By Jane WilsonDear (Insert Your Name Here), Hope your holidays were fabulous, or reflective, or non-fattening, whichever is required by the religion of your choice. Our family is currently favouring a Post-Industrial Monotheism sponsored by Macintosh and Coca Cola, so I'm in no position to judge your choice of faith. I will still judge your clothing though, so if you want to send me a current picture, feel free. Our big news for our New Year's letter this year is Angus' new job. He became Superintendent of Schools in August. I had extreme misgivings, but he is really enjoying it. I had to resign from our local Advocacy Project (Helping parents to advocate for their children within the school system, Hotline # 1-800-351-9834) and from the District Parent Advisory Council, as it was officially weird with his new job. I was very sad at first, but soon starting wondering if I could use "Conflict of Interest" to get out of doing anything else (FYI - apparently you can't call "Conflict of Interest" on laundry). I finished the BCCPAC Supporting Parent Leadership Seminar Series in November and am now a Parent Information Resource Co-ordinator (Yes, PIRC). I'm supposed to be a support for our school district's Parent Advisory Councils, providing information and resources when asked, but I don't think the PACs were ever told, so it is one of the easiest volunteer positions ever and without the slightest danger of Conflict of Interest (just like the laundry).The boys are happy at school and generally doing very well. They are both in my karate classes now. The classes have 15-20 kids and adults training every Monday and Wednesday nights and I have hopes I may see one of my students off to try for their black belt in the next couple of years. Fergus has reached an orange belt and Gavin has learned to concentrate for more than 3 minutes at a time, so it's a success all around.Hilda will be four on January 11 and remains the Princess in our family. Her main accomplishments this year have been starting to wear pants and learning to tie knots. Okay, perhaps not pants so much as legging, and only because we told her ballerinas wear them. I feel I have to get her in jeans at least, because with all the knot tying, she is clearly destined for a life at sea and I don't want her to be cold while she's there. In the meantime, I will continue to come into rooms to find a chair tied to the table, the sofa tied to her dollhouse, or her bear hanging from the banister (She still won't tell me what the bear did that required lynching). We continue to enjoy island living and I remain obsessed with surfing, with no real ability, however as that has not stopped me from doing any number of things, I don't see why it should stop me now (watch me parenting sometime, although at least I can turn left when I'm parenting). This year has found both our ferry service reduced and our mail no longer coming on the plane but coming on the ferry, which as I mentioned, has had its service reduced. I wish I could say that it's a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, but the right hand knows exactly what the left hand is doing because otherwise they could not shake us down so effectively. Still, there really is nothing better than living in an actual community and I get to go surfing whenever I find myself temporarily childless, so it's all worth it to me, even if you won't receive this letter until February. There's no family picture again this year, so please just form a mental image. Picture Angus and me, with the kids, in matching velvet outfits, in front of a fireplace with some stockings, and be sure to give me some great hair (and perhaps an attractively placed mole). All my best wishes, Jane. (PS -You can email me at jane.wilson@hgqci.org).