Bonne annee

Happy new year. We took a photo in 1980 with the words bonne annee printed in it and Pop kept calling it Bonnie Annie. Works for me.

Anyway that was the greeting of choice when we arrived here almost two weeks ago. We spent most of the first week in Libreville and we've been in the village for a week now.

Work us exhausting, and we're not even doing the hard stuff. People have been exceptionally nice and welcoming. Mary is a big hit with the village women who call her over when she's out walking.

There are many adjustments, such as the kitchen and the shower. Much has changed in 35 years, such as cell service in the village so that I can post to Pops Weekly Letter, some electricity each day so we can charge our phones and even television so we can watch Mexican soap operas dubbed into French.

Keeps those cards and letters coming, okay emails. Love hearing any news but especially yours.

Go Patriots. Africa Cup in soccer starts today. Photo is of Mary and our Dutch friend Henk walking home after work.

Here's to 2015

The big news from our neighborhood is that Sean has finished law school, which I can speak from personal experience is a long and difficult slog. I often told my students who were interested in going on to law school that it would be much more difficult than college, especially the first year. So a big round of applause to Sean, we are very, very proud of you. He did very well, too. He will now get ready to take the bar in July, at this point he is planning to take both NY and NJ. Fun, fun, fun. Good luck, Sean.

Our tree and outdoor decorations – the latter much more extensive than in years past – have all come down, and so I guess that part of life is over for another year. By the way, we have a Christmas tradition that we take turns reading The Grinch That Stole Christmas and O. Henry's The Gift Of The Magi every Christmas Eve. Taking the tree down was a little more melancholy than usual because Sean's friend Jess helped decorate the tree. She works as a fabric designer for Coach in New York, so this year our tree was decorated by Coach! The one wreath that never comes down is Pop's pine cone wreath that proudly hangs at our front door.

The big theme this year seems to have been food, which included boxes from Nueske's and Harry and David's, the contents of which we have faithfully been working our way through. Not hard work, though, and thank you brothers. I gave Janet a Nutri-Bullet, which is a high powered blender for making smoothies; the container doubles as your glass. She's had a lot of success so far. She gave me a contraption called an AirFryer, which promises "fried" food without the oil. It's essentially a fancy convection oven, so it cooks more quickly. Our first try at fried chicken was delightful, so it's a keeper.

Johanna concluded a very successful year in her job with a nice raise and nice bonus. Based on what she has told us, it is well earned, in part because she has had to deal with some discourteous (a euphemism) authors.

Janet received lots of kudos at the end of the term for her work not just as a middle school librarian, but also now as an advisor and home room supervisor for a group of students. Her work as assistant to the director of the middle school play was also much applauded. She got lots of nice notes, cards and gift cards.

I audited a course in the fall called Chaucer, taught by an English Professor Smith. I will be auditing a course this spring called Words: The Song In Modern Times, taught by an English Professor Smith. Not the same Professor Smith. In the fall, we read almost all of the Canterbury Tales as well as other works by Chaucer, all in the original Middle English. It's not as hard as you might think. The Professor said to simply read it out loud, using his pronunciation guide and a single page glossary of words that have gone out of usage, and in a day or so we would get it. He was right, and it was a real eye-opener to appreciate Chaucer's skill, and bawdy. I guess there are reasons why he is so revered. The spring course will consider lyrics by Dylan and many others. Hope there's some Springsteen in there.

I am still awaiting a decision from the NJ Supremes on the case I argued in October. It may take a while longer, because I think there might be some discussions going on. There is a strong tradition of unanimity on this Court – there was when I clerked for a previous Chief Justice – and the questioning at oral argument seemed to reveal some disagreements among the Justices. But it is high intellectual sport and I love doing it. It's not as closely watched as my last appearance in 2007, but it is a subject of interest all over the state.

In other news, I had a tooth pulled and a root canal procedure, and three crowns installed on implants, all in December. What better way to celebrate the season?

By the way, we seem to have lost our Governor. He's nowhere to be found in New Jersey. Not that we miss him all that much ....

Lotsa Jersey love to all of you!