December 2005
Holiday greetings from the Rosner family!

We’re together for the holidays once again, all four of us, relaxing at the Palo Alto family home. This year held changes for each of us, and not least was Jeff and Ronda’s first taste of the legendary “empty nest”. Our response was to paint and redecorate our living/dining/kitchen great-room in new, colorful tones, and to convert Ari’s bedroom into Ronda’s office/guest room. We’ll tackle the rest of the house a room at time over the next year. We sent our 1912 Mason & Hamlin grand piano out to be restored – both the case and the action. Jeff removed our front lawn, replaced it with roses and daylilies, and built a raised limestone planting bed on one side that holds a beautiful red Japanese maple. Results for all projects are better than we’d expected.
Sonia, now 18, graduated from Palo Alto High in June with a National Merit Scholarship. The graduation was a celebration for family and friends. After 15 years, we no longer have a child attending school in the Palo Alto Unified. Sonia began her college education at UC San Diego (John Muir College) in La Jolla last September, majoring in Biochemistry & Cell Biology (pre-med). We moved her into a fourth floor dorm room (a single!) that has a gorgeous view of the ocean. An added bonus is that her boyfriend Daniel also attends UCSD. She’s making friends and getting settled in the new surroundings, but naturally misses home-cooked meals and on-demand laundry facilities. 

Compared to the rest of us, Ari probably had the fewest changes in his life during 2005. Now 20, he’s still at UC Santa Barbara (junior year), still in the same Isla Vista apartment, still majoring in Mathematics, and still plays piano and loves film. However, last summer he began employment as an intern at a small family investment company in Santa Barbara and, as the work is enjoyable, has continued part-time during the school year.

Ronda carries on at Agilent’s Life Sciences Group in Santa Clara, now providing financial support to the general managers of two businesses acquired by Agilent last year. This is a welcome change from the Microarray fab operations finance role she held for four years. She marked 16 years with HP/Agilent in October – retirement approaches! This was Ronda’s last year (the 11th) as a Girl Scout leader. We had an emotional farewell tea party for the troop that had been together for so many years. We’ll stay in touch! 

Enjoy health, peace, and love during the coming year.

Much Love, Ronda, Jeff, Ari, and Sonia Rosner