Happy Holidays to all our friends and family.

Apologies for this being so late.  We hope this finds all our friends and families happy and healthy.  We've had a busy and exciting year.  Here's our annual quick rundown...

Springtime brought forth births on both sides of the family; Andrew's cousin Zoe had a beautiful baby boy, Noah Ari and Teresa's nieces Cathy and Melissa each had a baby boy.  Summer gave us  both joy and grief.  Andrew's grandfather finally lost the battle he's waged several years with Parkinson's Disease.  The family got together in Chicago and relived some wonderful memories.  We went to several weddings this year.  Andrew's cousin Rob married his long-time love Erika in New York.  We got to see quite a few of the sights of New York in between wedding festivities; the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Central Park and fine dining in SoHo.  In September, we joined the Piercy family in celebrating the 95th birthday of Teresa's grandmother, Momo. Shortly after we flew to Boca Raton to visit Andrew's Grandmother, Rose where we drove down the coast with Rose's helper Yolanda and her husband Raul to see the nightlife of Ft Lauderdale.  We also went to a funky restaurant with a Polynesian theme; hula dancers, fire dancers and flaming drinks and desserts.  In November, Grandma Arbeiter came to visit us in Atlanta and we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving feast at the Cohen's (Koransky family friends).  We also went to two other weddings of close friends this year; Dan and Ellen Lemkin and Herb and Lisa Bastin.

In January we lead a Sierra Club trip to Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia and also completed the 23 mile Pine Mountain Trail in middle Georgia.  We went with Andrew's mother Ellen to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains in June and saw lots of wildlife including deer, a bear and a misguided bat that impaled itself on our windshield wiper.  In August, we celebrated our first anniversary at Nature's Home in North Carolina in a yurt off a short four-wheel drive road.  We went into Dillsboro, NC and took a train ride in an open rail car.  It was a lovely scenic twilight ride that was quite romantic.  We started hiking sections of the Appalachian Trail through Georgia but we have only gotten to about 3 miles from the GA border.  Winter brought us back to Cumberland Island for a less than happy occasion; for the wake after the death of a friend that lived on the island.  We sold our camper and bought an A-liner Truck Cabin shell.  In a mad rush, we built out the interior and fixed it up for our holiday Florida road trip. We spent Christmas with the Piercy clan, visited the Coral Castle and South Beach with Grandma Rose, spent a night camping in the Everglades among the mosquitoes, celebrated a crazy New Year's in Key West, and finally spending some time in St. Augustine.

Andrew’s company changed names from Fast-Talk to Nexidia and the company is doing very well, finalizing a third (and hopefully final!) round of funding this past November. He’s been there over three years and likes the challenges that the company's growth provides.  Teresa's still with the Miller-Clapperton Partnership.  She really likes the people she’s working for and working with.

Last January we started building a porch onto our home.  We finished it around April and we really enjoyed using it during the warmer months.  Simon still goes with us hiking, camping, and backpacking.  Fred, Teresa’s 15 year old cat, is still around and spoiled rotten.  It's taken Fred an entire year to get really used to Simon. We know they have "words" on occasion when Simon comes to us with a scratch across his nose.  We are still involved with the Sierra Club as Outings Chairs for our local group.  For some strange reason, they even gave us a "Volunteers of the Year" awards! We hope to lead more exciting trips next year. 

Hope everything is good with all of you.  We wish you all a very Happy and Peaceful Holiday, happy trails!

Peace,

Teresa & Andrew
Fred, Terra, & Simon

The background monologue is from Joe Frank's Pilgrim, which we heard on an NPR special, Let's Eat.  It made us bust out laughing on our way to a pre-Thanksgiving feast.