Merry Chrismahannukwanzakah!

Hello to all who have arrived here from my somewhat delayed Chrismukkah card mailing... I know blogs are supposed to be regularly updated postings - but I've decided to break with custom and do a yearly update in a single post... I promise to any of you who come back to be a little more faithful in my postings -starting with post-Christmas in Seattle!

But - to recap briefly, it's been a pretty good year on the whole... mainly because my boyfriend is one of the coolest guys around. (He's sitting here now and made me say that, by the way - gushing is not normally my style...)

Seriously though - it has been a good year, with family adventures galore! In April, I was finally able for the first time to host my parents as guest in my (our!) own flat. As many of you know, my dad closed his office after several years of private practice, and he & my mom enjoyed a month-long European Vacation. They started off in Italy, where I was quite fortunate to join them for a few days in the Cinque Terre and Venice, and then fly back with me to our little flat in Kew. After a too short few days they were off to Edinburgh, but it was absolutely wonderful to be able to have them here. (I only wish we could have accompanied them on to Scotland as well!)

Ashley & I have been lucky enough to indulge our love of travel on a number of occasions this year (though I sometimes wonder if one long trip would be more relaxing than several long weekends... more relaxing perhaps, but not as exciting!) I'd have to say the most interesting trip we took was to Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia) in November. The town is small enough to be manageable by foot in a few days, and we sampled our fair share of Slovenian cuisine (game, sausage, and more game). More interesting was seeing how other cuisines have been invading since Ljubljana has become more of a tourist destination - Tex-Mex abounded for some reason, and our hotel was right next door to a sushi place. We made sure to try them both out...

Not all of our adventures have been abroad however - we've also explored some more of the English countryside... In July we went to York and went castle-spotting for a few days, then also spent a weekend walking along the Kennet & Avon canal - Ashley told me it was about 10 miles the first day and 7 the next... I think it was another 2 -3 more each day! It just meant the big meal we enjoyed at each stopping point was that much more deserved (hmm - we do do more than eat on holiday... not that you'd get that from my writing!)

Later that summer we headed to Devon for the wedding of Ashley's friends John & Julie. The wedding was at a great old stately home that's been turned into a hotel. Our accomodations were a little more, um, basic - but that didn't matter! We managed to get a few days of sight-seeing in as well, including to the Plymouth Mayflower Museum, so now I've been both to where the Mayflower cast off, and where it landed. I think there's more to see in Plymouth UK than Plymouth Mass, however the cranberry museum in MA wins as best overall attraction. We spanned from South to North Devon that trip, spending our last night in Lynmouth, where we saw, um, a museum honoring water power in the area, where you could turn water jets on and off. Hmm. It was more fun in person than it looks in type. Really.

Enough about travel (for now) - the other big change this year was my job! After 5 1/2 years at Netdecisions / Agilisys, I moved on to become Business Development Director of 'digital marketing communications' agency Wheel. What does that mean? Well, in the simplest terms, we develop websites & online advertising, for companies such as Unilever, BT and Marks & Spencer. But you can read about that (if you're interested!) on the website - so will leave it there. I joined in mid-October and it's been a lot of work, but I think I'm settling in. The people are great, but at the moment I'm in a little team of 1, so I can feel a little on my own at times. Luckily I'm about to hire an assistant, so my department is about to double in size!

Due to the new job, I was very unfortunately not able to join the Wulfestieg Family Reunion held last October in Southern California. However, we had a mini-reunion just last weekend, when I met for the first time my second cousin Peter Alexander - who's been living here in London even longer than I have! So - after nearly a decade in the UK, I've found a local relative. He & his family are lovely & hope to see more of them in the new year. And of course, Reunion Mark II in 2007!

And now I'd better conclude the longest blog posting I am ever likely to make... please do come back for updates & look forward to hearing from you all! We'll be in Seattle from the 27th, so am hoping to post some pictures of flying fish - that's what they do in that market thing out there, right? I'm sure I've seen that on TV!