Neergaard Family Christmas Letter December, 1994

Dear B**** and M****,

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

The year has been quiet for us two senior Neergaards, a tranquility that's been a blessing given the sea changes, of which more below, which have been occurring in the lives of various of our offspring, changes with which we been busily - and quite happily - resonating.

For the two of us, retirement continues to prove the best of all occupations, embracing the gentle pursuit of genealogy to keep the mind from gelling, tennis the bod, and gardening the spirit. What with those activities, and the bemused bumbling that creeps up these days to take the sharp edge off productivity, we are, like all retirees we know, busy busy busy. When leisure finally does arrive, if ever, my retirement goal remains - try to paint. Lois is already doing her art, happily (in spite of the darned calculations required) creating quilts for our children.

Travelogue '94 consisted of several outbreaks: an April trip to Holland and Germany to visit family and friends, thence eastward to Prague (a jewel of a city), Warsaw, Cracow (a jewel of a town), and Budapest. In May we went to Boston for my MIT fortieth class reunion. It was astounding how those classmates I've kept up with had hardly aged, just grown more dignified looking, while all the others I didn't remember had become a bunch of old fogies. In September we had a holiday with friends in the Tennessee mountains for a week of playing (playing at?) tennis, and in November, I took a two-week just-us-guys (wives declining long car trips) jaunt from Houston along the Rio Grande to Tucson with a side trip to Copper Canyon in Mexico, poking en route into everything of interest from anthropology museums and national monuments to honky-tonks and the OK Corral.

So, what about those "Sea Changes"? Well.....

Sue remains Human Resources manager with GE Plastics in the Netherlands. Her "sea change": she and her enormously likable Dutch friend, Jan Willem van der Werff, will be married in Bergen-op-Zoom, this coming April. We couldn't be more pleased to have him in our family.

Arthur too was faced with a "sea change", having to choose between remaining in Brussels to work on product development, or moving to P&G's headquarters in Cincinnati where he could continue his focus on invention. Wiping away a tear, he opted, in August, to give up the living environment he loved in order to pursue his career interests. He did manage the transition in style, flying the Concorde so his stopover in New York could be long enough for him to spend the day with a lady friend living there.

Richard has always had a dream of owning his own business. When P&G proposed to reassign him from Egypt, where he's been Marketing Manager, to Germany, he realized his moment of decision for his vision had arrived, took a deep breath........ and resigned. The decision was made a bit easier by the fact that he truly enjoys living in Cairo, and Ishraq, his wife, continues to be excited by her career there as her company's Director of Marketing. Richard, having recently become national wind-surfing champion of Egypt, is now so busy evaluating the many business opportunities he sees around him that he tells us he hasn't been out to the beach in weeks. Poor fellow.

Peter, has not had a sea change. Thank goodness. All is tranquil in Pittsburgh, where he continues to have enormous fun cajoling computers at Carnegie-Mellon into doing the astounding things they do.

They're all four of them, plus Ishraq and Jan Willem, home again this year for Christmas. Bless 'em.

Merry Christmas to you from all the Neergaard family, and may 1995 be rich in blessings for you.