Dear __________,

Christmas Time, 1997

This Fall saw the celebration of the first birthdays of our first

grandchildren - Willem, in Holland, and Samer, in Israel.

As goes without saying, these two new people have injected lots of

new effervescence into Neergaard family life. Lois and I, for instance,

have seen the insouciance which empty-nesters such as we drift cheerily

into, cheerily give way to an enthusiasm for this next generation, an

enthusiasm nourished by the stream of electrifying news bulletins

(".....he said 'bird'!"; ".....first steps today!") that keep arriving from

those recently filled, if distant, nests.

Aside from indulging our newly available source

of entertainment - poking through toy stores (which I

can now do without even a trace of sheepishness in my grin) -

Lois and I continue much as before, doing our things on the tennis

court and in the garden, interspersed with odd bits of travel. When time

permits (hey! we're supposed to be retired!), I push along my search for

genealogical nuggets, and Lois designs and makes really quite lovely quilts.

<> We did manage to get away to France for a month in June, first to Paris, followed by ten-day meander through

the Loire valley to Burgundy. We met up with the kids there for a week's float on a boat down the very pretty

Nivernais canal - a gorgeously languid interlude, at least when it wasn't being punctuated by the need to

crank lock gates, a not infrequent event (there were over 100!). But the exercise was handsomely rewarded by

its effectiveness in working up of a good appetite; and one does eat well in the Burgundian countryside.

There followed three days in - how else to say it? - magical - Provençe, with Sue and Jan Willem in the house they'd

taken near Avignon; and finally, a week or so visiting several friends who've retired to the Riviera.

A few days after returning to the States, we

were most pleasantly helped to re-root by being

steeped in the dreamy Americana of rural

Michigan as guests of the LaNouettes. It

was sailing and tennis and more eating

well during our stay with Louise and

Bill in their gracious new home,

perched atop a knoll touching two

shores, of Lakes White and Michigan.

Next February, a Safari in Tanzania with the Treadaways!

Sue, living in Holland, has enjoyed being a full-

time mom so much that she and Jan Willem have

decided she should become one again. And no

wonder. Their Willem combines an endearingly

cheerful disposition with an intensity of focus

that's positively startling. (And that's a totally

objective grandparental view!). She's due end

of April.

The three of them visited us for several weeks

during September. It was a wall-to-wall

pleasure.

Arthur continues to keep a moving target. He's transferred from Product Development

to Engineering, but is still engaged in the design, with vendors, of packaging machinery

for P&G, last year for installation in Latin America, now for China. Somehow, poor

chap, he gets to do this work at such hardship locations as Brussels, Geneva and Osaka.

He did manage to be in Cincinnati in September to throw his Riverfest party again this

year, offering his balconies to a large, eclectic and boisterous group of ooh-ers and ah-

ers at the spectacular fireworks-choreographed-to-music. He'll be back in town for the

holidays too, but only just, flying out Christmas night for a dive trip off the coast of

Burma.

Richard manages the Israeli subsidiary of his company, Benckiser,

which has just gone public. His participation in the IPO has

caused a wide grin to settle on his face. Richard and Ishraq's

home in Tel Aviv is by the beach, where the Mideast's political

turmoil easily evaporates in the ambiance of sea and sun. So

whenever Richard calls, the talk is not much about business and

never of politics, but of their son, Samer. Each report asserts

that Samer has become "even cuter", most recently progressing

to a stage of "beyond cute". And indeed Baby Samer is as

serene as Baby Willem is intense, but fully shares Willem's

beaming good nature (another unbiased grandparental

observation). Richard, Ishraq and Samer will shortly be

joining us for a week's holiday in California (to enjoy El Niño?),

and will then return with us to Cincinnati, bless them, for Christmas.

Peter and his lovely friend Lisa have set next July as the time they'll become officially

one, and wedding plans are moving toward stage- center. Not that both of them aren't

already fully occupied already, with being supernumeraries for the opera, tending the

sharks at the zoo (in the tank, under water), going on diving trips, and,

incidentally, coming up to speed on new jobs which each of them started a few

months ago. Peter has joined Transarc, a network-software company, as trainer of the

information-management personnel in Transarch's clients. Lisa is auditor of financial

derivatives operations within PNC Bank. She's been told it's OK if she doesn't

understand them - no one else does either, even the back-room birds who cooked them

up (as the periodic headlines of various fiscal catastrophes attest). We're very much

looking forward to having them with us for several days of Christmas week.

Warmest good wishes for the season and for the coming year, from all of us, to you and

yours,

The Neergaards