Russ says his year was the same as always - working for Intel, and worrying about being laid off again. Thankfully he wasn't laid off, and this year his year had more in it than working. We went to San Antonio to see the eclipse (amazing!), he visited Jason's family for a couple of days, and then spent a weekend in Utah with his dad in the fall.
Russ also had a 4 week sabbatical in 2024, and we added a vacation week to spend 5 weeks traveling. We spent time in Iceland, where we loved the icebergs, appreciated the waterfalls but agreed that most were equalled in Oregon, and both declined the opportunity to eat horse steaks.
Then we spent a couple of days in Switzerland, hoping our lost luggage would be found (it was!) walking around and appreciating the beautiful cities, eating lots of Lindt chocolate, and falling in love with the color of glacial rivers and lakes.
After Switzerland Russ had covid so he spent several days sleeping while I roasted in Rome with our friend Alisyn and her sister. After Rome we went to Venice, where our friend Ken had finished teaching his study abroad class. We stayed in Venice for almost a week and loved the water taxis, the beautiful buildings, watching a glass blower work, the ocean at Lido, gelato, gelato, and gelato. Venice was just as beautiful as the pictures show, but with approximately one million more people. But so beautiful.
After Venice we spent several days walking around Florence. Our peak experiences there were climbing the Duomo (we survived!), attending mass in the Duomo (hot!), and seeing the tour de France go over the Ponte Vecchio bridge from a window in the Uffizi Gallery. Also the fact that I managed to not get covid from Russ was a pretty excellent part of this trip. Let's just say there was a lot of masking going on.
We spent 2 days an on incredible agritourismo farm in southern Italy, then spent almost a week in a tiny apartment with no wifi on Sicily. While there I found a beach with more sea glass than sand and I'm still trying to figure out how that could happen! Also Mt. Etna erupted the night before we flew into Sicily, so now among my souvenirs I have a little bag of Mount Etna ash scraped off of the sidewalk.
Russ and I flew home through London and so we made time for a river cruise tour of London and watched Les Mis in the third row on the West End. Also our suitcase handle broke off and something almost exploded in the suitcase at the airport, so that was exciting.
After having some testing done last year we become convinced that my sleep problems were due to mold in our home, so after the girls were both gone in the fall Russ started demolition in our bathroom. Other than the flood that happened in minute one of the demo, the rest of it went well though slowly. We found a lot of rotten wood around the space previously known as the shower, and once it was all replaced my sleep started improving! Ironically when we had the carpet replaced in our bedroom just before we moved back downstairs when the kids were all coming at Christmas, we found a lot more mold under the bedroom floor and in the wall. So this process is still ongoing. We are still putting the bathroom back together, and when I started writing this letter we were waiting for the roofers to come fix the leak that has apparently existed in the roof the whole time we've lived here. Now we're waiting on bids for a new roof, and then after that's taken care of we will address the mold in the walls of the bedroom.
My 2024 was really amazing. It was a North Carolina book club reunion year, and we met this time in Dallas. (I went to the JFK Museum in the inn the book depository, then later read Steven King's JFK book, and listened to the Rob Reiner podcast about JFK. Oh how I have thoughts!) In the fall I went to the Faith Matters conference and also an LGBTQ conference in Provo. I also went to visit Jason's family and spent some time in Durham since we didn't get to go there this summer. I've been lucky to spend time with many people that I love this year!
My writing group is still going strong and is one of the bright spots in my world, and I've started going to an in person book club in the next ward. Cindy Lynn's family and Josh still come over for Sunday dinner every week, which is still a delight. With Josh's help (and strength) I've put new floors in our closet and half bathroom, and then Russ also helped us with the living room floor. I'm enjoying the construction, especially since my sleep has improved so much.
Because of our Europe trip the family wasn't together at the beach this summer, so everyone came home at Christmas time. We had a great time together, eating, singing, playing games, and talking. We are always so grateful for our family.
