Happy Holidays: The 2015 edition

		Alan, 61, finally got the word that his 19-year stint as science editor at NBCNews.com, formerly known as MSNBC.com, was over. But he quickly found a great group of geeks to work with at a Seattle-based online news site called GeekWire. He now serves as GeekWire's aerospace and science editor - which means he's learning about drones and aviation tech as well as space and science. In the interim, Alan wrote up freelance stories for Forbes, Universe Today and Science News as well as GeekWire. He's hanging on to the Cosmic Log and Cosmic Blog brands as well. Just before Alan left NBC, he had the chance to cover the New Horizons probe's big Pluto flyby in July ... which was a thrill, because Alan wrote a little book titled "The Case for Pluto." And in September, Alan and Tonia took a three-week trip to Ireland and Scotland with other Boyle family members and good friends. Here you see Alan and his brother Dave raising a couple of glasses of stout at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.
		Tonia, 65, says this about the past year: "2015 started out calmly enough with a long-awaited and enjoyable visit from John and Andromeda (my sister and her husband). Then there was the enjoyable task of planning the year's veggie garden and spring work outdoors. Natalie's and Dan's graduation was a great opportunity for all of us (including Evan) to get together and celebrate, and meet Dan's parents for the first time. "After that, things started to heat up with Natalie and Dan's wedding announcement, the loss of two of my canaries, the loss of Alan's job, our big trip to Ireland, trying to navigate Medicare, trying to help Natalie plan a wedding in a remote locale, and now looking to help her transition to Utah by January. And after that, I am hoping for a calm spell before we have any more big changes." This picture shows Tonia in our breakfast nook during a sunny day here at the Boyle Plantation.
		Natalie, 28, has lots of news to report: This spring, she finished up her dissertation and received her Ph.D. in entomology from Washington State University. She went on to work as a postdoctoral researcher at WSU, following up on her study of alfalfa leaf-cutter bees and their role in cross-pollinating genetically modified and non-GMO alfalfa crops. As Tonia mentioned, she'll be switching in January to a new position at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's bee research lab in Logan, Utah. But wait ... there's more: Natalie's boyfriend, Dan Plotnick, also received his Ph.D. in physics and went to work as a postdoc at the University of Washington. During a post-graduation vacation in the American Southwest, Dan proposed ... and Natalie accepted! Now the two doctors are planning a wedding in June at a darling little chapel near Moscow, Idaho. That's likely to be the biggest news in next year's holiday letter. This picture shows Dan and Natalie at her WSU graduation ceremony in May. (Dan wore his robes during a separate ceremony earlier in the day.)
		Evan, 25, is into his second year of study at Stanford University, working on a Ph.D. in genetics. He's associated with two labs, the Jonathan Pritchard Lab and the Greenleaf Lab, and is also in Stanford's "master of medicine" program (also known as MOM). Evan is also adding to his publication list, thanks in part to his past work at the University of Washington. He's receiving some licensing revenue from MIPgen, the software he developed. And he was part of a student group who received a seed grant from Stanford's Center for Systems Biology for a cancer research project that focuses on one of the processes behind metastasis. Here's a picture of Evan during our trip to Pullman for Natalie's graduation.
		Bijou and Rosie, our 13-year-old Tibetan spaniel and 8-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel, had a three-week vacation with our much-appreciated housesitter, Suzanne, while we were off to Ireland and Scotland. They love nothing better than a good lap-sit, which is just about our speed nowadays. Our canaries have had their ups and downs. We acquired two green canaries this year, but the male passed away after a long illness. Now the female has a yellow canary (yet to be named, although Limoni has a nice ring). Thanks so much to our friends and family for sharing good times and helping us weather tough times during the past year. This holiday season is extra-special because Alan's dad is turning 100 on the day after Christmas. Raise a toast to his good health, and to a happy, prosperous 2016!