Happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, and New Year from the Hammers!
The holidays sort of snuck up on us and the year has been pretty eventful, so we are apologetically substituting this newsletter for the more civilized individually written form of greetings. We’ll try to do better next year!
We just returned from three weeks in New Zealand to celebrate our 40th anniversary, visiting Ruth’s sister Elisabeth and her family, with a stop for three days in Tahiti. What a spectacular part of the world! The NZ “summer” was pretty cold, and we were in our first snow since moving to LA 2 1/2 years ago
Next bit of 2018 news is the new addition to our family, Dylan Charles Hammer Woodhead (aka Elvis) was born to Alison and Charles on July 31. Growing fast, and lots of personality as you can see
Alison and Charles have had a crazy year — in addition to welcoming Elvis, Alison started a new job, Charles moved his business to a new factory space twice as large as the old one, and they replaced their garage with a new structure including guest and office space, along with a complete overhaul of the back yard. Somehow, they’re both still smiling.
We went to visit both the Whytes in Fishkill and the Hargadons in Glen Rock while back east in May. Kerenza and Kenny’s Owen turned 6 this year and is in first grade, charming and energetic, and has become something of a fashionista; the Whytes also finally completed a lengthy construction project reconfiguring space in their house and adding a needed second bathroom.
Teona and Ray are fine, Ray moved his office this fall, Teona now full-time at her school gig, and Kevin is a sophomore studying business at U of Maryland. Samantha recently had her church Confirmation ceremony which was attended by the Whytes and grandparents Garth and Elaine Bawden, and she celebrates her Sweet Sixteen birthday with a gala party this month. Teona and Sam were also able to come to LA for a few days’ visit in November; high point for Sam was spotting Lucas Grabeel from “High School Musical” at the next table at Hugo’s and scoring a selfie with him.
Other trips included a drive to Albuquerque in September to see the Shander-Bawden clan and experience the Balloon Festival. Michael has also started a new job, although still at Sandia; Shander still at her top-secret library post. Greet is a sophomore at UNM, leaning toward studying international relations and planning study in Russia and Eastern Europe. Kat is busily applying to colleges.
We didn’t make it to Boston this year, but fortunately Bill and Becky were able to come here a couple of times, encouraged by Bill’s work projects and the chance to hang out with Dylan/Elvis. We didn’t see Brook this year, but hear that she’s enjoying nutrition studies at Johnson and Wales in Providence.
And we’ve been blessed with visits from various other inlaws, cousins and friends. It seems that the combination of SoCal and Elvis make an irresistable destination! Our visitors inspired us to go visit some sights in the vicinity ourselves, including Palm Springs, Joshua Tree, the Getty Museum, and various beaches. Hope you make it here before too long!
Ruth’s health continues to stabilize after several scary years, she is eating well most of the time and putting on some weight. Editing work keeps coming in, and she’s still enjoying the SoCal climate and making her garden ever more idyllic. Stephen is slowly finding more musical work in the West to replace the jobs he left behind in Boston and New York, the next few months bring concerts in San Francisco, Mexico City, and Colombia, along with projects with LA groups Musica Angelica and Tesserae and festivals here and back east in the summer, looking forward to future enterprises. Jack the wonder dog at age 3 is reveling in being spoiled with treats, cuddles, and tummy rubs and becoming steadily calmer and ever more affectionate following his early days on the mean streets of Valley Glen.
All in all, despite all the aggravations of national politics (like many, we have become news junkies) it’s been a pretty nice year: new baby, visits with family and friends, great neighbors and weather, decent health, good balance between travel and home life, work and fun. And the Dems even won the House. We can’t complain. Here’s hoping for an even better and more tranquil 2019 for all of us.
Hoping to see you soon!
love,
Ruth & Stephen
