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I have had to delay this year’s Christmas letter so that I can share our latest news! You see, the year has been bookended by additions to our family.
Charlie Franklin Wilson arrived on 21 January to Alex and Sarah, a little brother to Freddie and George and another grandson for Kate and Mark.
Ronan Neil Stainsby followed on 21 February to Evan and Steph, a brother to Aida and a grandson to us. He’s an impatient little fellow – bouncing out as Steph was in admission and rushed to the triage room to give birth. Evan was still parking the car! At nearly 10 months he has given up on the idea of crawling and wants to walk.
And much to our delight, Luna Stainsby Martínez arrived to Hayden and Andrea on 10 December in Granada Spain, a granddaughter to us. Brianna is a very excited big sister. Sadly, we won’t meet Luna for a little while as we have commitments here until early April. Hopefully by then she will be noticing the world around her and will interact with us.
In the previous year Hayden and Andrea had settled into their new home in Granada, so we took the opportunity to visit them, and get to understand Brianna’s life in Spain. While COVID is becoming a distant horror memory, there were some ups; not least was working from home. To this end Hayden and Andrea could continue their German jobs and relocate to Spain. They have built themselves two lovely offices on the top (street) level of their home with stunning views over Granada.
We took the opportunity to do some further travelling on four separate trips:
- Sicily, Rhodes and a few days in Athens
- Switzerland then Annecy with Denis and Martine, then a few days in Genova and Barcelona
- Southern coast of UK, Jersey and Guernsey, to reduce our time in the EU to less than 90 days
- A short but luxurious drive through southern Spain to eastern Portugal staying at Paradores and Pousadas.
The highlight of our time was attending a couple of Brianna’s school functions and a very important 5th birthday party.
Bruce has been diligently recording all the craft beers and good coffees we found on our travels, at https://moustache.com.au/. Don’t forget to hunt out the links to his photos. My stories are still a little behind ☹
Evan has had some interesting freelance work this year, but he has wound down a little as Steph finished her maternity leave and returned to ACER. Ronan will start day care early in the year, so they will ramp up their work. They would love to move to the country, perhaps Castlemaine and are “in the market”, looking for property, talking to banks, all that stuff…
Evan’s creativity always amazes us. He has just completed a project for a local band – bringing together their AI project for a fun Christmas song:
Get into the Chrissy spirit, but keep it kooky!
Here’s a music clip I recently worked on: ‘Santa’s Coming Home’ by Vaudeville Smash.
Directed and created by Christopher Mitchell using a variety of AI tools (Stable/Flux/MidJourney/Kling/RunwayML).
I helped out with clean-up, VFX and compositing, the task wasn’t to make it completely polished or to trick anyone, just to have some fun with AI video and make Santa bust some moves.
Full video here: https://lnkd.in/dBuhTBP9
We visit them most weeks. Aida looks forward to her adventure and ice cream treat. We can’t wait to take Ronan out as well.
We are ageing well – still love to spend time at Sorrento. Our walks are a little slower, taking in more scenery I suppose.
We had a fun, chaotic Christmas celebration at Kate and Mark’s with six little people, including Mark’s 18 month old granddaughter, Matilda. Wonderful to see the theme for presents this year was books.
Our charity of choice for this Christmas is UNICEF’s Children of Gaza Crisis Appeal The amount of destruction and the toll it has taken on children and their families horrifies us.
Good wishes for a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2025. Much love
Bruce and Thea
A small selection of pics follow, but click on the ‘here’ link to see more.
Family
Such a fabulous year for us with a new grand nephew and two gorgeous grand children.
More photos here.
Travels
A wonderful adventure, primarily to Spain to check out Hayden and Andrea’s new home, nicely renovated. Then a few side trips, returning for special events.
We started our journeys accompanied by Carlo the Koala (from Italy), hunting eucalypts. He loved Jersey so much he refused to leave, so we adopted Jessie the Jersey Cow in Jersey to continue our travels. These companions gave meaning to our adventures for Brianna and Aida.
More pictures here.
Craft
My knitting went from the sublime to the ridiculous. Complex daisy cardigans for the little girls. They discovered what I could knit, and they lined up their best furry friends to add to their wardrobes. There was even a little European project to leave behind for the new baby.
More pictures here.
Craft
Hi Thea and Bruce,
So wonderful to hear all about your wonderous travels this year. Adding grandchildren to the mix – what joy that must be to you all.
We have had a great year, travelling in Australia this year, and also celebating Doug’s 80th birthday in March. Our grandchildren are 16 and 14 – growing up way too fast.
We are still involved with minding dogs and I take a Pet Therapy Dog to Monash Childrens Hospital fortnightly. It is a great reminder to just be so thankful that all our children are healthy. Doug and I are keeping well. Doug is still sailing – the oldest person at his yacht club to sail! I am still loving bridge.
Life goes on.
We would love to catch up with you in the New Year if you are at home.