Mele Kalikimaka!

We're back in Middle California, readjusting, readying ourselves for Xmas. Christmas eve will feature the traditional 3-course fondue, at Rebecca and Jeremy's, and Penelope's. It will be interesting to see what Penelope, today 8 months old, makes of the fondue. Surely she will like the green slime (aka Lime Bavarian). Anyhow, here is our 2011 Xmas letter:

Season's Greetings!

This holiday season finds us in a one bedroom cottage in Menlo Park, California. We are half a mile from daughter Rebecca's and her husband Jeremy's and thirty miles south of San Francisco. For the school year we are watching eight month old grand-daughter Penelope; and having a marvelous time. We now know why grandparents carry brag books (or used to anyway before smart phones) and go on incessantly about grandchildren. They are wondrous and, of course, Penelope is the best of the best. Or maybe that's because it is easy to have a happy baby when you have two adults to watch her all day long with no work responsibilities!

After three years of travel--Asia, the Pacific, Europe and Turkey--we do miss being on the road, traveling to new places, without any daily responsibilities. Hopefully in the years to come, we will be able to find a happy compromise between family and traveling. At this point, in June, we plan to fly back to Amsterdam, where our camper is in storage. From there we will spend the summer in western Europe and, if we stay into the fall, head for the Balkans and then possibly a return to Turkey. Or possibly something else. Stay tuned.

So there is not much news from us really. On December 10, we headed to Kauai to spend a week sharing a condo with Norm and Marie and Bob and Beth, Vicki's sister and brother. We also visited Maui for four days before returning home. In January Vicki is having her left knee replaced, which we hope will allow us to do more trekking in the future.

We have been truly blessed this year. Most of our European travel, from February to June, was in Italy. Rebecca and Jeremy had their first child, Penelope, born on April 23^rd. Daughter Rachel and Will's wedding in Missoula in August was beautiful and a most happy occasion for all of us. They are still living in Washington, DC. Details of everything are on our blog, www.roadeveron.blogspot.com. We occasionally post on Facebook too. Very occasionally. Our email addresses are vsherouse@gmail.com and mark.sherouse@gmail.com.

Hoping that you will have the best of holiday seasons and that we will hear from you; and that if your travels bring you to the Bay area in California this spring, we can see you,

Mark and Vicki