It’s Christmas Eve (or later) and I’ve just realised that I’ve missed the deadline for posting cards again. It’s also the time to read those little notes that all your friends from school/university/work/far flung relatives etc (delete as appropriate) and you wonder where you went wrong. Well, it’s time to bore you with our news from the past twelve months but I’m going to post it on our family tree website so you can choose whether or not you want to read this drivel!

So here goes (in no particular order). Tootsie has had a very successful year. She managed to catch a couple of mice in the Autumn but spent most of the rest of year successfully locating white bed linen on the same day it had been laundered. Her weight has remained stable and she continues to exercise as little as possible.

Kate is learning to use the new Dell computer and now we’re all at home together I’m beginning to think that two up-to-date PCs plus the old clockwork one aren’t enough for a family of four. Her reading is improving but her writing is a chip off the old block (and her sibling’s block). She tells everyone she’s a tomboy which is about the only time you can believe a word she says. She has the makings of a great spin doctor.

Hamish has started to learn the piano. He showed absolutely no interest for years until, that is, Kate started her lessons. He can now play a passable rendition of Jingle Bells and Clair de Lune (but not at the same time). School holds little interest to Hamish – it’s all either too easy or irrelevant (mostly the latter). We thought he’d find science interesting but it’s far too basic for him (self-taught). He’s planning to catch a mouse for Tootsie tomorrow – mainly so he can think about how many gruesome ways he might kill it. Apparently he’s seen the Loch Ness Monster and the Beast of Bennachie (a local wildcat or lynx or suchlike). I somehow doubt he’ll really see a mouse, let alone catch it.

Both Hamish and Kate are avid surfers (of the internet variety). It won’t be long before we have to fit some sort of parental control software – any advice would be much appreciated! Attached is a photo of the two of them taken during the recent snow falls (now all gone so no white Christmas after all).

Jacky has a few problems health-wise. Her chronic back problem (caused by falling out of a Landrover many years ago) continues to cause her great discomfort. More pressing is an appointment in gynae dept on Jan 8^th when she will have her womb lining scraped (hope I spelt that correctly). All being well it will sort out her various symptoms. Otherwise she continues to run the local Rainbows Group and be head honcho of the PTA. When she has a spare moment she researches her family tree and has spent quite a bit of time in Edinburgh and Perth trying to trace her Scottish roots. Jacky’s also into home baking etc in a big way and makes some mean cookies, brownies, muffins etc. The kitchen is slowly being re-arranges so that I can seldom find anything on the rare occasions I cook (that’s my excuse anyway) but I’m on turkey fatigues tomorrow.

I started the year with yet another bad cold. Eventually I went to see my GP and he spotted that I had nasal polyps. The consultant told me that in one nostril they looked like a bunch of grapes. I had them removed in March and have felt much better since. It might explain why common colds blocked me up totally. Apparently they will come back some day so I’m on a low dose of steroids to postpone their comeback performance. I too have caught the genealogy bug but not as acutely as Jacky. I have about 800 names in my tree and many have come from far flung umpteenth cousins scattered around the UK and beyond. I even found a second cousin of my mother who is living about 30 miles away from us in NE Scotland.

Work-wise, I’m still at ChevronTexaco having survived the merger just over two years ago. In fact, very few UK staff were made redundant but many of my US counterparts in the old Texaco exercised their right to leave under the change of control arrangements. Although Texaco was bigger than Chevron in the UK, it doesn’t seem like a true merger and the culture is very much Chevron’s. Given that this is on the web then I’m not going into any detail on my views on the merger! (you never know who might read this!).

My parents are well and still living in Guernsey. They’ve just moved to a much smaller house with a negligible garden – the old house was just too much work (for my mother). They’re staying with us for Christmas and my father ran through a few of his old magic tricks at Hamish and Kate’s party yesterday. Some of them haven’t changed in 40 years.