Christmas "Card" 2011

Friends and Family,

We missed our letter last year so here is a whirlwind travel through our two years.  When we last wrote our letter we were headed to Thailand to visit Bethany who was in the middle of a Comparative Religion and Culture Junior year abroad program.  Our ten days with her were wonderful.  Fortunately the three of us will never tire of visiting temples since we went to many of them in Chang Mai, Thailand and Siem Reap, Cambodia. Rodney still can't quite get over the whole Angkor Wat World Heritage site.

In January of 2010, Rodney joined our church choir, Sally followed him a few months later and they have been regular tenor and alto ever since.  In February we had two great adventures in Vermont.  We skated across a beautiful frozen lake for two miles to Knight Island and back as part of the Great Ice.  We were joined on this spectacular day, by George and Judy, who moved to Burlington Vt, December 2009, and our Lexington friends, the Svenson/Jas clan.  We also hosted the Coniston Winter Olympics complete with cross country skiing down our mound and a fox and geese game in the snow.

In April, we travelled to Vero Beach for a weekend visit with Mom and Charlie.  Mom and I discovered during this trip that we can carry on several conversations at once and know which one, the other one is in.  The men in our family, who cannot, were so patient with us that weekend and always, as we jumped from subject to subject, sometimes mid-sentence.

May took us to Bermuda on a cruise to celebrate 25 years of knowing each other.  We visited the Robin Hood Pub where we first met, and went to several beautiful beaches, all on the excellent bus/ferry system of Bermuda.  We really relaxed during our days at sea and did our laps of the deck for exercise, to work off some of the calories we were taking in at meals.

On our way to a wedding in California of some Star Island friends Bethany and I stopped off in Denver to visit a Theology school Bethany is considering applying to and we were able to get to know the city a little before we moved on to join Sally for a few days in San Francisco.

September brought us one of the happiest events of the last two years when Chris and Meg were married in a wonderful ceremony held in a large tent on our property in Vermont. The weather was perfect and the whole event was even better. All of Sally's family was able to attend including all of Chris's cousins which was amazing considering they are almost all away at college. Six of his English family were able to attend and it was the first time they had ever met some of his American relatives. A large group of Meg's Moore family with Sally's large Russell clan on top of a Lowe and Swartzbaugh contingent added up to a very good time had by all.

The most significant event in our lives for the whole two years was probably Sally's retirement in December 2010.  It was a hard decision to leave a great place to work, but a year later I am glad I made this decision. You can always find out what I am up to, including what I am up to in retirement by going to my blog, sally-alwaysaskingwhy.blogspot.com.

Another very significant event our lives was the graduation of Bethany from Global College in May this year and her return from Brooklyn saw the arrival of Shakes the wonder cat who she adopted because she though his neurological problems would hinder his adoption by anyone else. However he endears himself to everyone with his inability to behave like a cat physically while at the same time has the same 'world revolves around me' attitude of all cats

This year we took a trip to visit with Rod's English family, especially Olive and Winter our young grandnieces who we had yet to meet in person. It was a delight visiting them and the rest of the family many of whom hadn't been able to make it over for Chris and Meg's wedding. We also took the opportunity while on the way to the Northeast to take a couple of side-trips to visit American friends Andy, Miriam and Jake who had moved to Islington so we were introduced to a part of London we would not normally have seen. And we also we very happy to reconnect with friends Anne and David in Aylesbury who we are ashamed to say we had not seen in 15 years or more.

After a sad trip to Sally's Uncle Chuck's memorial service in Nebraska in June we agreed on the spot to return later in the year to catch up with as many of the Colorado cousins as we could. We kept that promise by returning in September and spent most of our time being hosted by Sally's cousin Nancy, who she had grown up with in Yampa, and husband Rex. We basically shadowed these beef ranchers as they did their daily work and we agreed that our lifestyles are about as far apart as it is possible to get. We were also really pleased to get to know Patrick, Sally's nephew a little better. His parents do the beef ranching and he does the crop farming. Having spent time with the military in Iraq he came back with all sorts of ideas about how to prevent turning his land into the same dustbowl he saw in the Middle East. Sally and I were captivated as we learned about how 'no-till' farming can improve the organic content of his soils and improve its moisture content. The trip was enhanced by a wonderful canoe  trip down the Niobrara River paddling alongside a swimming beaver, barely missing being trampled by a scared 4 point buck and taking an unexpected bath (Nancy and Rod’s canoe) after a disagreement with a downed tree.

We end the year in a very happy place and as always continue to count our blessings. One kid happily married and now living in Coniston, our Vermont home where we can still visit and stay in the loft whenever we want. Another kid launched with a nice job working as a legal assistant, while she applies to Theology schools, and living fairly close by so we see her regularly. Sally is happily retired and fills each day with friends, health and hobbies. Rodney is happy in his work and has found his artistic medium in charcoal and pastels.

Our Christmas wishes for a Happy New Year extend to you and your family, the economy and our government, and an ever present hope for world peace encouraged by the Arab Spring tempered by a power shift in North Korea.