Merry Christmas
and Happy Holidays from the Neergaards - 2005
ARTHUR
DICK LOIS
JAN WILLEM
SUE
PETER/STEVEN RICHARD /
LILA ISHRAQ
NICK
WILLEM
SAMER
Dick
& Lois's report:
TRIUMPH! Finally,
after having been thwarted
on the previous two Christmases, I was able last Yuletide to get the
all-in
family photo I'd been yearning for.
And even that was a near thing. Winter
storms just before Christmas had closed airports,
stranding Richard & Co in Florida (tough!),
and had shut-down Interstates,
cutting off our pilgrims from neighboring states. Miraculously
though, by Christmas morning, everyone had
succeeded in fighting through to the parental home.
So that picture's now a year old.... but
who's
counting? Actually this is just
one of several dozen shots I insisted on everyone sitting still for. That entire gallery is on display on
the website http://neergaard.org/Xmas04Site/FamilyPortraits/index.html If
you flip through the full-sized images
quickly, you can watch us writhe, squirm and do calisthenics with our
facial
muscles... really quite entertaining.
Not
much in the way of trips this year for Lois and me (one of the things
Lois
feels damned well at liberty not to
do anymore since she reached the freedom of 70, is fly).
But we can drive to Hilton Head, and indeed we
reside there for most of the
winter, playing (at) tennis, and enjoying the balmy breezes in the
palms
amongst a truly delightful lot of fellow snowbirders.
Our stay there is punctuated only by a return to Cincinnati
for the Christmas gatherings of family and friends.
During the November portion of our sojourn, son Peter and
grandson Steven stayed with us the first week, and Peter and Arthur,
both with
their lady friends, came down Thanksgiving week. It
was a lovely interval.
Toronto
is also within driving range, and indeed we had a delightful visit in
July with
friends there (the Knoxs, tennis buddies from Hilton Head)
We were treated to splendid theater,
scrumptious restaurants, and yes, of course, tennis.
In
September I went to Estes Park, Colorado (by myself, so got to fly!), for the fourth in what's evolved
into a biannual series of informal get-togethers of MIT fraternity
brothers of
the 50's, occasions which mesh warm moments of nostalgia
with present day
enjoyments. The magnificent
setting in the Rockies was enlivened by the bugling of lots of rutting
elk,
which thrilled us, but made the
locals downright grumpy. Funny
thing - there's been practically no change in mien perceptible
(to us) among
the reuning brethren over the past half-century, beyond our now being a
smidge more dignified-looking.
Cincinnati offers much to
add sparkle to its general aura
of contentment. The opera season
produced an unforgettable Bohème,
best I've ever seen. The art
museum held a fascinating exhibit of the personal treasures and
mementos of the
last Czar (in which it was revealed that the owners of the premier
restaurant
in town, the Maisonette, are descendants of that Czar's uncle,
the chap who
assassinated Rasputin!). And the
Showboat Majestic, which we're assured is the only such theater
still afloat
and functioning in the nation, staged a repertory season that, beyond
the
charming quirks of a steam calliope and gentle rocking during
performances as
barges chug by, was truly enjoyable.
Now
for the actually interesting part of
this letter – our up-and-coming generations (they'll all
be here for Christmas again this year
– bless them).
Arthur's Report
|
Arthur's
business card says "Mad Scientist" (really!), and in the
circle of inventors and technical trouble-shooters in which he travels,
that's a true accolade. When not
applying brainstorms, he indulges his enthusiasms for competitive
target shooting and making wine (though never simultaneously). He's also joined an Irish choral group
(you know, Arthur O'Neergaard?)
who, around the time of St Patrick's Day, busily participate in
entertainments around town – sometimes
including actual singing. Arthur's
technological skills have recently been absorbed by esoteric production
problems of a key P&G supplier in Mexico, requiring Arthur
virtually to commute there.
Alas, this has led to a diversion of his attention from
the cat whom he'd trained to use the toilet, resulting in said
cat's skill deteriorating to merely unwinding the roll of paper
whenever
the door's left open. |
|
Richard's
Report (with Ishraq, and Samer &
Lila)
|
- I'm still cleaning the
world, one stain at a time, with Reckitt Benckiser.
The family will be moving from Brussels to Istanbul, where
RIll be General Manager of Reckitt's
subsidiary in Turkey. Richard is already
there; Ishy and the kids will follow when
the school year ends. - Real-estate spree: we bought a house in Brussels and three in El
Gouna Resort, Egypt (across the gulf of Suez from Sharm El Sheik). We since, sold one, canceled one, but now are
looking to buy one in Istanbul. Don't live
in any
of them. We rent. - Samer, nine and in the 4th
grade, is now on the swim team of ISB (the Brussels International
School). He spent his summer when in Egypt
water skiing, wind surfing, and fishing; and
when in Belgium mountain-biking, roller-blading
and learning tennis, all scarcely interrupted by his breaking his arm. - Lila, seven, in the 2nd grade,
is doing ballet and devotedly creating drawings, and is cuter than ever
(see http://neergaard.org/Lila/ ). -
Ishy's still teaching dancing to ladies at the European
Commission, doing shows at ISB, and is preparing for yet another move. |
|
Peter's
Report (with Steven)
|
Peter
designs courses on how to use IBM's premier networking software, WebSphere, then presents them to the
company's worldwide clients (most recently in Chili and India). He gets the kinks out by roller-blading
upwards
of 40 miles a week (when traveling doesn't get in the way), playing
tennis [editor's comment: he's very good
and beats up shamefully on his old man], and volleyball. The rest of his universe is devoted to doting
on his son
Steven, and work, work, work. One cloud on
the horizon: it's really tough (and
dangerous!) being a Bengals fan in Pittsburgh. |
|
Jan
Willem's Report (and Sue, and Willem and Nick):
The
Dutch-Hoosier van der Werff family had yet
another busy year. Not that we
moved, changed jobs, acquired more dogs or any of the other things we
usually
do in a year: it was just a year
filled with stuff to do. Here's a
sample:
Nick started
the year being part of his school's
wrestling team. Not surprisingly,
given his chunky physique, he's quite good at the sport:
for instance, while he holds some poor
kid down with one arm, he gestures with the other while discussing with
his
coach the perfect execution of a half Nelson. In
school Nick is doing a good job, getting decent grades
and ebulliently ensuring that the first grade teacher has to work for
her
money. In the meantime his
maternally-inherited social skills are reaching full potential; Nick never misses an opportunity to
generate a laugh or stir up a bit of action.
Willem had a
great year (year, not just season) of baseball. He was elected to the school's all-star team
and played in
the Fall as well as the Spring,
much to the pride of Opa, his Dutch Grandfather, who used to play ball
as
well. Willem's also doing good
work in the third grade, and getting solid grades.
A highlight of his year, or so his dad sees it, was when on
Grandpa's birthday, Willem got to accompany The Big Guys (dad, uncle,
grampa)
for a celebratory beer in an establishment of which the franchise is
mostly
known for the pair of owls in its logo (you know - owls are hooters).
When Willem snitched to the waitress that it was Grampa's
birthday, thus triggering an envelopment by a bevy of singing,
clapping,
jiggling girls (T-shirts: "Delightfully
Tacky Yet Unrefined"), Grampa, as he was being propelled to
stage center,
in exquisite retribution,
dragged
the kicking and screaming Willem along
with him into
the nymphian midst, to share the ordeal. All part of growing up.
Jan Willem
has been making yet more plastic for
GE, which again required some travel as he built a factory in China and
kept up
with plants in Europe as well. The
good news is that traveling has became a lot easier now that the status
of
Permanent Resident Alien has been achieved; in
other words: he got his green card. A
primary contribution to his being
accepted was his demonstrated mastery of Evansvillian
grammar.
Sue
continues to be her marvelous social
self. Entertaining, giving dinner
parties, organizing auctions for the school.... everyone around
her
benefits. She's on the board of
Willem and Nick's school's PTO, where she constantly surprises both
teaching
personnel and PTO colleagues with creative ideas. And
of course she does the full soccer-mom /
baseball–mom, etc-mom stints.
In her (a-hem) spare time, she's assistant den mother of
Willem's Cub
Scout Troop, and has just been made Cub Scout
Commissioner of Nick's (she doesn't yet know what that is
either).
And then, in
addition to the three two-legged
animals that she takes care of, there are three four-legged ones. The two dogs, when they think of it,
enjoy chasing the cat, who simply disdains their advances.
Otherwise they practice spewing mud
about the house by doing agility tricks.
All these responsibilities keep Sue so busy that her passion for coin collecting has had to be reined in – for the moment. But they're all worth it