Dear All

This last year has passed very quickly for us and on many occasions in the last few weeks we have been thinking back to this time last year when the events surrounding Jonathan's rather early arrival rather preoccupied us. It is hard to believe that a year ago our live wire one year old was that tiny little baby in the incubator. He has come on in leaps and bounds and is a very happy little boy. Richard loves him to pieces and is very good with him. Now that Jonathan is crawling about we have to move Richard's more precious creations out of reach since Jonathan cannot resist temptation!

In true Field style Jonathan has been introduced to skiing at an early age. Our annual family ski holiday had been booked long before Jonathan's arrival so we were relieved when all was going so well and we were able to take him on his first ski holiday. Once again we went to St Johan in the Tirol. By now this resort is well known to our family and the children are familiar with the layout of both the town and the ski area. It's almost like going home. Richard went to ski school again and really enjoyed it apart from one day when his class got caught in a blizzard near the top of the mountain. Luckily I skied past them and stopped to give Richard some extra clothes. By this time though he was cold and scared and the best thing to do was just ski down off the mountain. He was fine afterwards. This has been our main reason for not skiing with him in Scotland when he was younger. The weather changes so rapidly here in the mountains whereas in Austria the weather is much more predictable.

Early in the Spring we bought a caravan. David had been keen on the idea for some time. We bought it second hand and it has all sorts of luxuries including central heating , a hot water shower and a toilet. When we go away for weekends we are fairly self sufficient. It's just as well because our first trip was to the Lake District where we met up with our friends Fiona and Stewart. The campsite was abysmal and the weather awful! Rather than go out in the cold to walk to the shower blocks we used the caravan facilities all the time. Needless to say instead of hillwalking we concentrated on indoor activities which included frequenting the local coffee shops! Luckily our next trip to that area later in the year was better and we did some lovely hill walks with Richard walking a fair distance and Jonathan in the backpack.

This year both my parents and David's father celebrated their 70th birthdays. Naturally we had some nice family gatherings including a visit from David's sister Karen from Israel. She came with her youngest daughter who is just a little older than Richard. It was lovely for them to get to know each other. She was here for three weeks and we saw a lot of each other but the time flew by and she left just before we went on holiday.

Our travels took us a little further than usual this year. We decided that with the caravan we could take the journey at a more leisurely pace and stop off for more than just overnight. This was better for the boys too. It was very hot as it seemed to be all over Europe. We started off in Paris where we showed Richard the sights. It's a long time since we were in Paris and I had forgotten how busy it is in summer. Fortunately Richard did not want to go up the Eiffel tower: the queue was two and a half hours long and it was about 34 C. The following day we went to "Parc Asterix" a theme park with rides a dolphinarium and some very amusing shows involving Asterix and Roman characters. Richard had a ball. The next leg of the journey took us to the Dordogne which proved to be every bit as beautiful as we had heard. We spent three days there before going to the Landes area on the Atlantic coast south of Bordeaux. There we spent a very relaxing two weeks some days hardly straying from the campsite and its lovely lake. Richard made friends with two Dutch families one of which we were to bump into later in our holiday on another campsite! He enjoyed the company of boys his own age and older. One of the best things was that he learnt to ride his bike without stabilisers and was very pleased at this. He also became very confidant in the water and swam like a fish. Jonathan was fine and seemed to adapt well to whatever was going on. Our only concern was the extreme heat but he was fine. On our way home we visited Futuroscope: a science park concentrating on the technology of the moving image. There were 3-D cinemas of all description, each one better than the next. It was fascinating for us all. Our last stop was Normandy were we took the boys to see the landing beaches and some of the war museums. Richard found all this very interesting and was full of question. School started again in August. Richard loves his new teacher and continues to like school Long may it last. I am not working at the moment and am enjoying being able to spend time with Jonathan. He is a friendly baby and has a very happy disposition. He has quite a mischievous streak though and always makes sure that he gives a big smile before doing anything naughty! Last month we celebrated his first birthday. It was rather a special day and we couldn't help but think back to the panic of that day last year. All has turned out well and Jonathan is a lovely little boy much loved by his proud big brother. In December my parents are celebrating their Golden wedding anniversary and are having a party for the family and their many friends. People are coming for far and wide including their best man who is now in America. It is a lunch time affair and there will be lots of children there so it will be an exciting day. We are looking forward to it. It will be followed by Richard's 6th birthday so as usual it will be a busy time for us.

I hope this finds you well.

We wish you a happy Xmas and a prosperous and healthy new year.