Dear _________,

December, 1992

It's Christmas.... Family News time again.

Retired Life gets better every year as my brain slowly but steadily unspasms from the constrictions of corporate discipline (I suspect my ex-bosses would be astounded to learn that I was ever even aware of such discipline). While a primary ambition for retirement has long been to Paint, brush has yet to smear color on canvas, Genealogy having been permitted to usurp my full attention. Personal historical research has proved to be an adventure which continues to fascinate, and one which has produced the unexpected benefit of opening contact with a number of relatives (quite nice ones, and still alive!) whom we'd never known we'd had.

Of course the choice between such retirement-activity priorities might never have had to be made if we'd stayed home a bit more, or if, when we were at home, we didn't drop everything and head for the tennis courts every time the sun came out - that is, when Lois wasn't ice-skating. But what the hell, I'm retired and we can do what we damn well please. Right? Maybe someday actual leisure will arrive..... perhaps next year, or as soon as I get senile, whichever comes first.

Those non stay-at-home periods entailed several trips to New England, during one of which we watched the leaves do their stuff. (There are of course other places where there's gorgeous foliage, but for sheer professionalism, we must concur with the conventional view that the trees of New England are in a class by themselves). Genealogical research took us at various times to Virginia, New Jersey and Denmark, and simple pleasure to the Highlands of Scotland. The Denmark visit was a mind-blower. Turns out that an ancestor's kid brother had been Denmark's Minister of War in the early 1700's. The job must have paid well, because he emerged not only with ennobled children, but owning a band of contiguous estates - chateaux, forests, villages, the lot - stretching across southern Sealand. A half-dozen or so of these are still in the hands of (6th cousin) Neergaards, by some of whom we were most cordially received and graciously hosted. Charming lot, the Danes.

Another impetus to hit the road has been to go see our children, who tend to live in more interesting places than we do. A visit to Arthur and Sue brought us to Brussels in the spring, and in fall the entire male contingent of the family descended on Richard in Egypt for almost a month, where, when we weren't busy being awed by the grandeur of Thebes, we socialized in Cairo, or engaged in esoteric means of movement in other parts of the country. We scuba'd, windsurfed, and sailed in the Red Sea, rode camels in the desert, horses around pyramids, and feluccas on the Nile. (Anybody going to Cairo, take your camera and lots of film to the Friday camel market).

While Lois and I steep ourselves in such self-indulgences of retirement, the kids continue with the far more interesting processes of building their lives.

Sue, having divested herself of both career and romantic commitments at the beginning of the year, took the opportunity to ask, How do I want to structure the next phase my life? The answer was, live in Europe working for a multinational company, like her daddy did. So she packed her suitcase and went. This inspiration was followed by a wrenching six-month wrestling match with various bureaucracies, but she persevered, and much to our admiration, she pulled it off and is now with GE (again) in Holland, as their plastics division recruiting-training-benefits manager.

Arthur, still in Brussels, continues to realize his waking dream of having a high-tech playground. He's merging state-of-the-art machine tool and computer capabilities to produce dress-rehearsal renditions of P&G marketing folks' package design inspirations, such that directly and in a matter of days, ideas can be sculpted into solid form, to be touched, assessed, and massaged.

Richard, himself one of those P&G marketing folk, is still in Cairo, where he has been busy doing more than just selling soap. He has persuaded a charming and gifted Egyptian lady to agree to marry him (date not yet determined). We have met Ishraq and share Richard's enthusiasm. We'll be honored and delighted to have her in our family.

Peter is still doing abstruse things with computers at Carnegie Mellon, but has taken time out to buy a house, one which really is too big for a bachelor. Watch this space.....

They're all four home for Christmas again, bless 'em.

Merry Christmas to you from all the Neergaard family, and may

1993 bring you only blessings.