HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016!!!

December 2015
Dear family and friends: Ha! You are reading our holiday blurb! How interesting can that be? you are probably
wondering. Heres the important stuff: We are doing well! Furthermore, we hope you are doing well! (Now you can
go back to drinking eggnog or eating nutcake and not have to lie about reading some of this!)
Kids: Samira, 23, is now a nutrition student heading back to University of Nevada, Reno, for the 2016 winter
semester. She is also working as a personal trainer at Saint Marys hospital health center. She ran a tri-Athlon
last August and has crafted herself into a pretty good cook offering her own line of healthy meals to clients.
Kudos! https://smfcpowerofexercise.wordpress.com/
Elias, 12, is now attending Swope middle school where he enjoys playing sports, life science and the violin. He also
rocks playing his electric guitar. Last spring he played little league baseball and is now sprouting up like a weed.
We expect him to pass mom and sissy in height in 2016.
The year: Jeannettes mother Isabel and fianc Rene began the year with us in Reno. On January 4th and 5th we
attended Governor Jerry Browns Inaugural bash in Sacramento; not our usual kick-start to a year, but entertaining
just the same. In February, we flew over the wine country and Pacific Coast with Norma (Ferriz) Massaro. We
attended John and Anitas bash in Philomath for Pete god daughter Anita who turned 30 in April.
Pete had to spend more time dealing with pesky public land and mining claim issues in the spring, some of which
lingered well into the fall. The big summer event was Petes sister Mary marrying Ethan Cook in late June in
Portland. It was a steamy hot stayover that featured a riotous wedding and noisy reunion with Petes four Hook
cousins, Aunt Pamela and Uncle Bill. We held our second annual Peruvian Independence party with Jeannettes
visiting father Armando and brother Pocho around the backyard pool in late July.
We managed less travelling this summer opting to complete more home projects. We enjoy our new house, but are
still crafting it to our needs. Jeannette mended from minor mid-summer surgery and was back working full time in
September. For Halloween we hosted our first dancing costume party, fun!
Our bozo Tom cat Jebbers tangled with a neighborhood raccoon in late September. He didnt fare well ending with
a multiply lacerated, and later, abscessed head. We had to have him stitched back together, twice (ouch $). Now
we have Franken-cat. Our spoiled white and orange circus dog, Ormsby, howls incessantly in the backyard and
manages all movements in our house. He continues to be incapable of differentiating a T.V. doorbell from the real
one! (No kidding and, yes, pretty sad).
Our burned Plumas County property, which we placed in family trust for our grandkids, sprouted a little brush, but
no new trees. Our game camera photographed several bears and many deer crossing the burn: no wolverine sighting
yet. We are seeking to purchase some evergreen seedlings for replanting in the spring of 2016 . We have
solicited lots of advice on how best to accomplish this task; most of which has left us more confused than before.
You put the little tree in the ground, pull the soil back over it and hope it grows right? Wrong! Defoliate the brush,
plant pine trees then bring in less tolerant conifers we are told. Why not just bring in a heard of goats and feed
them pine and fir cones I wondered? Hey, someone has probably tried it! How bad could that be? But realistically
we are going to need some serious manpower once we have the seedlings to get this project of the ground. Our
best wishes to you and your family for 2016.
-The Dilles-Caillaux family: Pete, Jeannette, Samira & Elas