Dear Friends and Family

Our family did not expand in size in 2011, but it was a memorable year nonetheless. Jared started off on a new career path and Hilary and Josh bought their first home. Susan and Rich and Andrea and Bobby stayed put but busy in Philadelphia and New York City respectively. All the grandchildren, Nina, Ben and Vishnu are thriving and, of course, brilliant, cute and highly accomplished.

Andrea and Bobby continue to pursue their artistic endeavors. Andrea is working on a series of video pieces, along with her fiction writing. Bobby continues to compose and to perform in Europe and North America. They returned to Italy in the summer of 2011 for an extended stay and will be artists in residence at the Montalvo Arts Center in California for the month of February 2012. Follow them on www.andreakleine.com and www.bobbyprevite.com.

Hilary and Josh bought the 1870s house next door in the Church Hill section of Richmond. They moved in during Hurricane Irene, which also coincided with Ben’s first birthday, and promptly lost power for two days. Hilary continues her telecommuting job as a government contractor in the organ transplant field. Josh remains on the staff of the Virginia Commissioner for Public Health. Nina is now three, loves all animals, and continues to enjoy art activities and pre-school. She is very excited about the pink [her favorite color] scooter with flowers that Santa brought her for Christmas. Ben, sixteen months old, still has RED hair and, now that he can walk, is barreling through life loving cars and trains and books.

Jared and Seema have had a transformative year. They now live in Washington, DC, where Jared is a first year law student at Georgetown University and Seema continues to work on her writing projects. They miss New York a great deal and hope to find themselves back there before long. Vishnu at fourteen months old is still a calm cute, now mobile, little guy who shares his love of wheeled vehicles and books with his cousin Ben.

Rich remains a Senior Staff Consultant at Charming Shoppes, Inc. headquarters, where he supports ecommerce websites. He is still an active contributor to independent singer/songwriters efforts to produce new albums. Rich and Susan have gotten to know more local singers and music community folks over the past year and now travel around the metro area to concerts. They are particularly impressed by the level of artistic community in Bethlehem, PA, a university town an hour away. Rich still supports the website for Marina V.

Susan had a very busy consulting year, finishing her Las Vegas Divorce Ranch project and moving on to doing the interpretive plan for the Starr Family Home, a Texas state historic site. She and her consulting partners are now at work on architectural and interpretive master plans for the birthplace of President Eisenhower, also a Texas state historic site. The Dallas airport is becoming a very familiar place. Susan has just started a private project transcribing a Civil War soldier’s letters and now volunteers at the archives of Christ Church, an Episcopal Church in the Old City neighborhood founded in 1695 where many of the Founding Fathers [especially Benjamin Franklin] worshipped during the American Revolution. She still very much enjoys her role as a grandmother and singing with the large active Sacred Harp [shape note singing] community in Philadelphia.

We wish all the very best to you and yours for 2012 and apologize for the late Holiday Letter. Events of the season overtook us.