1992 has been another of those years that have just flown by!  Looking back, it seems that the inside of a Flight Deck lounge was more like home than Queen St for Kerry and David.  Travel was the chief occupation of most of the Edwards family this year.  The boys stayed with Grandma and Pa in Newcastle in January, while the girls enjoyed a holiday with friends at our shack.  No holidays for Mum and Dad though, as extra demands of work kept us busy over the summer.

Kerry's one year term as International Education manager for TAFE was particularly demanding with work taking her all round Australia:  Darwin, Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.  The overseas trips to Taipei, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Singapore were very exciting and very hard work.  After an extra long holiday this summer Kerry will be looking for something a little less demanding, so that she can finish the Master in Social Science (Public Sector Management) degree, preferably in the University library and not in an aeroplane.  Can you see next year's letter already?  "Mother of four gets third degree".....Her work with exchange students continues, with students from Switzerland, Canada, and the US staying in Hobart, and visiting students from Japan, Germany and Sweden dropping by.  Not as much needlework was accomplished this year...which is a great pity with all those beautiful lengths of silk and batik brought home as souvenirs.....next year!

David....Union, BPAC, MRA, deck, Hong Kong week, tennis elbow? other travel, soccer coach  what else?

Alex thoroughly enjoyed his first year at High School, doing brilliantly in Maths and Science and getting excellent reports in other subjects.  Soccer was high on the priority list again this year, playing in the school team at Taroona and for the last time in the Central Regional team.  Alex passed his piano exams, and is learning clarinet and saxaphone at school.  A busy social life rounds out all these accomplishments, with sleep-overs, movies, camping trips and teenage parties with old and new friends.

Chris had a good year too, playing goalie in the Central Regional team as well as his school team.  Only one point separated Chris' team from this year's winners, which is pretty hard to take when you're goalie!  Chris enjoys school and did particularly well in Maths this year.  An aptitude for woodwork is even more apparent this year...much improved by all the time he spends helping Dad hammer and saw.  One highlight of Chris' year was a school trip to Ben Lomond Ski Fields in August, where he had a ball for a whole week without a single injury.

Phillipa has grown about 10 cm this year, straight up!  Once again she wreaked havoc on the soccer field, this year demoralising the opposition by scoring goals in the first minute of play in several games.  Phillipa has taken up gymnastics, which with her piano lessons, Italian classes and Aussie Sports sessions, occupies almost every afternoon.  At the annual school concert, Phillipa played the violin with the Beginners' Class and performed very well.  Weekends not  spent playing soccer, or fishing up at the shack, or helping Mum in the garden and kitchen, are happy times passed riding bikes with friends, listening to favourites tapes and practising on her very own sewing machine.

Victoria turned six this year and joined her brother and sister at Albuera St school.  Dad took the responsibility for coaching the under-7 soccer team and had forgotten that the little ones have trouble remembering which way to kick the ball and that their tiny hands go blue with the cold in winter.  Any Hobartian will know that any flat area big enough for a soccer field is going to be very exposed to blizzards especially on Saturday mornings.  Victoria has learnt to read fluently this year, and has four wobbly teeth!  She has asked Santa for a drum this Christmas, no doubt hopeful of forming an Edwards' family chamber rock band.  Let's hope that letter gets lost.

Thanks to David's new watering system, the gardens are looking a picture.  With the removal of the old back fence, there is more light and space and the adjoining flower borders are taking advantage of it.  If this year is any indication, next year's more mature display of old fashioned roses, clematis, iris, lilies and all sorts of beautiful flowers, many grown from friend's cuttings, will be superb.  Fruit and vegetable production this year has been good, though we have lost one nectarine to leaf curl.  On the drawing board for next year is a pergola in the back garden, repair of the front verandah, a new front fence and the outside of the house painted.  David needs to be kept busy, or else he gets up to all sorts of mischief, like local politics for instance.

The whole family's thanks must go to Gerry Belbin who has been with us yet another year, and to Andrew Radford, our uni. student.  Both people's help made a busy lifestyle possible and more comfortable, and have contributed greatly to the enhancement of the children's negotiating skills.  Andrew finishes his accounting degree this year, and has learnt that despite what the text books may say, "Movie Money" is legal tender, especially in our house.

As we head off for our long awaited mainland holiday, we are thinking of you, wishing you well for Christmas and hoping that your 1993 will be as happy and full as ours will be.