Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Best wishes for a wonderful,
COVID-free 2022!
Love,
The Elia Family
Zack has been happily living in Maryland for the last year and a half. He and Sarrah recently adopted a second cat so they now have Mochi and Matcha who bring them no end to joy. Zack has just about everything possible in his life hooked up to a smart device and fully automated. The cats may be the only things in the apartment he cannot control from his phone. Sarrah continues to amaze us with her amazing cooking/baking skills. I have called her for help several times when trying to make a new dish!
Zack and Sarrah have been killing it at work and making smart choices for the future. Zack is set to graduate next summer with his master's degree in Computer Science through Johns Hopkins University. He tells me the names of the classes he is taking, like Cryptology, Vulnerability Analysis, and other confusing titles. I cannot even begin to understand what those entail, but he seems to like them.
Located in a convenient stopping point between Ohio and our families on the East Coast, Zack and Sarrah have enjoyed having us crash at their place a few times this year while traveling. They also made trips to visit both Peter's mom and my dad earlier this year. The grandparents enjoyed getting to meet Sarrah and we are so happy they had the opportunity to do so. Zack and Sarrah are coming back to Ohio around Christmas for the first time since they moved and we can't wait!
Jackie is 18 and graduated high school this year. She chose to complete her senior year remotely which worked out very well for her. It was a great trial-run for the independence of college classes and she proved she was ready. Speaking of college, in last year's edition of the Ohio Chronicles I mentioned that we anticipated Jackie attending the University of Cincinnati. She applied to various local colleges and ended up choosing to attend Miami University instead. This causes great confusion due to the university with a similar name in Florida, but indeed, her Miami University is here in Ohio.
Jackie is pursuing a degree in Accounting and did very well in her first semester (3.96). She came in with a lot of AP and CLEP credits and is already considered a sophomore. She is interested in doing a combined BS/MS program which she will be able to complete in 4 years. Jackie has amazing drive and determination (I feel like I write that every year) and seeks out opportunities wherever she can. She's participating in a mentorship program with one of the Big Four accounting firms and she is not shy about building relationships with her professors. Jackie has a great brain for finance and is already planning years into the future for all things money-related.
Jackie has chosen to commute back and forth to school and loves that she can be home with her cat every night. As you can see in the pictures below, they are always together.
teacher Mrs. Monroe!
Peter took some time off this year to recover and figure out his work situation. Some might say he took a bit too much time. Since strenuous physical labor was off the table, he had to find alternate creative outlets to keep himself occupied.
Anyone who knows Peter knows he's got a thing for aquariums. Since salt water was proving too difficult during a pandemic, he converted the tanks to fresh water and went full-in with planted aquariums. The first 6 months were a bit of a struggle, hours of YouTube videos, and a lot of trial and error. Then, while Charlotte was away and couldn’t stop him, a box full of magical equipment arrived. It was an aquarium regulator with a dual output and 5 lb. CO2 tank. A quick visit to a home brewery store for CO2 and magically his tanks quickly began to transform.
With his aquariums now thriving Peter needed another hobby to occupy his time. He started tinkering with electronics. He added Wi-Fi relays to make Siri-enabled garage doors and then restored a 1939 Westinghouse console radio he stole from his brother a few years back. Peter spent hours soldering and rewiring, building and painting, and sourcing out suitable era-specific fabric for the grill. Now with safe low-power LED lights and sound powered by Alexa, this thing cranks out some booming music! Once done, a new obsession began. He would scour Facebook Marketplace daily and met up with some real interesting and lonely characters selling old tube radios.
AM Tube
FM/AM Tube
Post War Portable
Fortunately, before he could go too far down that radio collection rabbit hole, what seemed to be the perfect fit of technology and creativity fell in his lap. Peter accepted and started a position as Associate Director of Technology with Grey, a media ad agency. So far, he's enjoying the position and the people, and claims the show Madmen is only 90% accurate.
We are sad that this year ended with my father passing away at age 90 after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer. For those of you who knew my dad, you know that he was a man who cared deeply for his family and lived his life in service to others. A huge advantage of being a virtual teacher was that it enabled me to travel to New York four times this year to support him while still being able to teach my Zoom groups from there. I was thankful that his personality and long-term memory remained intact and really enjoyed the time we got to spend together. He was full of great stories!
Through a surprising twist of fate I was chosen to remain as a virtual teacher for the new school year. Most people think I'm completely insane for continuing to teach remotely when almost everyone else went back in person, but I am happy to report I'm living my best teacher life. I really miss the big virtual team I had last year, but I feel so fortunate to have this opportunity to work with students in this unique manner again. I've heard people say you cannot build relationships with students unless you are in-person with them. They are wrong! I get more face-to-face and small group time with my students than I ever had. I moved up to second grade and love that ten of my students are repeat customers from last year. I also get to meet with some of my students for in-person activities so that is a cool new twist.
Our sweet Misty continues to bring us joy every day. She makes the funniest faces and strikes extremely odd poses. She gallops through the house chasing squirrels from one window to the other and we always yell "HORSE!" because she is so loud. She is notorious for taking corners too fast, causing her back end to skid out, followed by Scooby Doo legs before she's able to get traction back. She is a trip and keeps us laughing!
After being very cautious in 2020 we ventured out a bit in 2021. Great to spend time again with family and friends in Ohio, Maryland, New York and Virginia!
Grandpa's 90th birthday (above and below)
