Dear friends, family, and loved ones,

First, we must apologize for not getting out a holiday letter last year.  Rest assured: if you did not get a letter from us, it is not because we dropped you from our list, or because we love you any less, but because we were slackers and did not get a holiday letter out to anybody last year!  Though, in our defense, there were extenuating circumstances last winter.  More on that later.  :-)  At any rate, this somewhat extended holiday letter will have to stand for two years.

Intrepid explorers, about to set forth to plumb the depths of the Grand Canyon. From left to right: David, Susan, Jenny, Tim, and Emily. (Terran behind the camera.)

We rang in the 2010 New Year at Susan’s parents’, visiting with them, with her brother and his wife, and with Susan’s grandmother, Emmaline.  Though we did not know it at the time, this would be our last chance to see Emmaline before she passed away.  It was a wonderful visit, and we treasure having had that late opportunity to spend time with her.

In March of 2010, we had the opportunity to spend three days hiking in the Grand Canyon with our friends David (from Boston), Jenny (from Chicago), and Tim and Emily (from L.A.-ish).  It was an amazing and beautiful trip.  Susan and Terran had visited the Canyon a couple of times before — once on the rim, and once hiking and rafting — but this was our first chance to do the classic “hike all the way down and all the way back out”.  In that late springtime, we hiked through the snow and ice at the rim down to shirt-sleeves at the bottom.  We enjoyed a night camping near Phantom Ranch, on the Colorado River, and a night at Indian Garden, halfway up.  We got to enjoy many vistas of the Canyon and the river, and the pleasure of making dinner in a driving snow storm at Indian Garden.

No snowstorm can come between our adventurers and dinner!

At the end of April, we lost Susan’s grandmother.  Her passing was a deep blow to the whole family, but it was clear at the funeral what a legacy of love and strength she left to her descendants.

Almost in counterbalance to loss came news of new life.  When Susan returned to Albuquerque, in early May, we discovered that she was pregnant.  All of a sudden, there were new priorities and a flurry of new preparations.  On the positive side: a new child-to-be.  On the negative: the immediate onset of morning sickness.  (Or, perhaps more properly, “morning, noon, and night sickness”.)  We took some time to circulate the knowledge to the family, but by late June, the word had made it around.

From Beirut to Jerusalem

That June took us on new adventures.  Terran had a scientific conference in Israel, so we spent almost a week exploring that fragment of the world.  Haifa, Acco (Acre), Jersusalem, Gesthemene, the Temple Mount — places overflowing with history and religion, where the two are interwined and written into the very stones.  It was an amazing experience and a fascinating view of places that had just been names in history books.  The Hospitaliers’ fortress at Acco; Richard the Lionheart versus Saladin; the Via Doloroso; the Wailing Wall.  It all brought home some of the history of blood and pain of the region, but also the sense of profound beauty and sublime power of some of the ideals we inherit from it.  Also food.  Israeli hummus is da bomb. Yum.

Susan at the Templars' Fortress in Acco/Acre.

From Israel, we travelled on to London for the wedding of Terran’s adopted sister Marilisa to her beloved David.  It was convenient to be on the right side of the ocean, at least, but the flight between the two is still a bit long, and by this point Susan was a little exhausted.  (To tell the truth, Terran was a bit tired too, but he at least wasn’t battling pregnancy.)

It was wonderful to see Marilisa and David and get to spend some special time with them leading up to the wedding.  We did little touristing, but a great deal of visiting with old UK friends and meeting new ones.  (And, somehow, we got conscripted into helping with wedding preparations.  A very great deal of origami.)

While we were there, though, this year of chaos sprung another tragedy on us.  On July 1, Terran’s mother, Barbara, passed away.  That was a huge shock and unexpected and it cast a shadow of pain across events.  Terran and Susan flew back to Kentucky to arrange the funeral.  In spite of the tragedy, it was powerful to discover just how much Barbara had been a part of her community and how deeply and widely she was loved.  In an odd stroke of fortune, the plot beside Terran’s brother Lucas was still available, and we were able to bury them side-by-side.

But in the midst of tragedy, life and beauty remained.  We were able to return to London in time to participate in Marilisa and David’s wedding and to dance with them in celebration.

We returned to the States and had to face clearing out Barbara’s house and settling her affairs.  We remain immensely grateful to a handful of friends and family who were able to donate time to help with this monumental task.  Among those were our friends David and Jen, who dropped everything and came from Boston to help out.  Terran’s cousin Tyson came and helped fix up the house, as did many of Barbara’s close friends — Rudy, Amanda, Sonja, Susan, Doris, and so many others.  We literally could not have done it without them.  Thank you all.

There is little noteworthy in the intervening months.  But this chaotic and overwhelming year drew to a close with a beautiful event.

Autumn on her 0th birthday.

Autumn Alice Emmaline Anne Rati Lane was born at 4:07 PM (MST) on December 23, 2010.  It was a good “birth experience” (in the odd nomenclature of the childbirth world).  The hospital staff were uniformly wonderful to work with — knowledgeable, skilled, friendly, and supportive.  We got to bring her home on Christmas day, 2010, to sit in the light from our Christmas tree and watch It’s a Wonderful Life, while cuddling the baby and eating Chinese carryout.

Woo.  Parenthood has been a…  Big adjustment.  For one thing, not so much travel to talk about in 2011.  On the flip side, though, we got to witness Autumn’s first year. We’ve been through the night feedings, seeing her first smiles, watching her learn to wield her fingers, rolling over, crawling, and now she’s almost walking.  (Update:  As of Dec 19, 2011, we have officially declared her “toddler”.)

Mommy and Autumn on her second Christmas.

At each stage, we get a few more glimpses of the person she will become. She is full of the delight of discovery of the world.  She is social and cheerful and affectionate and full of laughter and entropy.  She notices every new thing (and wants to stick most of them in her mouth).

It’s not been without stress, though. Autumn has serious acid reflux. Making sure she’s on the right medication has been an ongoing challenge.  But the doctors have been great to work with, and we are optimistic for the new year.

So that brings us up to the end of 2011.  As we look forward to Autumn’s first birthday, we are headed off to spend a week in Chicago with Susan’s side of the family. Wish us luck!

Much love to you all, and hoping to see you in the New Year!

Happy Holidays!

– Susan, Terran, Autumn, & Mist (the cat)

P.S.  We know that we’re terribly, abysmally far behind on our travel blog.  We have two more posts from Scotland to do, let alone hiking the Grand Canyon!  I’ll just plead technical difficulties compounded by new parent difficulties.  But the blog software seems happy again, so we hope to start getting some of the back-blog up!  Be sure to check back later (or, better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed.  :-)