December 2003

Greetings of the season to all!

Once again, I’ve procrastinated until past Christmas
to send greetings (whether letters or cards).  No excuse, except my internal debate
about whether to do it at all, do it by email, or post it on our family
website.  I think this year
I’ll do all three – so some of you will receive this by snail mail,
some by email, and all of you will be able to visit our website at
http://grfamily.net

And, of course, the beauty of having the letter on the
website is that you can access it at any time, now or in the future (if we
leave it on indefinitely) – in case you misplace the hard copy!!  Think of all the space (and trees)
we’ll collectively save!
We’ll try to post news on the website from time to time.  Who knows, maybe the year-end letter
will become obsolete.

Highlights of the past year:  not too many, actually.  We’re still in our same jobs, so
far weathering the twists and turns of the economy and government budget deficits.  We started and still haven’t finished
a limited remodeling project (won’t give you the details, but it’s
odd how these projects cost more and take longer than one anticipates).

We spent two weeks in California – a week in Carlsbad
in February and another in San Francisco in August.  While in Carlsbad, we took a day trip to
the Getty museum (beautiful setting and an interesting mixture of art).  It was raining that day, but the museum
provides umbrellas to use to go from building to building. While we were in San
Francisco, we visited Carmel/Pebble Beach/Monterey and Sonoma/Napa Valley
wineries.  Again, the weather was a
bit cool, but we had a great time. We plan to spend a couple of weeks in Palm
Springs in February.

We had a wonderfully warm, dry summer (though it actually
became a drought before it was over, making farmers and those of us who were
trying to put in some new landscaping quite unhappy).  We’re giving up on trying to
“predict” the weather.
Seems as if all of the “normal” weather patterns are
changing – in all seasons.

Hope all is well with you and those dear to you.  Have a great 2004.