Looking back on December and 2021 in total, it is impossible to ignore the impact that the Covid pandemic has had on our lives. We are grateful that none of our family has contracted the virus and send our best wishes to those who have not been so lucky or who face other adversities. Although we kept travel to a minimum this year, everyone managed to get some time away. Maya did an internship with Rivian in Illinois and a vacation road trip in California. Nicolai traveled to Costa Rica with the US National Amputee Soccer team for a tournament there. Kyle spent time in Hawaii for a combination vacation and work function. Jeanine attended weddings in Seattle and Indianapolis, cavorted with girlfriends during a Martha’s Vineyard retreat, spent time alone in Provincetown, and joined me for a visit with family in Minnesota. I found my way to Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Copenhagen for a combination photo adventure / international soccer tournament. For the most part, however, we have all stuck close to home and focused on work. Maya will graduate in the spring from Olin college and has accepted a position with Formlabs in Somerville. Nicolai continues to teach history in the Concord Middle School and coaches JV soccer and wrestling. Kyle is a Data Engineer working remotely for a California telehealth company. Jeanine continues to lead Open Table and has helped guide the food relief organization through tumultuous times during which food insecurity has increased and the basic operating model has had to be re-engineered to deal with Covid safety concerns. I have declared myself semi-retired but remain busy with a number of consulting gigs and the oversight of our new home construction. We have much to be thankful for and enter the new year hopeful that we will remain healthy and that Covid will fade into the background.

November was marked by great progress on the housing front. We cleared our last permitting hurdle for demolition of the River House and I was able to remove and recycle all of the appliances, furnace, and water heater as well as remove the oil tank and set up a temporary electrical service. At the Road House, I installed a Level 2 car charger in the garage, completed build-out of a proper shop in the basement, and took care of a small number of minor repairs. I also spent time working with Kyle on the renovation of his new house in Medford. With the help of the rest of the family, we gutted the basement and converted the water heater, dryer, and kitchen cooktop from gas to electric service.

Having quickly settled in, we enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving celebration with the kids and several friends at our new place while enjoying the spectacular fall foliage.

Jeanine and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary in October with a Gloucester lighthouse excursion. For the second year in a row, Covid has caused us to choose road trips over our plans for a European excursion. I made my annual trek to the north country for fall foliage and my soccer team completed another undefeated season. During the course of the month, we also found, purchased, and moved into a nearby second home where we will reside until our River House new construction is completed sometime next year.

September highlights included my 45th high school reunion, 63rd birthday, and a visit from my cousin Vinny and his family. Most of my time was spent on the design of our new home and the construction of a scale model to help us visualize the project.

We returned from Vermont this morning and decided to stretch our legs this afternoon with a walk to Newbury Field. There, I put the drone up for a photograph of an adjacent property that is scheduled for demolition next month. The house was designed by Concord architect Harry Little in 1936 for Brooks Stevens Jr. and his wife Janet Stevens. The Stevens family was known across Concord and Lowell for its role in the textile industry. The grand 8,749-square-foot European-style home, set on nearly 90 acres, was sold to new owners in 2018 for $19.2 million. The exterior of the home was used as the Laurence House in the 2019 film adaption of “Little Women” and is also being used as the location for a new horror movie that will continue filming after the house has been razed.

Nicolai’s quarantine expired and he tested negative for Covid this morning allowing him to join us in Vermont today. Hoping this would be the case we postponed our Christmas dinner by one day which also allowed a family friend, Jean Cass, to join us as well. She was delayed by yesterday’s poor driving conditions. Even if for only one day, having the whole family reunited was a wonderful gift. This is only the second time we have celebrated Christmas away from home. The first time, was in 2008 when we traveled to Costa Rica and enjoyed views of lava flowing from the Arenal Volcano on Christmas morning. Although less dramatic, our Vermont holiday retreat has been equally rewarding and proven once again that being together as a family is the only ingredient needed for our happiness.

It would not be Christmas without Jeanine’s popovers and despite the new setting, they remained on the menu for our traditional breakfast. I was in charge of preparing grapefruits and bacon, tasks that require little proficiency in actual cooking. Missing from the table and days festivities was Nicolai who is still under quarantine. We are hoping his Covid test tomorrow morning will be negative in which case he will be able to join us.

The family is celebrating Christmas this year at an old farmhouse in Vermont. Jeanine reserved the AirBnB rental property while we were still living in the River House and had insufficient space to entertain the entire crew (because I had already gutted 2/3 of the structure). At the moment, Nico has yet to join us. A teacher at his school tested positive for Covid last week and he is self-quarantining at home until the incubation period expires and will drive up on Sunday if he continues to test negative. We are sharing the farmhouse with Jeanine’s sister, Susan. Wood-burning stoves are the primary source of heat and very welcome after long strolls in the frigid air. Pictured below in the foreground on the left is the farmhouse.

In August, I returned to Iceland for the third time, part of a larger travel adventure that included the Faroe Islands and Copenhagen. I had hoped to see the Fagradalsfjall volcano erupting but had to settle for a barren lava field. Still, no trip to Iceland goes unrewarded and I got many great photographs of my favorite locations.

The Faroe Islands were spectacular and I was able to visit 7 of the 18 islands in a rented camper van with pop-up roof. I was graced with unusually good weather and pressed my drone into constant service, the only way to capture the full grandeur of the islands.

The final leg of my journey was spent in Copenhagen where I met up with my soccer team from the US to compete in an international tournament. The perfect end to a wonderful vacation.

With Covid risk continuing to decline, I started to do more short-range car travel including trips to New York, Connecticut (to watch the US Women’s Soccer Team play Mexico), and New Jersey (to watch Nico’s New England Amputee Soccer Team play New York).

On the Fourth of July, I visited Fort Independence on Castle Island to watch the USS Constitution, the world’s oldest floating ship, as members of the crew performed a 21-gun salute to celebrate the holiday.

By June, the threat of Covid was ebbing and both Jeanine and I had received two doses of the vaccine. We traveled to Minnesota to see my mother, brother, and his family. The visit was all too short but immensely enjoyable. Later in the month, we celebrated with Kyle who purchase his first home in Medford, MA. The real estate market since the onset of Covid has been nothing short of insane. Kyle spent months of diligent research, countless home visits, and several unsuccessful bids before landing a gem.

Matt Baird has volunteered with Open Table since he was in high school demonstrating much greater responsibility and caring than most teenagers earning him the respect and admiration of the entire staff. When he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, members of the Open Table staff and volunteers were there for him. When asked by the Make-A-Wish foundation what wish they could fulfill for him, he asked for a donation to Open Table. Rarely does one encounter such selflessness and generosity in a person so young and with his own challenges to overcome. This morning, Jeanine accepted his donation in a small ceremony at the Open Table pantry which she asked me to photograph. The money received will be used to buy an additional freezer which will be playfully named in his honor, the Matt “Brrrd” Freezer.

May is an excellent time of year for birding. Many species migrate back from their winter homes, it is warm enough to enjoy being outdoors, and trees have not yet leafed out making it much easier to spot and photograph subjects. I was fortunate to discover an owl’s nest which I visited often over the course of the month and got to watch as a pair of owlets grew up and eventually fledged. Equally exciting was learning about a bald eagle nest located less than a mile from our new house. It fills me with great joy that these majestic once-endangered birds have made such a strong recovery. A powerful reminder of our ability as humans to harm our natural world as well as our capacity to help it heal.

May was also the month in which Nicolai graduated with a Master’s Degree in Education and he now teaches history at the Concord Middle School.

During April, outdoor socializing became the norm to reduce the risk of Covid transmission. Our fire pit, fashioned from a large copper cauldron once used by the Roselyn Bakery of Indianapolis to make caramel corn, was pressed into service on a routine basis. We welcomed Jeanine’s sister Lauren and her husband Bob to our new home, I hosted my soccer team for one of our post-match parties, and the kids joined us for dinner on most Sunday nights.