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Penny writes her Third Holiday Letter

December 2025

It seems to me that a lot of Mum and Dad’s friends write quite entertaining Christmas letters, telling of their travels to exotic locations all over the world. I’m grateful to be writing a relatively boring letter, because that means I haven’t been left at home with a cat sitter.

Last year Dad set up his miniature train around our Christmas tree. It was the first time I’d seen it, so I was fascinated by the possibilities of knocking the train off the track.

The farthest they’ve traveled this year was to San Francisco, to meet Dad’s fellow university alumni friends, who were visiting from Cambridge, England. Judith is a Professor of Materials Science, and her husband Kelly, who also has a doctorate, has just retired from his job. Mum and Dad said they had a great time eating lunch at the historic Sam’s Grill, and Mum even brought me back some Dungeness crab from her salad.

Dad continues to work from home for Keysight, while Mum goes to the Humane Society of Sonoma County, at least twice a week, to socialize the felines and treat the poor kittens who have contracted ringworm. They all recover from it, but it takes 4-8 weeks of treatment in isolation. Because we lost our dear Ignatz over 2 years ago, Mum says she’s always falling in love with the tuxedo kittens, and wants to bring one home.

Mum and Dad celebrated their 33^rd Wedding Anniversary in January, with a great dinner at Walter Hansel’s Bistro (which has subsequently closed).

We all enjoyed a pleasant summer, with the temperature reaching 100F/38C only a couple of times. Mum was especially happy about that, as she was growing haricots verts beans, and had a very healthy crop. This year, her Evening Primroses, Geraniums, California Poppies, and even the cactus produced lovely flowers, as shown below.

Ginger spent almost every evening going for short walks with Mum, and visiting his cat friends next door. I preferred to stay indoors and watch from the window.

We got to see our old friend, Emily, last summer. We’ve known her since I was a kitten, and now she’s about to graduate from UC Santa Cruz. We went with her to St. Helena for pizza and salad at Tra Vigna, then on to Calistoga for ice cream.

Every August, Mum’s shelter, the Humane Society of Sonoma County, puts on a fabulous fundraiser at one of the wonderful Sonoma County wineries. She always donates jewelry that she’s made and helps out with the festivities. This year the event was at St Francis Winery, and she donated a beautiful Bruce St. John Maher Scarab necklace with Swarovski earrings.

At the end of September, Mum noticed that Ginger wasn’t his usual perky self, so much so that he refused to come to bed with the rest of us. She took him to the emergency hospital, where they did a lot of tests and it was determined he had asthma, pneumonia, and heart disease. He stayed in the hospital for four days, in an oxygen kennel, having many antibiotics. We were sure he’d get better and come home. Sadly, that wasn’t the case and he left us on October 2^nd. He was only 12 years old, and we thought we had many more years to spend with him. It was a terrible shock, and we all miss him so much.

During December, Mum and Dad met our friend, Valerie, in San Francisco, this time to visit the Legion of Honor, to see the Manet & Morisot Exhibition there. They told me that it was fascinating, but really for me the only point of interest was the smoked salmon that they brought me back from the restaurant!

Thank you to all those of you who sent us your email contact details in response to our request in last year’s letter. The final compromise on which we decided was to continue to send physical cards to everyone, but to publish the letter only electronically, which is why you’re reading this online!

We wish you all a joyous New Year, plus a healthy and hopeful 2026!

Love, Penny