Dear ______, December, 1993

It's Christmas, family news update time......

O	ur Event of the Year was the May wedding in Cairo of Richard and Ishraq. The whole family attended, Mid-West thereby meeting Mid-East. A string quartet played Vivaldi, a Nubian band accompanied a
whirling dervish, and an Egyptian orchestra provided dance music. The festivities were held in an 18th century palace-turned-hotel, into which the entrance of the bride and groom was effected by flower-bedecked horse-drawn carriage. Ishraq (think "Nefertiti"), is director of marketing for an Egyptian foods company. Were honored indeed to have her in our family.

T	ravelogue '93 consisted of three outbreaks: the May-June trip to Egypt for the wedding, nicely sandwiched between a couple of weeks either side visiting friends and family on the continent; in July a three-week

wander around the astounding Las Vegas - Yellowstone circuit of Ye Olde Wild West; and in September-October, a sojourn in the Scottish Highlands ending up, inevitably, in Brussels with Arthur, and Sue in Bergen-op-Zoom.

Lois returned from this latter trip in mid October, but I went on to Germany to help an old (but by no means old) friend celebrate his 70th birthday later in the month. He and his wife then came to Cincinnati and stayed with us during November while his eyeball went into the shop for repairs (a local group of ophthalmologists are hotshots) necessitated by its having lost an argument with a tennis ball. The surgery, complex and of a pioneering nature, was successful (thanks be!), and he was able to go back to Germany fully binocular.

L	ois has taken up quilt creation when she's not ice skating, and I'm still immersing myself in the genealogical joys of family discovery and tree-drafting - at least that's what we do when we're not on the road or

escaped to the tennis court. While we steep ourselves in such self-indulgences of retirement as these and wonder how the time can whiz by so fast, the kids continue with the far more interesting processes of building their lives.

Sue is still a Human Resources manager with GE Plastics in the Netherlands, and has found a quite nice little house in Bergen-op-Zoom to live in. When we asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she wailed  "to get my garden in order!". This being Holland, all the neighbor's gardens look like tapestries, while Sue's had gone wild when the house stood empty. So Lois and I went to Holland en route to Egypt and for three days busily packed Susie's good Dutch dirt under our fingernails. At which point I hired the staff of a local greenhouse to take over. Looks good, now.

Arthur, having survived P&G's downsizing, remains in Brussels developing packaging technologies. He's discovered that Beetle Cabriolets, much sought after in Europe but hard to find (ie expensive), are plentiful (ie cheap) in rust-free California, and has thrown in with a friend to search out, import, fix up and resell them. The first part of his plan - acquisition and import - is well under way: he has an inventory of four (not counting his personal cars) on the ground in Belgium. Now comes the hard part: selling them (for a profit). Be sure to read next Christmas's letter for the exciting conclusion....

Richard, advised when he arrived in Cairo of the necessity of developing a consuming weekend hobby, took up windsurfing. Equipment had to be imported and was expensive, so Richard formed the Wind-Surfing Club of Cairo for whose members he became supplier, thereby earning his own gear as commission. When the amateur wind surfing world championships were held in Egypt this fall, Richard worked with the organizers, in the course of which association he whimsically offered himself as a member of the American team - a little, he told us, like his mother attempting to sign up for Wimbledon. To his surprise, he was accepted. When he showed up, it turned out, to his even greater surprise, that he was the American team (amateur wind-surfers are all 19 years old with long hair and no money to take transatlantic trips with). Richard now, to his absolute amazement, stands 56th in the world (.....and has even been stopped and asked for his autograph!).

Peter, still doing abstruse things with computers at Carnegie Mellon, is learning the joys of being a home-owner (challenge #83: which is a weed and which is a flower.....). But not full time. He's been persuaded by his brothers that scuba diving's also a good thing, and indeed was recently rewarded by a 15-minute swim-along in the Red Sea aside a rare whale shark, into the ear of which, he tells us, you could drive one of Arthur's Volkswagens.

They're all four, plus Ishraq, home for Christmas. Bless 'em.

Merry Christmas to you from all the Neergaard family, and may 1994 be rich in blessings for you.