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2015 Christmas letter
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Greetings and news from Joy and Eric and the tribe for Christmas 2015 and New Year 2016. How the time flies!

Things are good here, it has definitely been a good year. Life has returned to being as normal as it ever is in this fairly active household. General household photos here.

Joy impresses all with her energy; dance classes, aquafit and Pilates, it’s non-stop and tiring to watch. And there’s caring for me on top of that. She celebrated her 80th birthday in June with multiple parties. The whole tribe from around the world gathered for a weekend including the traditional music session, and a trip to the “Taste of India”. There were midweek parties too for local friends, and a party in Germany later.

The garden has been wonderful, settling down in its first full season after being shortened by the new tram line and having a new wall at the bottom. We had a great excuse to purchase new plants to climb up the new wall and partially hide the tram, and most have taken well. The tram has been running since August. We use it a lot, it’s very convenient, although still unreliable and subject to many breakdowns and teething problems. It’s very noisy going round local corners behind us, the tram company don't seem ineterested in solving the problem. Our house has new winbdows and a new coat of paint.

Summer holiday this year (photos here) started with a visit to Germany to see the family there, and help run a gig in aid of one of their charities. Joy MCed the gig in her unique pijin German, and was presented with 80th birthday presents by the gathered company. We then camped (the first “proper” camping for three years) in Germany and Austria, and met up with Jean, Rory and Karen by a mountain on the Austrian/German border. We swam in Alpine lakes and walked and cycled gently between hostelleries; wonderful. Even the worst storm in 100 years caused us no serious harm; the tree fell just a few feet away.

We also had a holiday at nephew Richard’s excellent guest house in the Lake District, Scales Farm, and enjoyed walks in the local beautiful scenery, limited by my energy.

We had a short flying visit to Vienna in October with our friend Catherine, to reconnect with our favourite city. It was Catherine’s first time in Vienna. We also had an opportunity to meet our long-standing friend Eugene there, well into her 90s and as fit as ever.

The rest of the family all thrive. Anita and Hamish are busy with music and cycling/running as well as looking after Jenna (did well in her AS levels) and Sean (won a football match recently).

Jean’s dad died during the year, but her mother Beryl is well supported by the three daughters. Jean and Rory have had distant holidays, to Japan recently and to the Maldives earlier.

We visited the German wing of the family in early December, photos here. Visits to Christmas markets essential at this time of year! Heli and Naomi both work now and have moved to a flat equidistant from work (downtown Frankfurt) and volleyball (Bommersheim). Suzi nears the end of her studies at Bremen. Angus has a real 9 to 5 job now, and is already finding the early snow a hazard in travelling to work. Karen teaches music on many instruments at home.

Eric is back to some sort of normality. Gardening has become a pleasure again, and pottery and playing for morris and clog have never stopped. Regular walks are gentle. Cycling is the only activity yet to get properly going. There have been many hospital checkups, and a recent hiccup which caused minor surgery and turned out to be benign. All tests have proved OK. Joy and the NHS between them are looking after me well.

The Christmas card for hand deliveries is ceramic this year, but sorry, we can’t post them!

Our main website is here, and photo index here.

This copy edited 14-Dec-2015

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