December 2025
Greetings Family and Friends!
We hope all is well with you and your family! If you opened this using the QR code on our card, thank you for helping us join the 21st century. ;-) It’s been an interesting year with some unexpected twists and turns, but we keep on ticking and living as intentionally as possible.
Our sons and extended family continue to navigate the world, grow and have some fun along the way. Florida Man Tom and girlfriend Lauren continue to enjoy the sunshine state and are becoming quite domesticated - they were the first in the family to set up their Christmas Tree this year and have learned home ownership means countless trips to Lowes. Tom was promoted to Senior Production Planner at Honeywell and Lauren continues to provide amazing care and is helping her hospital improve their quality standards. We were fortunate to see them every few months this year between family events and being a bit more intentional on staying connected.
Will lives in Southie (Boston) and continues to tolerate cramped spaces, jousting for parking and high rent. After 3 years at BCBS-Mass he moved to a new company (m-Pulse) to stretch himself a bit more. I was proud of him for making the move. His girlfriend Lexi is an amazing nurse at MGH, but night shifts and weekends make connecting a bit hard.
There were a number of weddings that occurred amongst our extended family and we are so happy for Sam, Maria and Katie and their significant others Lauren, Fernando and Dylan. Unfortunately the weddings we were able to attend had memorable weather, tornado warnings and hail for one, and a nor’easter for the other - the only common denominator was us - hmmm? Both weddings were beautiful and happy affairs despite the ‘clouds’. After the second one we were punished for our bad weather karma and had our flight home cancelled at 4 pm. The next available flight wasn’t until 2 days later so we drove overnight from Wilmington NC - I love a good road trip, but that was a bit much, especially at night in the wind and rain on the New Jersey Turnpike. My knuckles are still white.
Jacqueline continues to shine as Sr. Director of Executive & Team Performance at BTS and travels a bit to exotic locales like Vienna, Prague, London, Houston and Newark. Early in the year I was let go from my role at Modivcare - the combination of activist investors changing strategy and too much company debt from a Covid-driven acquisition spree left me on the outside looking in.
I’ve tried to take it in stride and have started doing business consulting and executive coaching work for a number of companies. I have been put in some awkward situations, for example, providing guidance to some executives on presentation skills at a large pharmaceutical company. In my section, one of the executives was an MD, PhD who had recently presented at TedX London (hello - imposter syndrome!) Needless to say, he had it pretty well nailed, but I do think I helped his colleagues. I’ve also greatly enjoyed returning to my startup roots, working with a number of early stage firms from Boston to Vancouver to Berlin.
One of the benefits of unexpected unemployment in the winter is the opportunity to ski more. As serendipity would have it we had booked the month of February in Salt Lake City Utah to ‘work remotely’ and ski long weekends. We found a relatively reasonable place with buddy Chuck at a ‘supposedly’ up and coming area called ‘The Ballpark’.
When I told a few people I know from Salt Lake where we were staying, they slowly backed away (not a good sign). Turns out ‘The Ballpark’ is great if you are looking for a central location near the airport AND a strong cup of coffee (not easy in Utah), a dive bar or two (shout out to Big Willies & Willie's Lounge), a late night massage (parlors with paper-covered windows on every street) and/or an hourly motel room (yikes). With that said we left our garage door wide open on the first ski day and nothing was taken, so apparently it was very safe ;-).
Jacqueline and Chuck managed to ski about 12 days while with my new found freedom I got to fulfill a lifelong dream of being a ski bum and I skied 26 of 30 days hitting some of my favorites on amazing powder days. We even made the 4-hour pilgrimage to Sun Valley, ID - highly recommended. The only downside of being a ski bum at 56 is that it’s MUCH harder than Real Work. I needed extra sleep, ice packs, industrial compression tights, mega caffeine, and a bucket of advil just to ‘live the dream’.
Tom, Lauren, and Will and some buddies showed up for a few days so it was fun to hang with a younger crew. Lauren was once again suckered into one of our adventures and had her first ski day at one of the more intimidating mountains, Alta - she ultimately ended up doing great, earned the nickname Bambi Stix, and ‘says’ she’ll ski with us again (a win!).
We continue to hike and be as active as we can. Jacqueline continues her btone and yoga regime and is looking forward to her next BIG birthday! ;-) This year's Xtreme Hike to support the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation was abridged due to heavy rain and lightning, although I did manage to hike 11 miles with my brother Tom. It took 2 days for me to dry out.
Given I didn’t complete that hike, in early August I went to the White Mountains with brother Tom and friend Chris to hike the Presidential Traverse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Traverse. It was an intense 14 hour hike covering 21 miles and 9,000 vertical feet, without a single level stride on the whole hike. Wildfire smoke from Canada made it extra special (if you like smoking unfiltered cigarettes). We finished tired yet in decent spirits until I was pulled over by a NH state trooper looking for drunk massholes. Fortunately I was so beat up looking and stinky he let me off with just a warning.
After a largely a staycation summer - with a couple side trips to visit family and friends (Nashville, NC, and Florida), we took a ‘hidden Italy’ destination tour, visiting Sardinia, and Northern Puglia. We spent a week with our friends the Nardones in Sardinia who, while much closer, were equally ‘jet lagged’ from their overnight ferry crossing. Sardinia is a bit off the normal path but was well worth it. We stayed largely in the Northern Half which has a combination of clear turquoise water and mountainous inlets - like Florida and Maine had a baby. It was beautiful. Of course when you go off the beaten path, ‘off-the beaten path’ things tend to happen. One early morning hike I had to part a flock of devil-eyed, horn-bearing goats like I was Moses parting the red sea. I was just hoping they were a bit domesticated and not too aware that I ate their delicious cousin the night before.
On another hike to the Gorropu Canyon, after getting an Italian-style late start and getting a bit lost, we were met by monstrous thunderstorms, which are no joke in a deep valley 2 miles (and 2 hours) from our cars. Giana, our friend's 15 year-old daughter, was praying to every Italian Saint known that she was too young to die and would somehow like to live to celebrate her 18th birthday. We did survive, but at one point the rain was so hard it reminded me of Forest Gump in Vietnam where the rain was bouncing up onto us.
Being soaked and scared builds an appetite and that night we went to an all you can eat farm to table restaurant to try some local cuisine. Turns out I'm not a huge fan of tripe (stomach lining) or fried lamb brain (tastes like mushy chicken - yummy ), but the suckling pig and goat ice cream was well worth it. Lots of other highlights include wonderful melloncello, fresh buffalo mozzarella, Cala Luna beach, Neptune’s Grotto, and in Puglia the Medieval city of Vieste, eating at a Trabuccco (a fishing platform on the Adriatic), and an amazing limestone cliff lined beach called Spiaggia di Vignanotica. But by far the best part was spending time with the Nardones and getting to know them even better, including Alice’s fabulous fiancee Andrea.
We hope 2026 is a meaningful, engaging, dreamy, unique, and fun 365 days for you and your family and that we see you along the way!
Much Love - Jacqueline and Bill
Accept what is,
Change what matters,
Laugh at the rest!
Peace!