2012 Christmas Letter- Year in Review

2012 was a year where we were very consciously counting our blessings. You, our friends are many of them.

The first part of the year was a blur.  I do remember that we had a HUGE decision looming.  If Rod's job with Fidelity got moved to Raleigh-Durham, NC, would we move with it?  We both said, we can live anywhere for 2 years, so when the announcement was made in March, we were pretty gung-ho.  When Rod finally got his  paperwork, the deal to follow his job to NC was about the same as the deal to stay until September 2013, and then leave Fidelity with a nice retention bonus and severance package.  The latter is what he is doing.  The big project of 7 years was installed two weekends ago, and he will wrap up and transfer his knowledge of almost 25 years to others who are staying. He doesn't know what the future will hold after September next year but he's not yet comfortable using the word 'retirement' to describe it.

Rod in front of Fidelity NC - down 30 lbs

We spent a nice weekend in NC, at a beautiful resort, fed well by Fidelity and explored some housing.  We even attended the UU Church in Raleigh and liked the feel of that.  We count our blessings to have had options.

Early in the year Rodney got serious about his health and became a 5 day a week regular at the local 'Y' eventually getting up to about 20 miles a week on the treadmill there. His weight was down about 30 lbs by the time he blew his Achilles' tendon over the July 4th week because Sally was away and he felt he could push his limits. The Achilles is almost back in shape now and thankfully the ellipticals at the 'Y' allowed him to get my exercise fix and keep the weight down. Next year the plan is to drop another 30lbs. Our health is a significant blessing and Rodney is trying not to ignore that.

In June, for our 25th wedding anniversary (one of our biggest blessings) we traveled a few days early to our denomination's Annual General Assembly in Phoenix and went up to the Grand Canyon.  OMG, I will never forget the view as we walked around a bend in the path, of the immense view across the Canyon.  We had a nice visit there and did some sight seeing in Phoenix before our business meeting started. The Canyon and Sedona are places we will definitely visit more in the future.   We would NEVER live in Phoenix.  Too damn hot.  We attended a baseball game that was 86 degrees inside while it was 117 degrees outside.



That is the Colorado River

For Sally the  most impactful part of our meeting was a vigil attended by 3000 other Unitarian Universalists at night at Joe Arpaio's Tent City.  Google him if his name is not familiar.  We were warned that there would be counter protesters, who would legally be carrying guns, which with the recent elementary shooting, makes me even more nervous.  This theme of immigration rights flows through the year for Sally as she does her small little part to try to change our broken immigration policies. Rodney participated in a volunteer opportunity to help resident aliens prepare their application for Citizenship - something he was doing himself a few short years ago. In the end,  even though we had hundreds of people lined up for hours before the work began we had such an amazing response from the UU's at GA that we had more volunteers than were needed.

Sisters in DC

Family, represents so many of our blessings. A Sisters visit in September caused us to take a road trip to Philly and DC.  We stayed two blocks from the Capitol and walked a dozen miles each day seeing all the free museums along the mall.  We were impacted by the new memorials since we were in DC 19 years ago.  Where does the time go?  We had dinner one night with Sally's cousin Kit, who the Sisters had met two years prior at Chris and Meg's wedding.



NYC Girls Weekend

NYC visits were plentiful in the fall, with joys and sorrows celebrated.  A dear friend's memorial service was held in late September at All Souls Church.  Two weeks later we met in Brooklyn/Manhattan for Sister-in-Law Judy's BIG birthday.  Brother George surprised her with all of her three siblings and spouses.  The next week Sally had a Star girls weekend in NYC, and escaped the city by bus right before Hurricane Sandy arrived.

Life Size Settlers

Singing at Thanksgiving, words on ceiling

Visits to VT and Coniston are still frequent, and always include a family gathering.  In fact, we drive on Christmas day to Vermont where George and Judy are entertaining the entire family for dinner.  For Thanksgiving, Mike and Peg did the same at their house in VT.  Our lawn in Vermont was the second installation of a life size Settlers of Catan game.  With the help of fertilizer, the game board is permanently in the front lawn.



Two generations

Chamber Crew on Star with Amy

Other life events, Chris and Meg bought their first house in Essex Junction VT after living at our house in VT for 10 months.  They also traveled with George and Judy and Mom and Charlie to Alaska.  It was a very special three generation trip. 


Bethany started Divinity school part time, switched jobs to the Director of Social Action at the Concord MA UU church and she, her boy friend Bryan and Shakes the wondercat, moved into a cute third floor apartment in Watertown Square. 




Sally continues to fill her time with volunteer works, tutoring, hospice  and now immigrant rights.  She has done a little bit of paid work this year and will probably continue some executive coaching, when it can fit into her schedule.  She had two injuries this year.  Tripping up the patio steps in July caused a very dramatic knee injury and falling down the same steps in November broke her wrist.  She now has a piece of metal in her wrist holding her radial bone together.

Distant Cousin Linda who joined us on Star this year

She continues to serve on the Board of Star Island Corporation and traveled four times to the Island this year. 2 Board meetings and our regular week the second week of July.  A distant cousin, Linda, joined us on Star this year and it was great to reconnect.  In August, Sally worked as a volunteer on Star in the chamber crew with her friend Amy.  We make a mean hospital corner and boy can we bleach a toilet!  We were also at least 30 years older than the college ago kids who helped us to learn the job.  And the sunsets were magnificent.

This Rodney joined the board of Communities Without Borders which is the group who organised the trip he and Bethany took to Zambia in 2005. It now supports almost 1,000 children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. If you want to see more go visit communitieswithoutborders.org to see what we do.

As we continue to count our own blessings our hearts go out to others less fortunate. This year mental health seems to have woven it's way into our lives. The psychotic who Rodney and others had to hold down for an hour on a boat ride out to Star Island, suicides of colleagues and friends family members, and of course the current horrors in Sandy Hook at the school a young adult friend of ours attended as a child.

Every year as we sit down to write our letter/blog post, there seems to be something happening in the world that is unfathomable and this year is no exception.  Newtown, Portland, Syria, Aurora, gun control to name a few.  We were happy with the Nov 6th results but realize that almost half of the voters in the US, were not happy.  Our hope and prayer for 2013 is to work together and be kind to each other. Our blessings are many, we hope yours will be also in 2013.