December 16, 2002

Dear Friend:

Another year seems to have raced by and while the year was quite exciting, this Holiday Season seems to be a bit strange this year.

The big news this year is that I sold the small condo in DC and purchased a one bedroom unit in the same building but on the top floor with a magnificent view of Washington. Foolishly, however, I decided in the middle of October to renovate (repaint, sand floors, new counters, lights etc), thinking confidently that the work could be done in a couple of weeks. Needless to say, the estimate for completion is now sometime close to New Years, so I haven't been able to stay in the place for months. (Honest, though, when it is finished it should look great!!)

While I was in this "let's re-examine all the real estate" mode, and after a lot of thought, I decided to put the West Virginia house up for sale. I have bought a gorgeous (2 ½ acre) lot that is much closer to Shepherdstown and am now in the process of driving my architect insane designing a new house. While I love the current house, it is just too big for one person and the maintenance on the gardens etc is truly staggering. I have been planning the "perfect" house in my head for years and thought that this was as good a time as any to go for it. (Curiously, I have never given thought to the exterior look of this house, only the floor plan, and to my surprise the whole thing is turning English Country House - very peculiar!). Hopefully I will have the design finished so that construction can begin in mid to late Spring next year. The architect, who, Thank God, is an old friend, is now used to strange notes from me on napkins that say things like - "let's design the garage with a wet bar and install smoke machines and lasers so that when I have parties I can back the cars out and have a nightclub!" or "let's change the dining room into a brandy and cigar room with a separate vent system!") I'm not sure he knew what he was letting himself in for when he agreed to help me with this and we haven't even started on the interior design - I am going to specify everything down to the types of handles on the drawers - poor man!)

I actually started trying to date again this year - definitely something I am unused to! It is certainly strange trying to meet folks at this time in my life as none of us are in the twenties "I can be anyone, live anywhere, do anything" points in our lives. I have a full and busy life and have no time for the drama that we all seemed to have put up with when we were younger. Consequently I seem to be going through men like Kleenex (all the good ones are married or dead and all that is left are the psycho's, drug addicts and lunatics - Eeek!) That is not quite true but I find that most of the time I am very happy on my own. I relax with the dogs (Thor is now up to 120lbs, the size of a small horse and the most gentle, sweet animal you can imagine!) and have done a huge amount with my stamp collection. (I haven't turned on the television more than once or twice this year - it is amazing what you can accomplish when that doesn't suck up your time!)

On that note, I traveled to a few stamp shows this year and met some terrific new friends who are encouraging me to finally get on with preparing my collection and work for exhibit. While the prospect is daunting, I am slowly putting things together with the goal of entering my exhibit on the British Offices in China 1917-1930 at the Napex show in Northern Virginia this spring. The thing that fascinates me about this area is that most of the records were destroyed and the hunt for information is wonderful. In the next few months I have got to get over to London to the British Library and would love to get to Hong Kong and Shanghai to do more research there - we will see. While I have been working on this, I have found that, as an offshoot, the hobby is actually turning into a business as I have a huge amount of stuff for sale, so I think that this coming year I will probably start a business dealing in rare stamps.

My health is great! I wasn't being very sensible earlier in the year and found myself close to developing a drug problem, but after a verbal beating from Julia and my doctor, Howard, who is a wonderful man, I woke up and cleaned my act up immediately. My weight and health are better now than they have been in years (and thanks to Botox I am looking younger too!! <grin> Now all I need is a way to get buffed up that doesn't involve working out - grrr! (and No…Beer lifting does not develop pectorals - I checked!)

The family are all in fine form! Val is now a Court appointed advocate for children so she spends a lot of time helping children whose parents have been convicted of crimes. It is pretty grueling sometimes for her and certainly surreal at others (the parents seem to treat their animals better than the children - that is when they haven't sold them) but she is finding it very rewarding. Cliff is still working with me (when he isn't golfing) and the business is going well. They just celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary (which means that next year I turn….. Oh God! Never mind!) Gary, Collin and Duncan seem to spend their lives playing soccer and Collin is taking his exams to the St. James school for next year. Julia is staying tremendously busy with Martin Medical and has landed some new clients. She has turned that company into a wonderful business and keeps writing huge checks to the Foundation - Yaaay!)

Other than all the above, I did some trips to New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Atlantic City this year as well as a cruise to Hawaii and the south Pacific with my friend Tom (which was wonderful! At one point we rented a Jeep and ended up driving round one of the islands which was both staggeringly beautiful and terrifying at the same time!) I also rented a house in Fire Island again for a few weeks during the summer and my friends Susan and Laura, Cheryl and MB, Chris and Joe and Gary came to stay with me. I held the annual Champagne Tea in the garden in the spring, which raised a good amount for the Theatre Festival, and then Jeff and Chris and many others helped me do a wine tasting fundraiser for the Foundation a few weeks ago, which was a huge success and great fun. I need to do some updating on my website, but there are still lots of photos and other fun stuff from during the year on it, so check out www.iangibsonsmith.com.

Other than that, life goes on. The year has ended very strangely as so many of my friends are out of work or dealing with family problems so it has been a very quiet Christmas so far. (And I am not going to mention the stock market or the Republican victory in November!) Very few folks are doing their usual parties and get togethers and the whole season seems more subdued than usual. Most of us have made "no gift" pacts this year, which has helped (and allowed me to spoil the kids even worse than usual! Julia is going to kill me as most of the gifts they asked me for all seem to have large parental warning stickers on them!!)

All in all though, life is good and I hope the same goes for yourself. I hope that you and yours have a safe, happy, healthy and prosperous Holiday Season and New Years and look forward to seeing you soon.

All my love and best wishes,