Hi again. Well last year I tried this experiment of sending a letter for the holidays. Nobody complained (you were all too nice) and a few people actually liked it, so it has now become a new tradition. Some good things happened this year and some bad things happened. We added some new friends (and pets) and lost some of our closest old friends. 

2003 was not a year for sitting around. As I review the year I find that we seemed to have been gathering no moss. We did quite a few trips and, as usual, watched the kids grow up. The biggest sadness in my life this year was the loss of my cousin Maggi. I will always miss her wonderful smile and cheerful companionship. The year started out with a visit from Maggi and her husband Sandy. They decided to come visit New England in January! I am glad they did. I did get a chance to go to Scotland to spend a little time with my family later in the year. My nephews, Jason and Kevin are growing up awfully fast and I do regret being so far away. While I was in Scotland, I went down to England to visit with my Aunt Nora and my cousin David, who recently had a lovely baby daughter, Kathryn. 

While Maggi was visiting New England and her other cousin, we took off for a week in Hawaii. We went to the big island, mostly because I wanted to play with lava and see the volcanoes. We did get a chance to see the lava, but missed the major flows by a few weeks. It wouldn’t be our last visit to a volcano in 2003. We brought home a determination to visit more tropical places. Jessica was looking forward to seeing her friends and family in Italy so she planned a trip with her sister and sister-in-law in March to be there for Nevada’s birthday. 

Ali, as you may remember from last year, is quite focused on what she wants to study. Last year she went out to converse with Chimpanzees in sign language and this year she signed up for a month long class in primate study in the jungles of Costa Rica. Her college search has been focused on those schools that can give her a good chance at the study of primates. So far she has been accepted into a couple and not turned down yet. We are still waiting. Colin decided this year to veer away from a computer engineering major and focus on a neuroscience major. He is combining this with his interest in Eastern philosophies (Soto Zen Buddhism in the Clarke-Kapleau-Suzuki lineage). His grades have taken a big jump up with his newly found understanding of what he wants to learn in college. 

Ali going to Costa Rica was a great thing for us, because we got to go pick her up at the end of her class. Nevada moved back over to live with us in July and in August, Jessica, Colin, Nevada and I all flew down for 9 days in Costa Rica. Ali would join us for the last 3 days. Let me just say this about Costa Rica.. Go there! The people are very friendly, the scenery is fantastically beautiful, the weather is wonderful and they have beaches and active volcanoes! Our last 3 days we stayed in a house right on the beach at Manuel Antonio National Park. Here is the view from our porch. For more please go the web site www.delargy.com. 

The house has changed a bit. Primarily due to Nevada coming back home from Italy and starting school at Acton-Boxborough High. We also added a dog to our family this year. He goes by the name of Haggis and he is a spittin’ image of Benji. We got him from a shelter near Amherst, MA. We don’t know about his history, but he seems to be comfortable living with us. He could use a bit of training though as the words ‘come here” seem to be missing from his vocabulary. One of the benefits of having a dog is that you get to take them out for walks.  And since it gets dark at 5 these days that means that I have a new relationship with the stars this year. Did everyone get to see how bright Mars was this year? And did everyone get to see the wonderful aurora borealis that we had the night before Halloween? It was fantastic. I have to say, that I would probably have missed it had Colin not called me to tell me to get outside. 

We all hope that you are doing well and wish you a great holiday and a very happy new year. As usual some of our life is chronicled on http://www.delargy.com. If we don’t see you soon, call us.

  Seasons Greetings!

The Delargy’s  

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