Martha says: The older we get, the faster the days fly by.  I can’t believe it’s time for this annual summary again.  This photo is from vacation in the Adirondacks last summer.  I’m still doing all the same things I did last year – volunteering at the Quilt Museum twice a week, playing with Gabriel (now 3 ½) once a week, making lots of quilts for special people on special occasions, exercising daily (because if you don’t use it, you lose it!)  Add to that the fun of watching Ezra (now 4 ½ months) learn to do all the cute things that babies can do. 

My questions for 2015 are twofold.  How do I find more volunteers for the Quilt Museum library so I can cut back on my time there eventually?  And how will Bob’s retirement change the things we do together?  Maybe next year I’ll have some answers.

Bob says: It's official: I'm retiring on February 28, 2015. As a transitional step, I'm going part-time on January 1. I have two business trips left, one to California, and one to India.

To prepare for retirement, Martha and I did some long-neglected maintenance on the house, replacing all the windows and the garage doors. We also filled out all the government paperwork for Social Security and Medicare, which is just as confusing as everyone says it is. The government workers at the Social Security Administration are very helpful, but there really ought to be a simpler way to do this.

In addition to past activities, including the simulator and animé and grandchildren, I'm hoping to fill in my retirement years with more pro-bono IT work for non-profits and digitization of my old records and tapes. And I'll be joining a health club, now that I have time to go.

Ben says:  2014 was a very eventful year for us. Gabriel turned 3 in June and on August 13 we welcomed his little brother Ezra Nathaniel to the world. Because this wasn't enough chaos, we had to leave our rental home in Grafton in September. We were fortunate enough to find, buy and move into a beautiful home in Wayland, MA, where we have been very happy. Gabriel started preschool at a temple in Natick and is thriving there. Ezra is trucking along and being very cute.

Jonathan says: We don't have any new photos and don't look any different so here's a picture from a few years ago.  My game Cascade for Funkitron (the casual game company where I work at home) has shipped on the iTunes store and is doing well. Larissa's job at GenArts (the video effects company in Cambridge where she works) has been hard, but we soldier along. The dogs, cats, and horses are all happy and healthy. Thanks to the vet diagnosing Isabella's Cushing's disorder, finally all of her health problems are being addressed and she's having more on days than off days. We've been enjoying warm fires in the newly-repaired fireplace and the completion of the first season of our ongoing Star Wars role-playing game.