A Merry Christmas and a happy 2012 to you all!

As is our custom, Richard thought he ought to write to you to let you know what’s been going on in our family. Names have been changed for privacy of our family reasons but wanted to share all our glowingly marvelous achievements.


Tim
I’ve enclosed a separate message with his business achievements, but he has also had some personal highlights of which he is (justly, I hope) rather proud.

We think his biggest lighthearted achievement was winning a Brad Pitt lookalike competition. Sally persuaded Tim to enter and, although he hadn’t expected anything, he was pleasantly surprised when his name was announced as a winner. Considering the stiff competition faced from Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Dame Judi Dench and Basil Brush Tim thinks that was quite an honour. He was particularly surprised that he had beaten Lenny Henry into second place.

Tim also beat the course record at the local golf club this year. 230 shots! That was some achievement, considering some professionals only score about 72.


Me (Sally)

Sally continues to amaze and astound our guests with her culinary prowess. Time after time she turns out absolutely unique recipes. Often it leaves our guests absolutely speechless and unable to find the words to adequately compliment her. Unfortunately, despite my repeated promptings, she refuses to write them down and send them off to a publisher.

I have been particularly impressed, this year, with her dedication to becoming a wine connoisseur. Many a time I have come home from work to discover that she has been comparing numerous different bottles. This despite her column on the subject being rejected by a number of national newspapers and magazines. That she keeps going in the face of such disappointments shows what a wonderful woman I have married.

Fascinated the press with her skiddoo wheelchair when taking our eldest to college for a visit and you will be pleased to know the students used as Ballast are all now back home recovering well.


Krisssii

Krisssii has been doing some independent research this year purely off her own bat. She’s managed to prove that one well-known motor manufacturer’s much vaunted safety specifications don’t come up to scratch. Again and again she’s demonstrated that their cars really don’t offer that much protection in high speed crashes.

Unfortunately this has come at great personal cost to her and, although we admire her spirited determination to expose the cars’ flaws, we have gently suggested that spending so much time in hospital can’t be good for her.


George

Having left school last summer, George has started his own business from scratch. He is involved in the manufacture and sale of chemicals. He has recruited an extensive network of dealers and he is already reaping quite a tidy income from it.

He also continues to show his community spirit and, despite his shyness which prevents him from being named, he’s frequently mentioned anonymously on the local news for his repeated efforts to help the police with their enquiries. It does seem that, whenever there’s a major crime in the neighbourhood, he offers his time and energies to assist the constabulary. We are, of course, very proud of him.


Jordan

Jordan is clearly set up for a great career in the IT business. He is very assiduous, often working on his computer late into the night. He is particularly interested in computer security and tells me that he has exposed flaws in a number of computer systems worldwide.

Jordan also enjoys programming and has a written a number of small programmes that must be very popular as I’ve overheard him telling his friends that they have spread all over the world.


Sarah

Little Sarah continues to be a joy to be around. Her sense of humour is quite astounding. Many times we’ve laughed and laughed when we’ve discovered that she’s hidden some of her mum’s jewellery in the local pawn shop. She is a tinker!

We are particularly proud of her singing. She is so talented, although unfortunately this does have some drawbacks. She’s had to leave the school choir because, as the music teacher said, it wasn’t fair on the other children. Sad though it is, we entirely understand. Her private voice coach, too, has had to give up. She is so good that he regretfully told us that he hadn’t been able to teach her anything and graciously refunded the money that we’d paid for the last few weeks. We have tried a number of other singing teachers, but most of them, after hearing her gorgeous voice, came to much the same conclusion: apart from a few who, obviously torn between excitement at her talent and their existing commitments, could not find room for her in their busy schedules.


Jon

Jon continues to be very popular at school. Many of the other children like him so much that they give him their favourite items from their lunch boxes. Some even force him to accept gifts of toys or money.

His teachers obviously enjoy having him around, too, as they frequently ask him to stay behind after school and like to have him close to them at break and lunch time. Again and again they’ve told us that they’ve never come across another child like him. He’s obviously very advanced academically, too, as they frequently tell us that they have no idea what to do with him. They have recommended that we move him to a school for other very special children, but we feel that it is good for him to stay with “normal” children. We think it will help him to keep his feet on the ground.


Well, that’s enough about our family. I do hope that you and your family are doing as well as ours.