The Russell Christmas Letter 2005

(Please note that you can click on any of the photos in this letter to get full size pictures. Press the Back button on your browser to get back to this page. Please be patient, it may take some time to load all the pictures.)

Last Christmas and New Year we were in Spain (near Alicante) with John's sister Ann and her family and John's parents.

Emily, cousin Ellen & Becky with new socks

The complete family at Xmas Lunch

New Year's Day in the sun on Ann's terrace

We took our usual one week ski trip - this year to St Michael in the middle of Austria. Becky tried out snowboarding for the first time. Emily has really taken up cooking seriously this year. As Becky was at the end of her time in the Primary School, she had a graduation ceremony.

Emily and Becky Snowboarding

Emily bakes a pavlova

Grade 5 Graduation

In June, a friend (Don Winter) that John had met via a discussion group on railways came to Vienna and we toured the local steam railway museums and depots. After mentioning that he was born in Hull and some phone calls with John's father we worked out that our fathers worked together in Hull in the early 1950s and Don and his family had traveled around south England and visited us in 1961 near Maidstone. So we really had met several times before, unknown to us or forgotten when we met in Austria in 2005. Marian met up with a favourite musician, Jonatha Brooke. Emily played the Doctor in a school play called Ernie's Incredible Illucinations.

John & Don in front of an Austrian steam engine

Jonatha Brooke and the family

Emily in Ernie's Incredible Illucinations

Marian and the girls have been making glass bead crocheted bracelets and necklaces. There is now a web page where you can see some of their creations: http://bracelets.russell.at/

We went back to Spain for our summer holiday. We took in the local sights like the Monday market at Denia. We went to visit a favourite restaurant where they greeted us like old friends. Becky and Emily tried out the local golf range under the guidance of Uncle Terry.

A successful day out in Denia market

A visit to an old friend

Emily taking lessons from Uncle Terry

Emily was given her own digital camera for a school trip to Florence. Here are some of her pictures.

Emily's friends on the train to Florence

View of Florence

The bridge (Ponte Vecchio) over the River Arno

Emily and Becky joined the Middle School Girls Soccer team and traveled to Munich for their first international tournament with a school team. Emily has taken after her grandfather by taking on the position of goalkeeper. John received an award for all his work supporting the local running club (Vindobona Hash House Harriers).

Bekcy in her soccer kit

Emily as goalie with the team

John gets a medal and a beer for all his efforts

The big occasion of the year was when Marian and John won the Nobel Peace Prize. This was in recognition of the hard work of everyone involved and was shared with over 2,000 other employees of the IAEA and the Director General (Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei). See http://www.iaea.org/ for more information.