Season’s greetings! We hope that 2022 has been good to you.

The major news for this year is Frank’s mom passed away in August at the age of 86. Frank had gone down for a different funeral in May, and felt lucky to have seen her; that was the only time since the beginning of the pandemic. The whole family was able to make it down for Kiyo’s funeral. Frank’s dad stayed in the house, and you can still feel her presence there. You can see information about her service, including photos.

We ended up not making it to Mochitsuki in December 2021. Our first vacation of the year was staying at Leavenworth, WA to do some snowshoeing. We got commanding views of the city, and snowshoed along Icicle Creek.

Melody had a book group event in Toronto, so we spent time in the city in July. We went a few days early so she could also play tourist for a while. It had been about 25 years since were in the city, so it was fun to get acquainted with it again.

In September, we did a road trip with Melody’s sister Celeste. We started out at Mt. Rainier National Park, went to Yakima to be with their mom, and then to Spokane to be with their uncle.

The last major trip of the year was once again in California. We spent several days in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, then went to Los Angeles where Melody went to a translation conference. Frank split his time visiting family and playing tourist in the Downtown area.

Our garden kept us busy. The big producers this year were the raspberries and blueberries. Lots of jams and desserts.

Frank continues to work at the University of Washington in the central IT department. Even though it’s a couple of years away, retirement feels close. Several other people have retired in the past year or so, many who started around the same time.

Melody’s German-to-English translation still keeps her busy. She also did quite a bit of cross-country skiing and hiking with friends and larger groups.

Kellen has been doing more traveling for his airlift transportation company, and really enjoys the work he’s doing. Noël keeps busy with graphic design, and continues to work on custom playing dice.

Tynor is kept very busy at Amazon in their web services group. He seems to have done well with the transition from working for a small start-up to a large corporation. We’ve enjoyed getting to know his girlfriend Mallory, who works at a local biotech company.

Best wishes for the holiday season, and hope 2023 is a great year for you!