We were in England twice this year, for the second weddings of John’s brother Charles and sister Linda.

Charles and Ania

Paul and Andrea joined us at Charles’ and Ania’s wedding in Portsmouth in the spring. Clare, Annika,

Sarah and Oliver came to Linda and David’s wedding in Harpenden in the fall. Michael had planned to

come too, but stayed back in the US to be near Dennis Nosal, his sick father.

David and Linda

On these trips we met relatives; close, distant, old and new. We also visited both Arlene in Winchester and Kelvin in Harpenden. We were sad when those first marriages ended, but it was good to see Arlene, with her busy life and cozy Victorian house, and to find Kelvin remodeling his house; both of them happy and well.

Oliver at Amerton Farm, Max’s Fourth

Staffordshire Birthday

Sarah, Annika, Oliver at the Prides.

Left Stafford Castle: John, Bryan, Frances, Oliver, Sheila.

Below: Frances, Clare, Sheila.

Right: Ean playing ice hockey.

Annika and Sarah

We extended one of John’s business trips to Hawaii into a 10 day vacation to Oahu and Kauai. We also added two weekends onto a California business trip and visited Michael and Barbara McCaffry near San Francisco, including a tour of a giant Redwood park. Near San Diego, we visited friends Wendy and Frank Brophy, and drove to the top of Mount Palomar Observatory, what fun! Happily both host couples were

able to visit us here in Boston later on.

Ean and Lucy in front of White House

Paul and Andrea

John Goreham

Mike Nosal

Sheila Tunney came to stay with us and we returned the favor in Stafford after Linda’s wedding, and enjoyed meeting Sheila and Bryan’s new grandchildren. We also had nephew James McCaffry here in the early fall. We enjoyed various trips with him including a close encounter with a Moose in New Hampshire and an earthquake in Maine. We enjoy his blog on his continuing adventures around the US.

Oliver

Sarah as Jafar.

Max, Ean ‘n Big Bird

All of our grandchildren stayed with us several times this year. They are all smart and growing up nicely. Ean plays soccer and ice hockey; Annika runs track and draws very well; Oliver loves anything mechanical, Max is big for four, but tries to be seven like his brother. Sarah is a promising actress. We had a good holiday with Lucy, John, Ean and Max at North Truro on the Cape. Lucy and Ean flew to Washington to stay with Paul and Andrea. Michael got a “permanent” job with the Mitre Corporation and Paul is now “Chief” of his group in the White House with a flag in his office! Lucy, John, Clare and Michael all have responsible and busy jobs but they manage well to juggle work and family satisfactorily. Frances is happy, now she is retired, to have more time for babysitting and trips with the children to Boston’s Museums. She is busy with several church related activities, runs the web page for the local League of Women Voters and recently started tutoring at Rosie’s Place. John continues his “part time” employment, which averages about 24 hours a week and sometimes involves five or six full days of work; but all in all gives much more flexibility than any full time job. He also plays a lot of chess.

Finally, a photo that came to us this year courtesy of John’s cousin Helen Tregonning (Binks) who sent this photograph and a number of others from the 1930’s that show John’s mother, Ivy Binks, with her family.

I think the people in this photo seated from the left are: My mother Ivy, her younger brother (my Uncle) Eddy. Her mother and father (my Binks grandparents) and on the extreme right my mother’s elder sister Edith. This is the first time I saw this photo. Many Binks family photos were lost in the London blitz when the family home on Trinder road was bombed. jfs

We rejoice in family and look forward to a Christmas here in Winchester with children and grandchildren.

We wish you a peaceful and joyous Holiday and a New Year which brings good health and happiness.

Happy Christmas and New Year 2007: Love and Best Wishes: John and Frances