Happy Holidays!
Reading our update from last year, we feel we could write almost the same update – with a few twists.
We started 2011 with a great ski trip to Mammoth. Mira and Nina were in ski school and really enjoyed it, and getting much better at skiing. We loved our simple routine of get up-ski-play-go sleep so much, we will be repeating it soon – at the same place, just a year later.
The highlight of our year has certainly been our family trip to London this past August. It didn’t start out being fun, as Zuzka forgot to check everyone’s passports until two days before departure. And oops, Mira’s passport has expired. After some sweat and tears, and some luck and faith in the US government, we got her new passport a few hours before our flight a day later. We can laugh about it now …
We stayed with our generous friends (who, curiously, after two weeks at their house still would like to be our friends), not too far from the grounds of the Windsor Castle. We took daily trips by train to London and even spent a weekend in the English countryside, in a picturesque hotel in the Cotswolds. The kids had a great time every day, and to this day Nina says “London Eye is awesome and Big Ben is really cool in person”. Sadly, we didn’t have a chance to check out Platform 9 ¾ but we did take the kids to the last Harry Potter movie in England – invisibility cloak, Hedwig and all. See more pictures here.
After our London trip, Zuzka took the girls to Slovakia for a few weeks to visit family and Phil returned home. The school year started shortly after and Mira is now in 5th grade and Nina in 3rd. They both love learning and school which we are thrilled about. This is the last year Mira will be at our elementary school and next year she will be going to middle school. Our baby? Where did the time go?
Both girls really enjoyed their activities as well. Mira likes to figure skate, and this past year she passed the first level of tests and competed in several events. The most exciting moment came a few weeks ago when she landed her axel – the most difficult of single jumps! Yeah! Beyond skating, Mira is really enjoying her jazz dance class and just hanging out with friends. Yes, she has a cell phone now.
Nina can’t get enough time at her art school. She has mastered working with pastels, and is now learning how to work with watercolors. It’s a delight to watch her work on her art with such intent focus. She also enjoys exploring other art forms, like digital photography and sculpting and continues to pursue ballet. And she never fails to make us laugh!
Zuzka has devoted a lot of hours this past year to charitable endeavors, helping out a variety of local organizations in the Los Angeles area and she is particularly excited about working with a healthy lifestyle program in an East L.A. hospital and an innovative micro-urban farm organization in South Central L.A. She also spent many hours (more like days) organizing several figure skating competitions!
Phil has kept himself busy at DeskMakers, and with a lot of excitement launched a new product line, targeted at open space work environments. Looks really cool! He keeps in shape by working out at the gym but his most fun activity this past year was taking improv classes at the Groundlings theater. It sounds like fun; he would walk into the house laughing hysterically!
All in all, we had a wonderful year, filled with health and love and happiness. We hope for the same for everyone in 2012. Happy Holidays and all the best in the new year.
