Even though we are well into 2011 now, we are only now getting around to sending out our yearly holiday letter. We hope this letter finds you and your loved ones well. As the new, impossibly-futuristic-sounding year of 2011 begins, we write to thank you for your love and friendship over the past year and to wish you the very best going forward.
As in the past, this also provides us with an opportunity to take stock of what has been for us a year to remember: the first full year of Lydia’s life, with all the joys and challenges that entails; Luke’s successful entry to (pre)school; Anouk’s temporary hiatus from career and return to the student ranks; and a remarkable year in Alex’s professional life.
Since our last letter, we have remained happily ensconced in Brussels and gratefully take advantage of the close presence of Anouk’s family, the relatively easy access to Provence to see Alex’s family, the great daycare and schools for the kids, and the invaluable set of international friends we have made here.
Lydia is now just over a year old, just starting to walk independently, and heart-meltingly cute. She loves to smile and wave to anyone paying attention to her, she loves kisses and hugs from her brother and follows him constantly (usually to his great amusement), and is proving to be something of a daredevil, climbing any object she can to stand atop it with her arms in the air as she declares “Oooohh!” to the world. Current words include papa, mama, and uuu-uuu, which we take to mean Luke.
Luke loves his sister, and his school, a local francophone institution in our neighborhood called Ecole Nos Enfants. It’s colorful, loud, his teachers are great, and he is learning at a rate that amazes his parents, who somehow still aren’t expecting it every time he announces he wants to do something new ‘all by myself.’ He is fully bilingual at this point and his favorite activities are running (especially when he can race), wrestling with his dad, reading books (current favorite is the Three Robbers by Tomi Ungerer), and singing with a microphone. 
As her maternity leave ended in June, Anouk chose not to return to her full-time career, in order to both focus on the kids and to gain skills that should allow her to make an exciting career transition when she does return to the professional world. She is pursuing a certification in geomatics, learning the latest mapping (GIS), remote sensing, topometry, and spatial modeling technologies, at the Universite de Louvain-la-Neuve. Anouk also continues to contribute to the development of women’s ultimate Frisbee in Belgium as the national team’s coach. 
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly has, as in recent years, been Alex’s ticket to some fascinating professional travel. Alex was in South Korea meeting with military commanders when the North launched its recent artillery attack; he again traveled to Afghanistan, his fourth such trip; and stood on the icecap in Greenland in a study trip on climate change that also included Denmark and Iceland. He also organized and led events in Turkey, the US, Poland, Kosovo and Bosnia, and Latvia. Alex has (mostly) loved his travel – but he found it increasingly difficult to be away from home and family, particularly in a congested second half of the year.
In sum, excepting a few minor aches and pains and the predictable adjustments of a busy life with two little ones (especially our inability to maintain correspondences properly), we consider ourselves to have had a very fortunate 2010 and we are hoping for more of the same in 2011: watching the kids grow and spending as much time as possible with them; developing our own professional futures; a few fun trips here and there; and pondering what the next years might hold for us.We will especially keep in our thoughts those close to us facing particularly difficult challenges, and offer our support whenever it may be helpful. We know we continue to benefit from all of you in ways large and small – and we’re grateful for all of you.
Best,
The LALAs in Brussels
(Luke/Anouk/Lydia/Alex)
