Merry Christmas!

Well, it’s that time of year again. And before I was able to relax and write this post, I had to get these thoughts out. Now I’m ready. And, like last year, I’m going to let pictures tell most of the story.

First off, there’s this Christmas photo.

The story this tells is that Andy and I are now officially, completely, empty nesters. This is our kid family photo. The other story this tells is the personality of our dogs. There is Koda, who is reluctantly obeying (you can tell by the look in her eyes that the minute I release her from this silliness she is out of here). Then there is Columbus, whose head is too big for this hat (which is why it kept falling off), and who would rather play than cooperate.

Lots of news this year, including….

Kelly and Greg graduated from Northeastern. They moved to NYC, where they both have jobs. Greg works in the financial industry for Credit Suisse, and Kelly works in event planning for Share Our Strength, hired to help plan the annual NYC wine and food festival charity event which raises money to fight hunger.

Alex has expanded to a financial position within the start up company – Nine Point Medical – that he’s been working at for a couple of years. He lives in Brighton, MA, so we still get to see him relatively often. Yay. (Love being an empty nester but live for visits from our kids.)

Tracey and Roberto got married! It was a a beautiful wedding, in an intimate country setting. They have settled in Connecticut, where Tracey got a job as a surgical technician at Cornell University Veterinary Specialists. Loves her job. Berto is working on starting his own business. And this is the other big news concerning them:

And us! Tracey is pregnant! The baby is due on my birthday, June 8th, however Kelly (born on June 4th) is convinced the baby is going to come early. We are all looking forward to being mommy, daddy, nana, papa, auntie, and uncle.

After the wedding, Tracey and Roberto headed off to their honeymoon. The rest of our gang (and Pinky) headed off to Hawaii. It was great to finally see Hawaii, and visit Pinky’s sister and Andy’s cousin, and we had lots of active fun. We visited Oahu and Kauai and hiked, body surfed, rode on horseback, cruised in boats, body surfed, swam with sea turtles, jumped off rock cliffs (not me), body surfed, laid on the beach, ate well and, oh, did I mention we body surfed?

Andy continues to stay active, playing basketball and tennis and even running races when asked by his daughter, #137! He keeps up with his investing and stock picking hobbies and the company he moved to 2 1/2 years ago – Reliance Engineering – had a great year. He’s happy he made the move from Mayfield Plastics, which was recently sold.

This year I furthered my interest in real food and sustainable gardening by taking a 3-month weekend course called Permaculture FEAST. We learned the principles and ethics of permaculture design (people care, earth care, fair share) and applied what we learned to a redesign of an urban space. I’m looking forward to applying what I learned to our own property, creating a mini-farm to supply our food and medicine. Yes, I said medicine. I am really fascinated by the medicinal and health properties of herbs, which this class helped surface. Not sure where this journey will take me next, but I’m enjoying the ride.

Some other images from 2013…

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS from our house to yours.

 

Wedding photos courtesy of Mike Nymen Photography

Permaculture FEAST photos courtesy of their Facebook page.