) and is amazingly able to maintain a 4.0 GPA and also train 5 days a week at his gym in San Jose. He was elected to the student council at his new school, Pacific Collegiate, a charter school in Santa Cruz that is exceptionally strong academically. Latin and Drama are his favorite subjects. He will travel to West Point, New York, this month for one of his meets and has competed recently in Las Vegas. Check out some cute pictures of him as “Jack” in his 6^th grade class’ production of “Into the Woods.” Sage is 10 years old (fifth grade) and also trains five days a week at the gym in San Jose. He has a remarkably high energy level (arriving home from work-outs at 9:45 each night to do his homework) and loves everything about school. He and Correll have already launched into this year’s annual school science fair projects hoping each to make it to the County Science Fair for a fourth consecutive year. He seems to have Jeff’s inquisitive engineering mind and is always hypothesizing something about which I can follow little. He and Correll enjoyed a summer filled with swimming lessons, sea-kayaking, tennis and reading—racing through Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, the Red Wall books, etc. Anya is 7 years old and a second grader. She trains fourteen hours a week at a gym in Santa Clara and is one strong little girl. She will compete for the first time in August, though did quite well last summer in a national testing program intended to identify girls ages 7-11 with exceptional gymnastics potential. When she isn’t doing hand-stands, she is still very enamored with her dolls and, of course, her friends. Like Sage, she attends our little Happy Valley School, a tiny country school with outstanding teachers, wonderful parents and children, and a particularly nurturing environment. Tristan is 4 years old and attends pre-school—only twice a week because I can’t bear to part with him more than that. He is such an easy-going little boy and my best buddy all day! He has a delightful sense of humor, and is especially sharp and perceptive. He loves school where he gets to collect chicken eggs at snack time, and feed goats and geese and a llama and miniature pony! Naturally he also is involved in gymnastics—just twice a week. I (Lisa) spend seven days a week driving from the mountains down to the valley where the children’s gyms are located. Eeek. I worry sometimes—our children have gained so much poise, confidence and discipline through gymnastics (not to mention amazing fitness). But what are they missing during those long hours they love to spend in the gym, which they will regret later? Besides driving 500+ miles a week, I teach three days--two days of private lessons at home (including Sunday) and on Fridays at Happy Valley School where I have 45 students plus fifteen parents. I have worked very hard to limit the number of students in my private schedule (it will be a long time before I can return to the pace of my old days in Connecticut). But there are so many eager and talented kids at Happy Valley; it’s been hard not to accept everyone. I also volunteer the requisite hours at Correll’s school and spend a little time in Sage’s classroom. Periodically, friends will ask if I’m burned out by so much ”schlepping”. The reality is that I cherish these few years the kids are home and busy, and love every minute of that schlepping. Jeff’s driving is probably more frustrating than mine—all the way to Pleasanton four days a week (a three-hour roundtrip commute—but we wouldn’t dream of leaving our beautiful mountain community to live closer.) He attempts to work at home on Fridays and I attempt to keep pre-twinklers, and Barca-Hall kids, and various domestic demands from interfering, sometimes to no avail. His company, IronPlanet, is now the number one online auction site for heavy equipment (outselling even eBay when it comes to backhoes, bulldozers, and the like). So that’s our news. We just got back from a delightful snowy family ski trip—all seven kids, plus Kim. Even Tristan barreled down the slopes. Our favorite part of these ski trips are those weary evenings in front of the fire, when everyone is hungry and happily exhausted, content simply to sit in long-johns and gobble down dinner, reliving the heroics of the day. During the upcoming winter months we’ll travel a lot—to places like Sacramento, or Oakland, or maybe Arizona. But our sight-seeing is restricted to the inside of gyms, as this is the boys’ competitive season. We hope health and happiness are in store For all of you in two-thousand four! Lisa (et al)