Happy holidays to you and yours! Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, etc... and best wishes for a happy and healthy 2025.
There's more to say than will fit on the back of a little card so here's a "year in review" from the Gasch family:
Lynn and Scott both retired this year! Lynn was at Microsoft for 15 years and left in January. Scott left his job at Warner Music Group in February. We're having fun so far and feel lucky and blessed to be able to hang it up and enjoy life.
Alex is in his second year of college at Virginia Tech where he's studying finance. He goes hiking on the weekends with the "Outdoor Club", played on an intermural flag football team with friends, and went to a few football games. He made the dean's list his freshman year and his grades have been very good this year too. Alex loves skiing; he went on a big trip to Tahoe with friends over the holidays last year, has another trip planned for Whistler this year, and even gets in a few turns with his old parents at Stevens Pass, WA. All in all, he seems to have a good work-life balance, is making new friends, and is turning into a smart, happy, well-rounded young man. He's currently in New Jersey with Art, Betty, Karen and Al over Thanksgiving and we'll see him soon in Bellevue, WA for Christmas and New Year's.
We spent some time this year in Virginia and Washington, DC visiting family and friends (and moving Alex from the dorms to an off campus apartment). We also spent some time in Walla Walla, WA drinking wine and some time in Anacortes, WA making bread at the King Arthur flour classroom and then hiking around the Deception Pass area. We had a great time at Ross Lake, WA on the boats and in a floating cabin with Aaron, Dana, Caleb and Stella.
But our big trip this year was to Spain and Portugal where we rented a car and drove through Porto, the Douro Valley, Lisbon, Alentejo, Seville, Madrid, Valencia, Priorat, and Barcelona. We had a great time and got pretty lucky with the weather given that the trip was October; it hardly ever rained on us, instead, it seemed to mostly rain on the days we were driving between cities. We also got very lucky, leaving Valencia the day before the big flooding hit and also flying out of Barcelona just a few days before their airport flooded! Lynn has been learning Spanish diligently since the COVID days with Duolingo, youtube channels, and Spanish books from the library. Scott even remembers a little Spanish from his high school days so it was fun for both of us to transact in Spanish and even chat with the locals a bit. We made friends with a hotel bartender who would practice her English on us while we spoke Spanish with her1. We really enjoyed the Sagrada Familia, Montserrat[e]2, Valencia, and the Douro Valley. Lynn is working on an online travel journal (work in progress) where you can get more details about the trip.
This year's garden was a mixed bag; we didn't get enough sunshine for really good tomatoes but the kale, green beans, and potatoes did well. We're here among all the tall trees so Lynn's garden is in the sunniest spot in the yard and, even then, it doesn't really get enough light for great tomatoes every year.
Lynn's been honing her killer sudoku skillz and coding up a helper interface to play on.
Scott's been hobby programming, grilling, and taking care of the house. Unfortunately, we had a leak in our guest bathroom shower that required abatement and cleanup involving some wall tear out and replacement. He's busy trying to replicate a fancy dessert from Direkte in Barcelona to share at Thanksgiving.
We (hired a company that) replaced the roof and skylights over the summer. This latest storm ("bomb cyclone!") knocked out out power for five days and made a big mess to clean up in the yard but nothing more severe.
Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful holiday season. We're so lucky to have great friends and family like you and we love you dearly.
Love,
Scott, Lynn and Alex
December, 2024