Christmas Greetings

and

Best Wishes for the New Year

Our big news for the year is of course our wedding, which will already be known to many of you. It was a great occasion on 20 July 2002. We were warmly supported at the Parkdale Uniting Church in a very meaningful service and an afternoon tea of good fellowship attended by a large number of our wider family and friends from a great variety of different situations. We tried to respond to the many greetings of good wishes, but if you did not receive an acknowledgement directly, please accept this word of thanks.

We enjoyed very much our honeymoon on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, a few days in Fiji and New Zealand, and later visiting the extended Beswick family in Tasmania.

We share much in common, specially faith in Christ whose birth in this season with the angel's message of peace and goodwill stands in such contrast to the recent troubles and fears. May we all be blessed with that peace in the coming year. For ourselves, we have experienced a year or a little more of developing a completely new relationship, which has been exciting, challenging and a great blessing, a new way, but one which includes loving memories of Ron and Joan who we remembered in the marriage service. (If you would like to read more about our overlapping but mostly separate lives there is a brief history prepared at time of the wedding on the following web page: http://www.beswick.info/perspro/celebrate.htm )

We are living mainly where Hazel was for the past few years, in Parkdale, a bay-side suburb of Melbourne, and spending some time at Wesburn where David and Joan used to live. The unit in Surrey Hills which David shared with Bruce when in town has been let. We intend to keep open for now the question of where we settle are in the long term. (Please note the change of address for David, and new email addresses, as above.)

David's part: I have been busy in occasional church work, keeping up my web site with resources for preachers and worship leaders and some family history, university research on wonder, curiosity and intrinsic motivation, and doing what I can towards setting up our newly shared home and rearranging things generally.

The other big family event on the Beswick side was the birth of Amelia Joan to Andrew and Paula on 27 June. She is a beautiful baby and doing very well. Paula has just returned to work in the State Library three days a week and Andrew has arranged to reduce his work with Amnesty to four days a week, with Paula's mother also sharing in the care of Amelia.

Bruce continues to work at Melbourne University Book Shop and is returning to postgraduate research in philosophy part time next year. He has bought a house at Belgrave (22 Monbulk Road) which means he has an hour each way on the train to the city, and a real bush environment at home in the hills, but close to shops and the station.

Helen and Mark continue to lead busy lives, Helen working part time as a social worker in the Sexual Assault Centre at Warrnambool, and Mark as Assistant Principal of the Port Fairy Consolidated School. The younger children Alice 7 and Lachlan 10 attend the same school, while Tim 13 and James 15 go to secondary college in Warrnambool.

Robert left his job as IT Manager at the Victorian Arts Centre a few months ago and returned to working as a computing consultant, reviving the company "Exeter Systems" which he set up about ten years ago. He and Catherine travelled overseas for three months in the middle of the year.

Hazel's part: Wow - what a year - The wedding of Simon to Anita Atkinson, which was conducted by Harold Taylor, was celebrated just three weeks before ours. It was a happy family occasion; and then on 27 November we had the joy and anxiety of welcoming Hamish James, born eight weeks prematurely. Presently Hamish remains in hospital. He is putting on weight and going well. Anita has a busy day maintaining the feeding schedule and recovering from the Caesarian. They had moved, with their two dogs, a short while before the birth to 5A Norwood St., Sandringham, not far from Parkdale and fortunately close to the hospital where Hamish is now.

After taking a year off for study, Simon is back teaching Psychology, Geography and Computing at St. Kevin's, having changed from outdoor education. He moved out of the flat upstairs early in the year and David now has his study in the living area there. We can accommodate visitors there too. Among visitors this year we were pleased to see Don Kimmelman who was Ron's roommate at Drew and his wife Linda from USA, my nephew Martin Barton from South Africa, Harris's sister Rosemary from the Sepik, PNG, as well as family from closer parts.

Barton and Jo are still in Yarraville, but they are redeveloping a house in Newport, another Melbourne suburb, with the idea of moving next year. We had a happy occasion at their home in August celebrating Charlton's first birthday - and he has become something of a star photographic model, appearing in several K-Mart catalogues.

Drew and Gabriella are busy in the life of a young family with Adam, Dylan and Blake involved in sporting activities. I enjoyed taking the two older boys to a church camp early in the year, as previously, and they still ask to go again. Adam starts secondary school next year.

This has been one of those pivotal years that come every so often in life. One decision affects many other aspects and so it has been. I finished work in March, to have planned surgery and was very glad of David's loving care that contributed to a speedy recovery. Then came the wedding ....

With love from Hazel and David

Christmas 2002 David Beswick and Hazel Williams/Beswick