Caelan just had his 12th birthday party at a local bowling alley. We treated his friends to pizza, cake, bowling, laser tag, rock wall and the video arcade. Everyone had a great time. Caelan is still at Winston Churchill Middle School, in the International Baccalaureate Program. He has made several new friends there and the program suits him well. This year, he chose drama for his elective, which is a great fit for him. In fact we have found that one of our favorite pastimes as a family is going to see plays. In the past year, we've taken Caelan to see live productions of Bye Bye Birdie, Sweeney Todd, Little Shop of Horrors, and Phantom of the Opera, and The Crucible. We don't always go to the main theater downtown (too expensive). We supplement that with dinner theater and my high school's productions. For his community service project, he is continuing to work with the Sacramento SPCA. They don't allow students to work with animals, so he collects newspapers for them to use in their cages.
We've traveled a lot this year as well. We took another cruise this summer. It was terrific. We
went to the Grand Cayman Islands and to Cozumel. At the Grand Caymans, we visited Sting Ray City, which is an amazing experience! We also went to Disney World in November and had a wonderful time there as well. Of course since I am usually the one pushing to travel (and therefore responsible for the fact that we spend so much money on travel), I've been forbidden from planning any more travel in the near future (beyond the two trips already in the works: 
Belgium for me in 2009 and France for all of us in 2010)! Alan is still working as a freelancer/independent contractor for three different groups, which keeps him very, very busy. He writes and edits for these groups and has deadlines almost daily, including weekends. He hopes to be hired permanently by Intel shortly after the New Year, which should allow him to give up some of his freelancing and give him so more free time.
I am still teaching, still presenting, still sitting on the boards of three organizations, still very busy! But I love it, which is why I keep doing everything I do. For the first time this year, I gave a presentation at a national language teachers' association conference. I think it was mostly successful, based on the feedback I received from my attendees' evaluations. Next year, I should be very busy with at least four presentations, two of them national, but more on that next year! One of my more time-consuming projects this year was to plan an all-day public outreach event for language education at the California State Fair. I researched and prepared children's games from around the world for fairgoers to play. Then myself and the other volunteers also handed out literature on the
benefits of studying languages, and of course, there was a prize wheel. In a pleasant surprise, Miss Asia Sacramento (Julie Tam) stopped by to see us because she always uses language learning as her platform for beauty pageants. It was a lot of work, but I got it pulled together, and it was so successful that we were asked to return next year!
On a sadder note, our cat of 19 years, E.T., passed away in March. And, as you may recall from last year's posting, we had adopted a second dog from the SPCA, but she had to be put to sleep as well. However, in August, we adopted a nine-month-old cat whom we named Chatterbachs. You can see a fuzzy picture of our fuzzy cat to the right. She is absolutely adorable and fitting in beautifully with our family, which still includes our other adopted pet, Sophie. This nine-year dog just loves her new pet friend, and we think the feeling is mutual (I've caught Chatterbachs trying to nuzzle against Sophie's head).
We look forward to hearing from each of you and we wish you and yours the very best during this holiday season and for the New Year.
With love,
Nicole, Alan and Caelan (and Sophie and Chatterbachs)
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