December 2006

Dear Family and Friends,

To those of you who receive this in time for New Year’s please know that we are thinking of you before Christmas, but the letter may not get into the mail in time for arrival before the 25 th. This has been the way 2006 has gone, but it has also been a year of many changes, new opportunities and many blessings.

The biggest change of the year is that Beth graduated from UCLA in June, with a degree in psychology and a minor in cognitive science. (We are now free of college tuition, and both kids are self-supporting!) She was quickly hired by Sequoia Productions, the event planning company that she interned for last summer, and played a role in putting on the Emmy Award Governor’s Ball and several other big events in the fall, such as the reopening of the Griffith Observatory.

Marc is in his third year of teaching chemistry at Saugus High School, and was honored by the CSUN education department for his work while “student teaching” last year (in his second year of paid teaching). His department just moved into a new science building bringing his teaching area into the 21 st century. Marc is also working on a master’s degree, and serves as a score-keeper for the school basketball teams.

Jenk has spent the last couple of months commenting about what he will be doing next year at the same time, with discussions of bike-rides on the beach, doing more hiking, working on genealogy and maybe finishing painting the house, because he will retire in June after 31 years at Saugus High School, and 34 years of teaching. He still enjoys his job, but says that he has more important things to do now.

Patty continues to teach French as well as run the China Exchange program that she and Principal Bill Bolde started two years ago. This summer she and another teacher took 9 students to Xi’an, China for a 2-month exchange program. The teachers and students all lived with host families and attended daily school. They also did some travel to the south of China where they visited a Giant Panda breeding facility. During the last week of school Jenk flew over, and spent 5 days visiting Xi’an, and then traveled to Beijing with the group, and joined them on visits to the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and a wonderful day spent climbing the Great Wall.

A few days after our return from China the second exchange teacher from our sister-school in China arrived. Mrs. Dong has been a wonderful addition to our family! We have enjoyed every day with her and will miss her greatly when she leaves on January 1.

A day after Patty returned from her annual trip to northern California with the Chinese Exchange group, and 30 minutes after speaking with her, a phone call notified us that family friend Enid Elser had died. We miss her, and Patty is now busy settling her estate.

At this most holy time of the year we wish you happiness, good health and time with those you love. Merry Christmas and may 2007 bring us the chance to see you and share both new and old memories.

Love,