Holiday Letter

Seasons Greetings to one and all!

This year has been as busy as always for the Cohen family. Each year seems to get busier and busier, and to go by faster than the one before it.

Grace spent most of the first eight months of 2005 eagerly looking forward to kindergarten. After seeing her brother go off on the bus each day, she was ready for her turn to come! Her pre-school graduation was in the middle of August (Meg cried, of course), and then she started Kindergarten the week before Labor Day. She’s had a great first semester, and is really enjoying it. Grace also started soccer this fall and was quite a sight in her hot pink soccer shorts! She also started ballet lessons, which she loves. We know that she enjoys performing, wearing pink, being a ballerina and learning new things, but we’re not sure of the order! They’ve given two small shows for parents only, and will begin rehearsing for their big recital after the holidays.

Peter spent the first part of the year in first grade, and continued to do very well. Over Spring break he was able to go to San Francisco with his Granddaddy to visit with Uncle Dick and future Auntie Trina. He continued to play baseball, with Meg coaching, and basketball, but after moving up to second grade, he added football to the mix this fall. That’s tackle football. He played on the 7 and 8 year old Carrboro Falcons team. They had an undefeated season, and went all the way to the league championship. Unfortunately, they lost, but it was an exciting and hard fought game between two undefeated teams. Peter’s also still active in Cub Scouts and is busily working towards his Wolf badge. The big news on the Cub Scout front is that Jeff is one of Peter’s den leaders. There are no known photos of Jeff in his Cub Scout uniform, but we imagine there will be some one day. And surely someone will post them to the internet!

The entire family was able to take a wonderful trip to San Francisco in October for Meg’s brother’s wedding. We had a wonderful week there, and we able to fit in lots of touristy things around the wedding festivities! The wedding took place on a beautiful setting overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and the Pacific Ocean. The Blue Angels were in town for Fleet Week; they were very cool, but by the end of the week we were a little tired of hearing them zoom overhead and craning our necks looking for them. We also made our traditional trip to Florida for Thanksgiving to visit Jeff’s family, which is always a lovely break.

Unfortunately, this year held some sadness, too. Jeff’s grandfather passed away the first week of December. Nat was 93 years old, and had been in remarkably good health until late this fall. We were able to see him for one last visit in Florida, and were all able to go to New York for his funeral. While his passing was very sad for us all, we feel incredibly lucky that he was part of our lives for so long, and that the kids got to know their Great-Gramps and what a special person he was. We’ll always remember his jokes, his toast-making skills, his birthday cards and the checks for a lobster dinner he sent our way. Rest in peace, Nat.

We wish everyone a happy and healthy 2006.