Merry Christmas 2016 - catching up on 3 years worth

Russell and Lowe letter 2014 - 2016 (yes, three years worth)

We figured after two moves, one to a different state, that it is time for an update to our friends who are not on Facebook.  Over the past 16 months we have downsized twice, and followed the methodology of “The Art of DeCluttering”.  We have a NO JOY box still as we continue to dispense of those material items which no longer bring us Joy.

Our final move to Vermont was a quick decision but one we are both delighted with.  We had moved in Sept 2015 to a condo in Somerville MA and we loved the inside space but neither of us felt comfortable in the neighborhood.  We joined the UU church in Arlington MA and jumped in with both feet, however, we both realized that our ultimate destination would be Burlington VT and the UU church there.   Why would we attach/detach and then attach to another church?  With 4 brothers and their families and son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter in VT we realized that being close to all that family for both of us is very important. If we could find a small condo in Burlington walkable to the UU church that would be ideal.  We quickly found the perfect place, a small condo, at 161 St Paul Street #301 Burlington VT 05401.  From our living room we have a view of a slice of Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks. Sally regularly posts pictures she takes of the sunset taken from the shared roof deck which has an even better view one floor above our unit.  We are three blocks from Lake Champlain, 5 minute walk to the Church St Marketplace and 10 minutes to the First UU Society of Burlington.  We think we may get down to one car very soon.  We will always keep Coniston in South Hero which is a 30 minute drive from downtown Burlington.  

As we write the pictures are half mounted on the walls and the books still sit in boxes awaiting bookshelves to be built. The move also triggered another serious round of downsizing. Goodbye to Rodney’s old exercise books and and university notes some of them going back to 1968. It was funny to read some of those old English essays and surprisingly interesting to read some of those old geography notes about places I have now actually visited or at least flown over.

Weddings have occupied many weekends in the last three years, the most precious being Bethany and Bryan’s in August 2015.  We also traveled to London, Minnesota and twice to Colorado for weddings of friends and family.  Two Star Island friends got married as well in Maryland and New Jersey.  Our most unique wedding was of the woman that Sally has mentored in the past and is now a friend, Mildred.  She is Hispanic and we were 2 of 5 caucasians at the wedding which was all in Spanish with very interesting and wonderful traditions.  

We have traveled, a lot, The big trips were:  Cuba (Nov 2016) Turkey (Oct 2015) and Morocco (Oct 2014).  We have discovered Grand Circle/Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) and we have not yet been disappointed by the guide or the tour, in fact all three trips have transformed us. Shorter trips were to Portland Oregon and a road trip to Columbus Ohio, both to attend the General Assembly of our Unitarian Universalist denomination.  The result is that we are more active in the Black Lives Matter movement.  As an aside, our speaker at Star Island this year was Chuck Collins who wrote “Born on Third Base”.  His talks and his book have caused us to get involved in income inequality.  

Extended family has been more present in the last few years as well.  The CO/MN weddings connected us closer to our first cousins who we grew up with in Colorado.  As well in August 2016 we had a deGanahl reunion of all Mom’s first cousins’ families.  It was held in Vermont and along with getting to know them, some for the first time, we had some wonderful events at Shelburne Farms, at our houses and an evening cruise on Lake Champlain.  The next one is scheduled for Colorado in 2 years.  In between, we are continuing to connect to that extended family.

Sally joined the Mystic Chorale in September 2015 and sang with them for 4 seasons.  Rod joined and sang for the Gospel season and Spring 2016.  Finding a group to sing with in addition to the Choir at church, will be important to keep this part of our lives fed.

We continue to be mesmerized grandparents as we watch Zuzu evolve into the most amazing little person.  90% of our camera roll is pictures of her.  Since we moved to VT we have had 3 sleepovers with her.  There is nothing like that three year old body yelling her name for you as she leaps into your arms.  Pretend play is very important right now and I just love the stories she comes up with.  One game was just putting beanie babies into a large orange pail, and taking them out, for at least an hour.

2016 was a year in which Rodney matured as an artist, moving from charcoals and graphite to oils. He now feels comfortable calling himself an artist and a realist. Highlights have included getting his own studio, getting recognized for “best drawing” in a local art show, he even ventured into a 4 day class for drawing and sculpting children. Trying to draw and sculpt an 18 month old, 3, 5 and 8 year live models just went to put the difficulties of drawing live adult models in perspective.

Sally continue to volunteer, knit and quilt.  When we moved to our Somerville condo, I put my quilting supplies into a rolling “kitchen” cart.  I can put it away in a closet and roll it out during a project.  As we write this I am knitting Grandma Katie’s Christmas stocking for extended family members who don’t have them yet.  Finding someone in the next generation will be important so that this pattern and tradition continue.  

As baseball fans we have started to visit all the ballparks in North America. We already have 5 under the belt from previous years, this year we added Indians, Orioles and Nationals (we are not going to humor the corporate sponsors by using those names). I can’t say that we are bringing luck to the home team whenever we go.

This has been a tough year politically and the resulting divisiveness of recent events.  We are active protecting our beliefs and values.  It was surreal to be in Cuba the night of the election and to try to find a Cuban newspaper the next day. We finally did buy one, but there are not newspapers lying around as we are used to.

Whenever we count our blessings, family and friends as always remain at the top of the list.  Our house in South Hero sleeps 10 so we are always welcome to visits either with us or you can stay there yourself without us.  May the uncertainty of our divisive politics dissipate and may LOVE prevail in our tattered and torn world.  It is worth imagining this today and tomorrow.

Cuba and the election and newspapers

It was a surreal experience to be in Cuba for the recent election.  A friend said as we left for Cuba "Make sure you get a newspaper the day after the election!".  I said that to our tour group the day before the election and someone said "Have you seen any newspapers lying around?".  In fact, there are none.  We saw one newspaper our entire trip, "Granma", published by the government.  It is named after the boat used by the revolutionaries in the 50s.


The morning after the election Rod went to look for one outside the hotel with no luck.  Fortunately all of our tour colleagues were like minded and the guide knew that there would be different group energy that day.  We were distracted by the results, still going through the stages of anger, denial, and bargaining.  None of us got to acceptance that first day.  In fact some of us, started with a mojito at noon and finished with a margarita at 10:30 PM.

We toured Old Havana that morning and at about 10:30 we saw someone with a paper and asked him where he had gotten it.   Judy ran into hotels asking but none were to be found.  A man pointed down a street and about 20 minutes later we spotted someone selling them so we all bought one.  We stopped mid tour and our guide Yuni and our SIL Judy read the paper to us, translating from Spanish.  The article was below the fold and pretty generic.  Since Cubans don't have cable TV and this is the only newspaper we saw you can only imagine what Cubans, and the rest of the world for that matter,  think of us.

Yuni reading Granma

Judy reading Granma

After the fact, we realized that we were standing right in front of a Mosque while we were reading the news.  Many Cubans came up to us that day expressing their condolences.  One professor said at the end of his lecture "We should be able to vote in your election because you have some much influence over our Country".  He has a point.

Plaque of the Mosque