This year it’s all come full circle—in 2006, you all got the double letter that I started before Thanksgiving; in 2007, the letter was written in early December, and for 2008, it’s now Christmas Eve day! I’m reverting back to type, waiting until the last minute, but I know I’m in good company. This year I’m hoping to be more concise, so here goes. On all levels—family, town, regional, and national, I can safely say that it’s been quite a year. To whit;

Since last year, while some things changed for us, several things stayed the same. Dave and I are both working at the same jobs as last year (Philips Medical and Lawrence Public Schools), and the girls are both sophomores, Ali at Smith and Meri at Chelmsford High. Phillips still can be aggravating, Lawrence is never dull, Smith suits Ali to a t, and Meri is finding her place at CHS. As for more detailed changes, continue ...

For Dave, Philips Medical has morphed into Philips Healthcare, but the song remains the same—he’s still the main go-to guy for user interface development on new products (or something like that), with one new product launch and the start of the next one, with little to no breathing room in between. Travel was local (on a relative scale), with two trips out to Washington State, plus a side trip to Idaho (no skiing involved, rats). Ironically, his R&D group had a really good year while the rest of the national economy was imploding, but layoffs still occurred that had nothing to do with ability, so he lost some really good colleagues. The nonwork stuff that feeds one’s soul stay constant—he continues in the handbell choir at All Saints’, still chairs the Mission/Outreach commission at church, and went on his 4th annual mission trip to WVa with Alison in June, with Meredith joining for her first trip. He is also singularly proud of an 8 foot high walk-through gingerbread house (think—pictures of little kids in a gingerbread house!!) that he and other parish members built for the All Saints’ annual Gingerbread Village fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity. So he’s still doing Habitat stuff, but with a somewhat different focus.

As for me, professionally, things have also stayed fairly constant. I’m still at the SLE (South Lawrence East Educational Complex, commonly referred to as the ‘Sleaze’!), working with 4th and 5th graders. I’m a .50 person, working half time in the elementary school (1-4), and the other half in the middle school (5-8!), so the net effect is that I have a job and a half working with both schools. I’m just relieved to be back at the same building for a second year; here’s hoping it stays this way. The work is the same, and this time the faces are too, so that’s a relief. As for non-school stuff, the summer of 2008 was the year of the GARDEN, specifically, perennials that went gangbusters and multiplied beyond my wildest expectations. Despite being run over by a backhoe when the town sewers were going in on our street, the stand of Canterbury Bells multiplied, and thrived, as did the coneflowers, columbines, dianthus, and just about everything else. Giving plants away became an act of self-defense as well as just sharing the joy of flowers—I’m running out of room! I’m still taking pictures, with shots of Meri and her high school swim meets leading the pack (more on that below), with flowers a distant second. I did get that dedicated-to-photography computer and printer, so sharing pictures is now a LOT easier. Oh yes—I also went to my 30th Reunion at Wellesley. We all agreed that we all looked mighty fine for our ages, in our humble and wildly biased opinions.

Now, as for the girls ...

Meredith and Alison.

Alison is, at this typing, done with her first semester of her sophomore year at Smith. Several things are still the same for her, too—she’s declared a History major, is with the same boyfriend (Dom-wow!), and is holding to her plan to be a HS history teacher. She can give you an earful on how the public schools are not doing a good job educating boys, and so that’s become one of her passions, that is, how to get boys invested in learning. It comes down to that most basic question—what’s in it for me? She’s joined Vibe, an a cappella singing group at Smith, and sings soprano or alto as the songs require. In keeping with what appears to be a Ludlow cousin pattern, she is planning to spend her junior year abroad, and will apply to Smith’s program in Hamburg, planning to stay for the year. We’re making tentative plans to go see her next year while she’s there; the logistics of when to go and how long to stay have already gone through multiple iterations, and she haven’t even applied to the program yet. In August, in anticipation of going to Hamburg and at their invitation, Ali did take a two+ week trip with Dom and his family to their hometown in southern Germany, and had a wonderful time, enjoying herself thoroughly as she traveled not like a tourist (again, upholding another Ludlow tradition of visiting friends and family who live in interesting places). We detect some nervousness about what will happen immediately after graduation in 2011, but she’s sticking with the long term plans.

Meredith, in the meantime, made it through her first year in high school, but it was an adjustment. She’s still swimming, and is still with Magnus, but she chose to step back to a less intense practice group. Translation—she has more time to do other high school things! Those things include rejoining the band, and trying out for the musical. In a weird bit of synchronicity, the 2008 musical was ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’, which we had already seen down in Pennsylvania when our nephew/her cousin Thomas played Percy. Meri was a chorus person, and also built and painted sets. The musical for May 2009 is “The Secret Garden”, of which we know nothing, but her plan remains the same—chorus (a line or two would be okay), and set construction and painting. This fall she joined the CHS Marching Band, which is in a rebuilding phase, and is happily ensconced on the drum line, playing cymbals. It’s perfect—it’s not about pitch, it’s about timing, and you don’t have to worry about being flat. But to return to swimming—Meri was able to balance high school swimming and fall Marching Band, and it was well worth it. For the first time in the history of the program, the Chelmsford girls (the Lady Lions) won the Division 1 State Championship, with a great combination of breadth and depth. Meri qualified for States in the 100 fly, but Chelmsford was so deep, she couldn’t swim—she was the fifth flyer, and teams are limited to four entries per event. She was still considered to be part of the state team, though, and practiced with the team for the week before the meet. She was named to the Merrimack Valley Conference All Star team, and ended up with her picture in the paper as part of a crowd of swimmers celebrating in the pool after Chelmsford was declared State Champs. Another bit of synchronicity—States were held at Wellesley. She’s giving some consideration to swimming in college, but we’re talking small scale, Div III type stuff. That will play itself out over the remainder of high school. She was shocked, and pleased, to make the Honor Roll for the first term, no thanks to Geometry, and she’s making noises about learning how to drive. Oh boy ...

So again, it’s been a year. We were all caught up in the election, and did get lots of spillover noise from the New Hampshire media, both for the primaries and the general election. “Mute” became my favorite button on the TV remote, although we stayed tuned to the local NPR radio station. For Thanksgiving, we flew down to Orlando to be with all of Dave’s immediate family, and we were also to celebrate Charlotte’s 80th birthday all together! And then the weather kicked us not just sideways, but down the block. We were one of the 150,000+ customers in New England that had their power knocked out for multiple days when the ice storms hit the weekend of December 12-14; as luck would have it, Meri and I were at a swim meet down in Norton, and stayed in a hotel down there for two nights. We didn’t get our heat and power back until Tuesday the 16th, just in time for the major snowstorm that came on Friday the 19th, followed by COLD. Lawrence schools, along with a multitude of others, closed early on Friday, and then cancelled school for Monday and Tuesday—it was considered too cold for our kids to walk to school, and many of our kids don’t have REALLY warm coats to deal with the Arctic cold. So I got two weeks again, but I’m going to pay for it in June.

o here we are. Alison is home for most of the month of January, but will be visiting friends who leave soon, so we’ll see more of her later; Meri will be swimming five to six times a week as she fits in rehearsals for the Children’s Play (production to be last weekend of January), Dave will shoehorn in skiing at the local mountain, with periodically bringing work home, while I continue to play with my camera and printer, and look forward to the spring and seeing how my perennials survived the winter. Anyone need any flowers? Our animals continue to love us and remind us of the basics—we all need love, we all need food, we keep each other warm by piling into the same bed (average per night—one dog and one cat), and we need to take care of each other, especially those who cannot speak up for themselves or are totally dependent on us for their care. As we face uncertain times this new year, may you all be safe and well, and with those you love and care for and who care about you this holiday season!

All our love,

Anne