This was the year that we decided to formalise our relationship with the country where we have lived for almost ten years, and applied for and received Belgian citizenship – a surprisingly low-key procedure, requiring only translations of our birth certificates and a few weeks’ wait. We retain all previous citizenships (British for Anne, Irish and British for Nicholas and the children) but now voting in all Belgian elections will be compulsory. (Though not yet for the children.)

Nicholas’s job has continued to be a fascinating role in international politics, culminating with juggling the schedules of two visiting presidents in December. Most of his work this year has been advising the Turkish Cypriot leadership, as the peace process on that island finally began to move in the right direction. He also travelled to Montenegro and Albania in the spring, looking for fresh business, and was intrigued to see, as he drove between the capitals of the two countries, a tortoise calmly crossing the main road without apparent anxiety. (Admittedly, with tortoises it can be difficult to detect anxiety). Later in the year he was fortunate enough to be in New York at the time of the presidential election, which hopefully will result in a more civilised international climate. He is glad that he is no longer working on Georgia.

Fergal changed schools in September, and seems to have settled in smoothly. Ursula continues happily in the same class at Ter Bank, a school we have now been connected with for eight years. Anne attended a Dutch course for four months in the spring, which she enjoyed very much and passed with flying colours, and plans to do more studying next year.

Bridget, having moved out at the end of last year, moved again in May to a much closer residential care centre, the Delacroix foundation in Tienen, a half-hour’s drive away. Anne sees her roughly every week, and Nicholas about once a month. Occasionally we are all able to get together, including when we took her for a family outing on her 11th birthday in June. She is glad to see us when we visit, but also happy enough to let us go. We are very happy with the way it is working out.

At the beginning of the Easter holidays Fergal brought some frogspawn home from school. There was nothing for it but to create a pond by filling an old plastic sandpit with water from the rainwater tank. It is in the front, safe from Ursula, and long after the froglets hopped away there were water beetles, damselflies and even two baby newts that had hitched a ride on the pond weed. We wait to see what next year will bring.

All of us except for Bridget went to Northern Ireland again for three weeks in the summer, and attended the Belgian and British legs of Anne’s brother Rob’s wedding to Veronika. We also made two family visits to Nicholas’s sister Caroline and her husband Tom, one in the spring and one after the arrival of their baby, Sheila, in September. Anne and Nicholas spent a weekend in Rome in February, and another in Cambridge in November, thanks to her mother babysitting. Nicholas also attended a science fiction convention in Dublin in March, and dropped in on a Terry Pratchett event in August.

Important note to everyone: we have not moved house, but our address has changed: in their wisdom, the local council decided to renumber us, so we now live at number 35 rather than 15a.

With our very best wishes and love for Christmas and the New Year,

Nicholas, Anne, Bridget, Fergal and Ursula