Holiday Greetings '21

Re-capping our year and what we look forward to in 2022!

You made it!

Welcome to our weirdest holiday card yet! Leave it to us to unintentionally reference a violent critique of capitalism for Christmas. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anywayyyy... what a year!

We kicked off 2021 with a quiet night in in our new home in Austin, after moving here at the end of 2020. So quiet, in fact, we took to drawing a map of the United States, state by state, from memory. Yeah - we're a riot.

Needless to say, it was a little challenging learning about a new city and making friends during a pandemic! Our only friend, Sarah, and her dog, Bishop, have graciously been our tour guides, Snowpocalypse hosts, queso consultants, and personal drive-in movie theater projectionists. Thank you, both!

Speaking of dogs, in March, we became dog parents when we adopted Bea (pronounced bee), a border collie mix. She is sweet, funny, and incredibly smart, and has brought a lot of joy (but also many new challenges) to our lives.

As if we didn't have enough on our plates (in our dog bowls?) this spring, the condo we were renting went on the market - so we decided to buy it! Not gonna lie, it was a royal PITS and way more money than we expected to spend. But regardless, we feel very lucky we were able to put down some roots in such a brutal housing market!

For the foreseeable future, our new winter/mailing address will be:

13800 Lyndhurst Street, Unit 72

Austin, TX 78717

Before the weather here got too hot - it was time to make our inaugural trip cross-country to New Jersey for the summer! Bea did great! We pulled into Barley Point just in time to catch one of the spectacular sunsets over the Navesink River from Ellen and Terry's deck. Even after an entire summer living on an island, Bea is still very timid of the water. Jon's dreams of kayaking with a dog have been dashed - for now, at least.

We got to have so many family and friends visit during our first year on our little island, and hope more can join us in 2022! Ellen's got kayaks and SUPs aplenty! We also took our turn being local tourists and visited Lavallette, Coney Island / The Rockaways, Boston, and Wildwood / Cape May. This was probably the first time since graduating high school that Laura was in New Jersey longer than a couple weeks in a row. It was odd, but nice.

Jon sold his beloved Volkswagen Golf R (don't forget the R - is there an eyeroll emoji?) so when it was time to leave, we all piled into our one car to make the drive back to Austin - with a very quick stop in Baltimore to see friends. A nice little tradition we've started.

After about a week back in Austin, we had our first visitors here! Since we both work from home, we had previously set up an office for each of us - but had no guest room. So in that week, we moved Jon's office to the garage (by the bikes), bought a new bed, and moved our old bed to the new guest room. So far it's worked out! Bea basically has a Queen-sized dog bed now. And playing host has allowed us to see more of the city and surrounding areas than we had explored before.

We spent a lot of autumn seeing the Russell side of the family - Halloween in Waco (hilarious), Thanksgiving in Dallas (delicious), and a girls trip to San Antonio to complete a 10k (painful - no, no, I mean easy-peasy and fun)!

Aaaaand that about brings us up to now. The end of 2021. Laura will be headed back to NJ from December 19-28. Jon will be hanging back with Bea and driving up to Dallas. New Year's in Austin with Marianne! Let us know where you'll be - hopefully we can connect!

Shocked you've read this far, honestly. We're extra and we know it (claps hands). We genuinely want to wish you peace, prosperity, health, and happiness in the coming year. Hopefully 2022 brings some good vibes and good times for us all.

All our love,

Laura, Jon, and Bea