| Roe Family 2016 Christmas Letter |
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Quiet year. Everyone's healthy. No vacation trips. No graduations or marriages. Everyone just moving along in their life. Weather in New England was very dry this year as was so much of the country. We had about a third less rain than normal. Reservoirs are low and some towns limiting water usage.
Mark R. had the most interesting year of our clan. Lego continues to get a lot of attention in the news and as one of only eight Master Model Builders in the world he was part of some interesting projects and trips. In July he worked at the week-long Comic Con in San Diego. This is a huge event and he was video interviewed a number of times. Then he and Debbie took some vacation time in California before going to San Francisco for the presentation of the life-size figure he designed and built of San Francisco Giant pitcher Madison Bumgarner. This was his second year in Giant Stadium as he did a similar model last year of their star catcher Buster Posey. This fall he and other designers created 50 Lego gingerbread houses representing each state for a White House Christmas display. Each Christmas their card chronicles their year and is on our website.
Meanwhile the granddaughters continue to do well at college. Annie is in her junior year at the University of Connecticut in Engineering where she has also been dating a senior for the past year. Katie is a sophomore at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC where she is studying business and chose to major in insurance without realizing that her father and grandfather were insurance men. Must be in her DNA. She had a summer internship in her home town and will be working there for six weeks during winter break. Adam (16) is a junior in high school and for his birthday in June got a meat smoker, with which he has been cooking a variety of meats for our get togethers. This fall he also got his drivers license. With three young drivers and one car to share there is a lot of maneuvering going on. Adam still loves tennis, playing for the second year on the school varsity. He and Donna play regularly in the off season.
Our little girl hit the big 5-0 this fall. We're starting to feel old. She continues to work as a teacher in the prison system as she and Mark C. still plan to move to Tennessee in 2018 when Adam and Annie graduate from school. Warmer weather and lower taxes are the lure. That will be a major adjustment for all of us.
The week before Thanksgiving Anne and Steve Shay visited from North Carolina. It was an opportunity for a larger family gathering and my sister Linda and her husband John joined us too. The visit rekindled my interest in family history and Anne and I are working on a bio of Ernest Roe - her father and my grandfather. I'd put genealogy aside years ago for holistic and town projects. Our health is good, no operations or major procedures this year. Jan continues to do scrap booking with one group of friends and Wednesday lunch excursions with another group. She still does the family cooking for most of the major holidays, although she talked Donna into doing Thanksgiving for the first time.
My ongoing holistic community activities include maintaining the Conscious CT website, hosting a breakfast each month, weekly Tai Chi class, and working with the Alliance for Holistic Living, an organization that provides free monthly education programs. Got away in June to Saratoga Springs, NY for the national Dowser's Conference. No, I don't dowse but got to hang out for a week with some really interesting people.
Much of my time is spent working with town organizations, including facilitating a group of 13 local nonprofits. I enjoy digging into local history and am helping to get a couple of books published with the local historical society. I maintain a half dozen websites and Facebook pages for various organizations, do an occasional newsletter, write four short articles a quarter on town activities and organizations for a town publication, and have started a blog. You can reach us at Jon.Roe@comcast.net. We'd love to hear from you. Jon & Jan
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