We hope that everyone had a happy and healthy 2002 and that the new year will prove even better. For a family with two teenagers, a year seems to fly by.

In January, Saskia turned 15, and in this state this is the signal to start in on the drivers' licence business. She spent Easter break in driving school, after which she was allowed to drive with mom or dad in the car, and accumulate 50 hours of daytime and 10 hours of nighttime experience - receiving free advice minute by minute. This point was reached in October, and she now is the proud holder of a permit so she can drive by herself, or with not more than one other teenager in the car. With some trepidation, we then talked to our insurance company, and to our surprise our premiums went down. A good omen! The truck, by the way, turned 300k miles this year.


In the Spring, Niels was again on a 'Destination Imagination' team. This is a competition that involves technical prowess, theater, and creativity in any form. Here he is working on a weight-powered clock-like contraption with his friend Peer Hofstra. They won a special award for this. Peer's mom, Lynn, and Hubert coached the team. In the final presentation, Niels appeared in a dress and a wig (photo not shown by request of the guilty party). Let's just say that his costume was less than flattering to the aging female anatomy, but was nevertheless amusing.

From Paris we drove North via Giverny (Monet's home where he made the waterlilly paintings), and arrived in Muiden, the home village of Hubert's parents, just in time for the opening of a show of his father's paintings. The next day, Hubert's sister Mirjam and her husband Henk threw a perty where they had invited friends from Hubert's student days in Delft. Just like old times - great. The main reason we had routed our trip home via Holland was that there was a reunion of the Hooghiemstra family, Hubert's family on his mother's side. They had not all gotten together since the early seventies. This was a wonderful reunion, and folks had come from far and wide to attend, including sister Sophia from the Gambia. (Look it up on an atlas. Have a magnifying glass handy!)

The experiment that Hubert works on, Phenix, is now in it's third year, and Hubert's group is overcommitted and understaffed, typical for the world of science. He now goes to Brookhaven nearly every month. Some day we'll do something with all those frequent flyer miles. The good news is that in Brookhaven, there is a pickup soccer game 3 times per week, and there is a beach nearby.

In June, Deb was ecstatic to return to work with the old gang from St. Vincent Hospital: Judy, Lynette and Ingrid. This time the outpatient pediatric therapy department has a great space in a pediatric medical practice. There are even windows and the management is wonderful! It's fun to go to work! What a welcome change from the not-to-be-named interim employer, where 2 of the last three paychecks bounced and no one seemed to care about the quality of the work.

In the summer, we found out that Niels was accepted at Santa Fe Preparatory School. After duking it out in the public schools, particulary a new charter school where the 7th graders had either 3 or 4 (we lost count) science teachers in one year and the math teachers knew less than the students, Niels wanted to go to school with kids who wanted to learn something. He went to summer school at Prep for English and did very well, gaining some confidence in his abilities. Prep has been a stretch for him but he is learning and the classes hold his interest. So it's probably worth the small fortune in tuition (almost the price of a new car every year) for him to be there.

Saskia also moved from the charter school to Santa Fe High School. SFHS is big, with close to 2000 students in grades 9th through 12th. The saving grace is that there are honors classes again. Most of the kids in honors classes are there because they want to learn. The teachers were great this year and Saskia is enjoying school. The things she liked best this fall were world history and the clay class she took on Wednesday nights. Clay seems to be her favorite free time activity. That and looking for garage sales on Saturdays with dad.

Deb's favorite activity is probably the Spanish class that she takes with one other student. They are moving along at a good clip. All that's missing is the opportunity to practice. We are hoping to visit our dear friend Janet Blakely and daughter Courtney in Costa Rica in 2003. That will be trial under rapid fire Spanish.

The other neighborhood project hitting the dirt in 2003 will be a set of traffic-calming devices for one of our busier streets. This has an even longer history (since 1995). Hubert was the chair of Santa Fe's task force that created the traffic-calming division at City Hall. He is pleased to see humps, circles and chicanes sprout all over town now.



We hope that this finds you all well. With love and best wishes for happiness, peace and good health in 2003.