Christmas 2002

Greetings from the five us here on the lane. We’re in the post-Christmas, pre-New Year’s part of the holidays now, enjoying our Stollen, Springerle and Lebkuchen at a much more relaxed pace. The children are nestled all snug in their beds – usually until well past noon – and Mark and Alli sang the last of their six holiday concerts with the Boston Pops last night (four post-Christmas concerts at Symphony Hall in Boston, plus “run outs” to Atlantic City and Springfield, Mass., in early December). Time now for that long winter’s nap you hear so much about.

It’s been a busy year. Dan began 2002 in Seville, Spain, where he spent the spring semester. The international experience agreed with him and he’s now at work figuring out how to spend another semester abroad before he graduates from the University of Vermont. He’s a junior now, sharing an apartment in Burlington, majoring in political science. Susan is in her sophomore year at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She too is into apartment living, sharing a place near to Northeastern University with three roommates. Anson is loving life at Tabor Academy. Hockey season is underway, and the varsity lacrosse coach has invited him to join the team for a week of spring training in Florida.

Alli now has her own home office – Anson’s old bedroom, outfitted with a new floor, newly painted green walls (Susan is the consultant on all interior decorating), L-shaped desk, computer, two-line phone and electric stapler. (Anson has moved into Dan’s old room.) Alli’s work as executive director of the Providence Singers continues to be both challenging and immensely satisfying, and her other musical jobs (accompanist at the Pennfield School and organist/choir director at Amicable Church) allow her to spend time at the piano.

Mark still finds Brown University an endlessly fascinating place to be doing news and public information work. As a sidelight, he is the de facto webmaster for the Providence Singers (visit us at www.providencesingers.org). Garden-wise, Mark has found that global warming encourages the cultivation and harvest of artichokes in New England. Freaky plants, those artichokes. The stone fruit orchard, promised last year, has not yet materialized but may arrive this spring. No one grows stone fruit anymore, we were told. Hah!

It’s odd, but turning in all the holiday sheet music in Boston last night felt something like closure. We’re now looking forward to the new year, to spring, to the smell of earth, to spring training and to new fruit trees. Later today, a construction guy will arrive to discuss rehabbing the exterior of the manse – new shingles and some new doors at a minimum, I’d say. And a week from tomorrow, we start rehearsing the spring concert, Handel’s Israel in Egypt. Time is on the march; lots of new experiences in the offing. We hope you are finding time to relax, recharge and reflect.

Love and peace,

Mark and Alli