This Year's Christmas Letter

I am sitting and listening to Jean playing Santa Claus is Coming to Town for about the 7,000th time, and I still love it. As years go, 2021 has definitely had some big ups and big downs, but it certainly didn't waste any time getting to December.

There were scares. We were in lockdown early in the year. We washed our groceries and stayed indoors and watched CNN too much. We overfed our anxiety, and lost our cool occasionally. It was a bad time for most of us and everybody deals with their unresolved issues in different ways. I tend to overeat, some people take over the Capitol. To each his own.

Rob also got the COVID in September, He caught it at a Jim Gaffigan concert, which was funny. (The concert, not the COVID) He had a full recovery after a lot of rigamarole with the healthcare system, even in Loudoun County. All of us were vaccinated and are now boostered, and looking forward to successfully fighting off whatever else is out there mutating away in the bodies of those who thought that whole Capitol thing was a good idea.

We also had some big positives this year. We snuck in a trip to Greece, right in probably the best window to travel in late July that was the trip of a lifetime where we met some new friends in Athens, saw some islands, Paros and Santorini, and breathed a deep sigh full of Mediterranean air after not traveling for a long, long time. Looking back over my wall calendar, the first half of the year looks like a blank space, while the second half saw Greece, a Thanksgiving weekend in Aruba, and if all goes well a Christmas trip to Arizona to see family. Less travel than usual, but we were grateful to have the chance to do even these.

Having all that time not being on vacation apparently made us productive. Aly's firm was acquired and she, herself, was promoted! Though she didn't live with us for as long as we would have liked in 2021, she did also visit quite often. Jean started a new job with Accenture in June, which keeps her just as busy as she likes. Rob left a long, 9 month career at Amazon to join the FinOps Foundation, in a move to the dream job working with the best people and friends. And Jack has continued his string of academic success in 9th and 10th grades. He played on his club team who won their division in the Spring, and he made the varsity soccer team as a freshman in the Spring as well at Loudoun County High School. Jean managed the club side, and with all the COVID changes and precautions it was a wonder things happened at all, but it all seemed to work.

So as the world once again looks toward a challenging time, from forces natural and man-made, we are taking a deep breath again, and steeling ourselves for what's to come. There will surely be more challenges, and there will surely be more triumphs. But whatever is to come, we hope to see more of you than we have, we hope you find more love and more fun than the other stuff, and we hope never to see you at the Capitol.

Love, The Martins