Christmas Card 2014

It's time for our now only blog post for the year; the one where we explain the pictures on the Christmas card, and maybe add a few others that we didn't have room for.

This is our 2014 Year in Review

We ended 2013 with our bi-annual Christmas trip to Pennsylvania, and like every trip, we took our obligatory kids-on-the-steps pic at the Roth house in Harmonyville.  Someday we'll make a book of just these pictures, as there are many.

To fight the winter doldrums, and that horrible piece of calendar between New Year's Day and Memorial day (26 weeks without a day off) we spent a long weekend in beautiful Maggie Valley, North Carolina, west of Asheville with our good friends the Brouwers.  We did lots of fun winter stuff, including hours of snow tubing.

But winter had more in store for us.  Here's a pic of Tristan, Jennifer, Evan, Beth, pFred, Rebecca, and Bryce enjoying the first proper snow day in Mebane in years.  We don't often get much snow beyond an inch or two, but boy howdy, when we do, we make the most of it.  Sledding, snowball fights, snow angels, snowmen, drawing obscene pictures on peoples' car windows, walking to the gas station for beer, hot chocolate by the fire . . .  you name it, we did it all.

But winter wasn't through with us yet.  This time it was in the form of an ice storm.  We lost power for several days, and had yard debris cluttering the sidewalks of Mebane for at least a month.  But because we have the best neighbors in the whole world, we made the most of this too.  We organized a flash-mob cleanup of the neighborhood, and did a lot of communal gas stove and outdoor cooking to use up our  perishable food.  It really wasn't so bad after all.

But finally, spring time.

We made a busy long-weekend trip to Georgia to see our friends Chase and Rachael get married, and got to stay with our friends Dave and Michelle, which we always enjoy. (Tristan and Zoe are themselves Georgia-made products, in case you were wondering about the photo.)

Meanwhile, the kids stayed busy with their various activities.

Zoe running (until a broken leg put an end to that.)

And Tristan singing with Chapel Hill High School's male a cappella group, Beau Brummels

Jennifer spent her spring break going back to Haiti for the second time, and sold a crap ton of Poblano Shrimp Corn chowder to raise funds to do it.

We successfully picked our ninth pig.

And Zoe "graduated" from eighth grade and middle school.

Summer time!

Beach weekend on the beautiful North Carolina coast.

Third annual Mebanite River tubing on the New River near Todd, NC

Camping near Grandfather Mountain

And great burritos at Black Cat, and hanging out in Boone.

We made a quick trip to Pennsylvania (via Maryland) to celebrate the 100th Birthday of Great Grandmother Roth, the 75th Birthday of Dave's dad, Opa, and the 50th Birthday of Dave's older brother, Tom.  Unfortunately, I can't put my hands on any decent pics of any of that.  My bad.

In July we headed back out west.  Taking full advantage of the fact that Jennifer's brothers all live in cool places (Albuquerque, Lake Tahoe, and Portland), we try to get to the left coast as often as practical.

First stop, Lake Tahoe, where we got to see Jonas, and Nellie, Jared and Julia, our niece Aida, our nephew Zane, and are newest nephew, Oliver

Swimming in beautiful Lake Tahoe, of course, and other adventures like spending Independence Day in Virginia City, Nevada, camping in rural Humboldt County, California, and eating In-N-Out Burger as much as we could.

We made the scenic drive up to Oregon to see Jordan, and to briefly live our dream of the 90's, which is alive in Portland.  We did some Goonies tourism, splashed the Pacific Ocean on our faces, and had lots of great food, and coffee, and beer.  Seriously, trips like this have pretty much ensured that our kids are not coming back east after finishing college.

The family wasn't back in Mebane long before Jennifer, Tristan, and Zoe left for a mission trip in Saint Louis du Nord, Haiti.  This would be Jennifer's third trip, Zoe's second, and Tristan's first.  The kids were gone for a week, and Jennifer for two.

In August, it was time for our fourth annual Mebanite trip to Huron, Ohio.  Once again we did it all: Cleveland's West Side Market, bicycling and picnicking at Put-In-Bay, a 14-hour day at Cedar Point, eating, drinking Dark and Stormys, and finally, as the culmination of a lifelong dream . . .

Dave finalize got his own omelette station, and happily cooked breakfast for everyone on the shore of Lake Erie.

Late August means return to school

Ninth grade for Zoe, and tenth grade for Tristan, both at Chapel Hill High School

In October, Jennifer made her fourth trip to Haiti, this time to Cap Haitian, where she's working to organize a summer camp for the children of the area, and also to employ some of the older orphans she's met on her previous trips.

No October is complete without a visit or two to the North Carolina State Fair.  We haven't missed a year since we've moved here in 2001.

Also in October, Tristan turned 16, and after a year of driving on his learners permit (which is how it works here in NC), he successfully passed his driving test to get his license on his first attempt. . . something his old man cannot also claim.

A quick trip to Montreal for Dave, and an excellent Thanksgiving rounded out November.

Dave made a short trip to Pennsylvania to celebrate his grandmother's 100th birthday.  As far as we can tell, we've never had an ancestor reach that milestone, so it is a huge deal.

And finally, to everyone's delight, Tristan is once again singing with the North Carolina Boys Choir, but this time as part of the Chamber Choir, which is the addition of tenor and bass voices to the Concert Choir of sopranos and altos that he sang with when his voice was much higher. The NCBC put on a great concert at the beautiful Duke Chapel.

And that's about it.  It's our year to stay home, so we're making the most of our holiday season and Carolina Christmas; eating, drinking, and being merry.

So to all of you, we wish you the best this holiday season, and for a great 2015.  See you next year.

The Roths,
Dave, Jennifer, Tristan, and Zoe
Mebane, North Carolina
USA

Christmas Card 2012

Welcome to the 2012 installment of the Traveling Roths' Microsoft Word Christmas Letter. If you received a card from us, or if you saw a post on Facebook pointing you here, thanks for clicking through, and taking the time to see what we've been up to this year, and what all those pictures in the collage are all about.

January

We took a trip up north to the Peaks of Otter along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia with a pile of Mebanites to celebrate our friend Rebecca B.'s 40th birthday.  There was lots of strenuous activity and exercise, and also a lot of good food and drink (these are the three major Mebanite themes, as you'll probably see throughout the year.)  We also ate a lot of oysters.

January is also a great time to resolve to get fit.  Jennifer and Dave both started running three days a week at 5 am, and even got the chance to run in the snow (such as it is in North Carolina.)

Of course, all that running makes Jennifer hungry for crepes. An in addition to 2012 being the Year of the Mebanite, is was also the year of the food truck.

February

What is February known for?  The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, and in the spirit of the massacre, Zoe ran in the Massacre Marathon Relay with a bunch of other kids from Mebane out in chilly Greensboro.

March

While Jennifer was out at the National Whitewater Center for Teacher Day (not pictured), Dave, Tristan and Zoe got pizza (pictured.  I needed decent portraits of the kids individually for the card, otherwise this would not be a newsworthy event, save the fact that Mellow Mushroom has excellent pizza, also not pictured.)

For Spring Break this year, we decided to stay fairly local, and spent our week down at the North Carolina coast, The Crystal Coast, The Southern Outer Banks.  Our friends the Troxlers were kind enough to let us use their beach house on Harkers Island for part of the time, and we spent the rest of the time in Salter Path.

April

Dave headed back to England again, but this time got a slight added bonus of getting a side trip to Belgium via the Chunnel! (Which is, like a lot of things involving trains, is a lot less fun than it sounds.)

(me in Belgium, as far as you know)

Dave met up with our Moroccan/Belgian friends Salah and Martine in the short time he was there, and may or may not have imported things back into the US that perhaps were not strictly legal.

May

We spent a great weekend up in the Northern Neck of Virginia to see Cousin Holly get married to Dave C.

And like every Memorial Day weekend, we had our Pig Pickin'.  This was number 7, and like the six before it, we were too busy cooking a pig to get proper photos of our endeavor.  If you're really curious what it looks like, come to our house for Memorial Day weekend next year. Seriously. We have plenty of food.

June

A bunch of Mebanites trekked out to the North Carolina mountains near Boone to spend Fathers' Day tubing down the . . . . river. (Honestly, most of the day is kind of a blur.)  School's Out!  Tristan finished 7th grade, Zoe finished 6th, and Jennifer finished her 18th year of teaching. The month was quiet in a way the rest of the summer was not.

July

We started off the month by spending a week at a huge house right on the beach in Hatteras on the Outer Banks. In addition to the four of us we had five more Roths and eight more Saias. And this time, for a change, no one experienced a life-ending medical condition.

The very next week, our good (Mebanite) friends Bryce and Melanie B. invited us to share their beach house in Kill Devil Hills with them, so Dave, Jennifer, and Tristan did, while Zoe flew up to Ohio to get an early start on our 2nd annual Mebanite trek to Huron, Ohio to the Brouwer Cottage on Lake Erie.

The cottage has quickly become one of the highlights of our summer. Swimming, hiking, biking, eating, drinking, and just a short drive away: Cedar Point!

And what's also becoming a tradition, spending Dave W.'s birthday with him and his wife Michelle (and a bunch more of Jennifer's high school friends) in Georgia.  This time we had a sweet cabin right on a creek in the mountains near Ellijay. There was dam building, tubing, floating hors d'oeuvres, ribs, eating, drinking, etc. Maybe there should've been more photography.

August

Reviving a family tradition from Jennifer's childhood, we headed out to Southampton, Long Island, to spend the week with Jennifer's cousin Jeanine (and a quick visit with cousin Bill) and Jeanine's family, Sean, Eliza, and Finn.  We had lots of beach time, sightseeing, and eating great food. It was the first time Dave and the kids got to see how Jennifer spent all of her early summers.

And the very next week, Jennifer took Zoe to her first real concert: Duran Duran!

Zoe started 7th grade and Tristan 8th

September

Tristan finally got to go to a Bar Mitzvah (not his)

October

We made our second trip to State College / University Park, Pennsylvania for the Penn State homecoming football game, and stayed with our friends Cricket and Dave H. Dave (R.) and his dad played with the Penn State Alumni Blue Band and the kids saw their first game in Beaver Stadium.  Of course we visited the Lion Shrine

And the Lion

We finished out the month with (surprise) more Mebanites up at Watoga State Park in West Virginia. Thanks to Greg and Beth P., we had some sweet cabins up in the mountains where we hiked, ate, drank, and even saw a bear and snow.

November

We actually stayed home, ate, drank, ran in the Turkey Trot, and spent a lot of time with our neighborhood friends.

December

Cardstore.com was atypically efficient in getting our Christmas cards printed and mailed out, so much so that we hadn't even thought about creating our now once per year blog post until we received our own card in the mail this afternoon.

Other than that, we're heading out to South Lake Tahoe for a proper white Christmas this year with Jennifer's family.  Watch Facebook/Twitter/Instagram for those posts.  Here's a teaser from Nellie S.

So Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year to you.

See you in 2013 if not before.

The Roths
Dave, Jennifer, Tristan, and Zoe
Mebane, North Carolina, USA