In March, the four of us met in Buenos Aires and also visited Santiago.  Both are lively cities with sad pasts, much to offer now and promising futures.  We enjoyed tango, steak, museums, wineries, a graffiti tour and sightseeing.  

Charlie is a sophomore at Bard College, majoring in psychology and also studying philosophy and history.  He’s very happy there, working hard (!) and getting good grades.  He put himself on a low-carb diet and started working out several times a week.  He lost 25 pounds (which Carl and I summarily found) and is more fit than ever. Over the summer, Charlie worked as a counselor at a local day camp and is now highly motivated to delay fatherhood for a long time.  He also travelled to Alaska for a two-week Habitat build. Other trips brought him to Seattle and Boston to visit friends.

Last but not least, Eva’s plan to change careers took a big step forward.  She will transition to working part-time at Morgan Stanley in January and will stop working altogether in April.  She is applying to two PhD programs, hoping to begin her studies in the autumn.  She has also started volunteering, working with homeless teens and young adults on Sundays at an amazing organization called The Door in Tribeca.  And she co-facilitates a monthly NAMI support group for parents of teens and young adults who suffer from mental illness.  This winter, she will take three psychology classes at Westchester Community College to satisfy prerequisites.  And she will finally have the time for simple pleasures, like reading books recommended by friends, attending a wonderful local yoga class, and taking Lego and Brio for long walks. 

We hope the holidays bring you happiness with friends and family.  We wish you a peaceful and healthy 2015!

Carl, Eva, Charlie and Caroline

(and Lego and Brio)

​

Dear Friends and Family,

In retrospect, we dedicate 2014 to Albert Einstein, as the year proved to be all about space and time.  

Happy Holidays!

Carl completed his 16th year in IP law at Orrick.  He devoted many hours to a high-tech case involving the “traveling salesman problem” (for you math wizzes), digital pens and shopping technology.

In August, Carl and Eva escaped the chaos of our construction site for a week in France.  It was maybe our best vacation ever: relaxed and romantic with a variety of new experiences.  Our first stop was Nice.  We stayed at the aptly named Hotel Welcome overlooking the yacht-filled bay of a neighboring town.  We visited Grasse, the centuries-old perfume capital of Europe, and took a perfume-making class. We visited the Matisse and Chagall museums.  We ate well.  Our second stop was in Provence.  A lovely bed and breakfast overlooking the Provence valley served as our home base.  We canoed, toured numerous old hilltop villages, visited a winery and ate well.   Near the end of our trip, we met our English friends, the Wertheims, for an afternoon in Arles and then spent a lovely 24 hours with them at their charming weekend home in the Languedoc hills west of Montpellier.  And, yes, we ate well! 

After three months in Argentina working at a veterinarian’s office and a children’s shelter and a couple weeks in London and Prague, Caroline's "Five Continent Year" finished in Melbourne, where she and 100 other Northeastern University freshmen spent their first semester.  It was a great experience.  The city is beautiful and lively, and the Aussies were friendly and hospitable.  While on the other side of the planet, she traveled to the Great Barrier Reef twice, earning her diving certificate there.  She visited the Outback on a two-day rail journey.  She and her classmates spent a long-weekend in Sydney.  And on her own she drove 1000 miles through New Zealand's South Island.  With the priceless and free help of Skype, we conquered distance and time zones to speak often.  It will be lovely to have her so near us when she moves to Boston in January.

​Hoping that one day Eva could leave financial services while she still had time to pursue her long-term goal of becoming a psychologist working with disadvantaged young people, we moved house in February, gladly sacrificing space for lower taxes, mortgage payments and energy bills.  But we wanted a luxe bathroom and a second study, so we raised the roof on half the house to expand the 2nd floor.  And of course, we put in a new kitchen, the fifth and surely last kitchen renovation for us.