Lois

Lois and I are still pretty much intact, though Lois less her appendix which she left in Hilton Head last winter.  And I’ve enough bits and pieces still working that we can play tennis regularly.  No travelogue to report, other than our annual snowbirding pilgrimage to Hilton Head.  Indeed we started the year there, but the return planned for this Fall was displaced by the need for me to have a bit of maintenance carried out on my eyeball, requiring us to remain in Cincinnati.  We do though hope to get back to the South Carolina coast by the end of January to enjoy the balmy breezes wafting through the palms to the murmuring of the surf.  (Oh doesn’t that just sound nice!)

Dick

Lois, with grim determination, continues to convert the collection of quilting materials she’s amassed over the years, into actual quilts.  My enthusiasm for the Metropolitan Opera’s “Greatest Shows on Earth”, has if anything increased.  Their video broadcasts, live (!), of one matinée performance of each of the operas they put on, to selected movie theaters around the world (there’s doubtless one near you!), are truly a treat.  I’ve hyped up these shows to friends both in Cincinnati and Hilton Head, and an enthusiastic group of us has formed to go to just about every one.

              Sue                 Jan Willem

This year we made the trek across the Atlantic once more.  Both Willem and Nick were accepted at St. Xavier high school in Cincinnati, Nick as a freshman and Willem as a sophomore.  Since our home in Cincinnati was still in place, it was an easy move.  In fact, it wasn't a move. We just decided to live in “our other” place.  The boys can walk to school, an incredible luxury compared to the daily four hours of commuting that Sue had to

                      Willem               Nick

       Arthur

Last year, I reported that the great event was that I had adopted a doggie, Pumpkin, who had stolen not only my heart, but also the hearts of Grandma, and Grandpa.  Though she still isn’t sure about the hearts of all the cats that live with her.  So this year, her Daddy (me) took the bold step of changing his job within P&G from Packaging Development in (boring) Febreze Air Cleaners, to Packaging Development in (much more interesting) IAMS dog food.  WooHooooo!  Daddy’s now even more popular than heretofore, coming home from the office smelling like dog food!  (Dad makes sure to take a shower before sleeping, lest he be nibbled upon while aslumbe.

Pumpkin

Of course, the fringe benefit of working for IAMS is that I get to take my dog to work.  To be clear, she first has to visit a doggie psychiatrist before being allowed into the ‘cube’, but I have high hopes she will pass.  I think they primarily check if she has any Freudian complexes, which is where you say one thing, but mean your mother.  [Editor:  A-hem]

        Richard                Ishraq

Another year, another move….. this time back to Brussels, one of our favorite cities in the World.  It also has an outstanding school for the kids to complete high school (assuming we can stay long enough).

Having turned around our German business, I’ll be establishing and running a “Be-Ne-Lux” cluster of subsidiaries for Reckitt Benckiser, combining Belgium,

           Samer            Lila

Netherlands and Luxemburg into one entity.  I’ll be based out of the Brussels office so plenty of travel to Amsterdam, but unfortunately just after sister Sue moved from the Netherlands back to the US.  Reckitt Benckiser’s previous global CEO, recently retired, was Dutch and swore he would never combine these countries (though many multinational companies do), because “The Netherlands is not Belgium!” (they don't much like one another).  But now there is a new CEO, from India.  For him Belgium = Netherlands as long as the combination is run by an American...

We just moved into a 110-year-old house with many challenges, such as adequate heat and working phones.  Our friends have dubbed it the 'Nutella House' because it belongs to Giovanni Ferrero, the owner of Nutella brands.  It’s his family house - he was brought up in it - and it’s very pretty, but he’s too busy giving kids cavities and making them fat to care about getting it working after leaving it empty for 12 years.  Thus the “many challenges”, which are keeping Ishy very busy indeed.

Kids are back at ISB, the international school they went to last time we lived in Brussels.  It really is a great institution. This summer Samer, now 16, learned kite surfing in Egypt.  He’s also very heavily into computer movies and 3D graphics.  His computer graphics teacher complained that he doesn’t know what to do because Samer knows more about the subject than he does.  Lila, 14, is just starting the basketball season.  She still amazes at the piano (how does a kid play so well???). 

We had some nice trips this year, to Los Angeles for Easter including a day to the Grand Canyon where we got hit with a sudden and unseasonal foot of snow.  We then started the summer with a trip to Bali and Bangkok (daily massages!), and spent the rest of the summer holidays in Egypt.  End of year will see us in Cincinnati, and then on to Egypt for the New Year. 

Peter, Steven, Alex and Cathy

Well, it's that time of year again (no, not specifically the holidays, but when my father makes his annual request for our Christmas letter blurb)    [Editor:  “heh-heh-heh”].  

As always, we struggle a bit with it since this year seems like déjà vu all over again.  Nevertheless:

 
We (Cathy, Alex and I) "wintered" down in Hilton Head for the first couple if months of 2012.  To be clear, that meant we still work (for IBM, both of us), though from a vacation residence on the island, instead of from home

Alex and Steven

Diverse Divers

In other, er, exciting news - we did not sell our house.  Nor, unlike our other siblings, have we moved or taken

new jobs.  Unlike one sibling we haven't traveled to exotic locations, rented bon-bon mansions or bought fancy cars ->.

I did, however, find a quarter in a vending machine a couple of weeks ago.

  McLaren