Holiday Letter 2019

In Journal, 2010s by Steve Sliwa

December 2019

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
their old familiar carols play…”

Another year has passed, and the rhythm and tune of Steve’s and Nancy’s lives have become familiar and comfortable, with the occasional shift in harmonies, both in major and minor keys, that keep things interesting.

We’ve continued our vegan lifestyle, with Nancy attending two more water-fasting sessions at True North Health Center and gradually adding more recipes to her weekly cooking rotation. Both continue to feel great after 15 months on this new way of eating, and Nancy feels that her health and mobility are better than they’ve been in many years.

We’ve continued our seasonal rotation between White Salmon and Fountain Hills, being north for May-November and south the rest of the time. Arizona sees us more in residence, while we spend our summer months doing most of our traveling. Nancy also continued to teach a women’s Bible study in Hood River during the summer, between her various trips.

Steve has continued building Seeq, which has seen its business double again in 2019. He has just completed the first close on a new round of funding, which is always a busy time for his company building activities. Seeq is one of the leading companies in a completely virtual (remote only) model using a well-developed technology stack and culture stack.

Tabitha has continued with her tripartite business activities. She teaches Barre classes and stays busy with her Pearl and Blush business for bridal make-ups during Hood River’s destination-wedding summers. After a sabbatical in February-March for a yoga retreat in Cambodia and a walkabout in New Zealand, she returned to Seeq to specialize in virtual-company culture-building (see culture stack above). Rich continues in his finance role at SheerID, a start-up in Portland.

This year we were saddened to lose Steve’s friend, mentor, and former Princeton professor Dave Hazen, our Embry-Riddle friend and mentor Jay Adams, our ex-sister-in-law Michele Sliwa, Steve’s long-time soaring friend from Harris Hill Gary Hudson, and Los Alamos friend Jim Nesmith. Each year seems to bring more such sorrowful separations and the realization that relationships are more precious than gold. Having Steve’s sister Sue, her husband Thane, and daughter Marisa’s visit during the Thanksgiving holidays was especially sweet.

Our yellow Cirrus (Maxwell) has continued to be a source of joyful transportation, with Steve doing various business trips and Nancy flying to attend 99s events and a school reunion in Nashville. We also reprised our used-to-be-annual East Coast Flying Safari, visiting a variety of friends and family, although there is never enough time to see everyone we want to see. We were also able to attend Steve’s 30th Stanford Sloan class reunion (the best class ever) and renew friendships with the many attendees.

Our dogs Brandy and Beckett just passed their third birthdays, and continue to be cute, cuddly, and mostly well-behaved.

2020 holds the delightful promise of more winter visitors to our Fountain Hills home, as well as a potential upgrade to our aviation activities, about which we are very excited!!! While we kept all our traveling within the U.S. this past year, next year we signed up to do another eclipse tour, this time to Easter Island and Chile, which will be a completely new part of the world for us.

May 2020 be a year of delight and prosperity for you all!

 

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