Braun and Froio - Holiday Letter, 2007

God rest ye merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay.
… tidings of comfort and joy!


Dear Family and Friends,

The hymns of my childhood have been coming to mind this week---mostly minor key music and mostly from the Marian liturgy. Today, God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen popped into my head and I’ve been humming it every since. What wonderful ideas: Rest ye merry; tidings of comfort and joy. Whether we are any more able to rest merry than they were when the lyrics were written is debatable. But given the war, global warming, and the sub-prime mortgage mess, we can be certain that we have as much need of tidings of comfort and joy as those long ago gentlemen did.

Here at the home of Braun and Froio, there continues to be both comfort and joy in abundance. After seven years of neglect and dereliction, the house next door to us has been completely renovated. Earlier this month, a new family moved in. What a pleasure it is to look at their well kept yard and hear the sounds of the younger child practicing on the piano! We’ve always known that eventually we’d have real neighbors on the north side, but it took much longer than we ever imagined it would.

We also knew that eventually Bob’s older son, Adam, would find the woman he’s been waiting for—and this year, he did. After a whirlwind romance, Adam and Amelia were engaged early this fall. Amelia is a lovely young woman and Adam has never been happier. We really enjoyed having them both with us on Christmas Eve and we hope that we’ll soon be able to report that they’ve set the date for their wedding.

Some things, however, don’t change. In August 2006, I surprised myself by taking the job of Assistant Vice President of Finance and Human Resources at Mills College (www.mills.edu). Mills is a small women’s college in Oakland, one of the oldest women’s colleges west of the Mississippi. Following my May 2007 rise to Acting Vice President of Finance and Administration and Treasurer, I surprised my colleagues by leaving Mills in October to go back to cause-oriented work. Academia may be stable and secure, but it’s a political petri dish—and not one I found comfortable in the least.

On November 5th, I became the Chief Financial Officer of TransFair USA (www.transfairusa.org), the only third party certifier of fair trade coffee, tea, rice, sugar, and vanilla in the United States. So far, it’s suiting me just fine.

Fair trade certification empowers farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment, and developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace. Given that coffee is the second most widely traded commodity in the world and that nearly 30 million people labor in the industry, you can imagine that we have our work cut for us!

Just before I started the new job, we took a trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. It was nearly Halloween by the time we got there, so you can bet it was chilly. However, having those spectacular places all to ourselves more than made up for the cold. We breezed into the park on empty roads where summer visitors spend hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic. The only day we saw more than 20 people was the day we went to see Old Faithful.

Elk, bison, caribou, coyotes, trumpeter swans, and moose seemed to have nothing better to do than pose for our cameras. Way off in the distance, we even caught a glimpse of the Hayden Valley wolf pack.

Amazing as the wildlife is, what really defies description is the geology. Geysers are everywhere. Half hidden by curtains of steam, wondrous spectacles like boiling pools with iridescent rings are common. It seemed as if the only words I could say were, “Absolutely amazing!”…over and over and over. The Tetons looked downright civilized after three days in Yellowstone.

Since the tourist season was over, all of the accommodations in both parks were closed. Undaunted, we stayed in nearby towns. We went both downscale and upscale—beginning in a squeaky clean commercial strip motel in Jackson with elk hunters and their mounts as our neighbors and then moving on to a plush, amenity-rich lodge in West Yellowstone. If you happen to be in Montana and looking for a splurge, try the Bar N Ranch (www.bar-n-ranch.com). We didn’t see the grizzly tracks on the porch, but we heard about them over breakfast for two of the three days we were there.

Those of you who are familiar with Bob’s twenty-year old Dodge van will realize how happy he made the entire neighborhood by putting it out to pasture just before Thanksgiving. In its place he now has a shiny, candy-apple red, 2008 Honda Element. This is Bob’s first brand new car ever, so he’s constantly marveling at how clean it is under the hood and how great the paint looks. Truth to tell, it’s a fun ride. Also nice is the fact that I worry a lot less about his various adventures now that he’s got air bags and working seat belts. After several weeks of trying to sell his old van without success, he gave up and donated it to KQED. You know it’s bad when “best offer” doesn’t generate at least one nibble.

The first good rain fell shortly before the Element arrived, so before it was a week old, it was on the road to Bob’s various mushroom spots. The hills above Guerneville were picked clean by the time he got there. Closer to home, he and our friend Richard got lucky. They each brought home a skillet’s worth of young chanterelles. Let’s hope that’s a harbinger of things to come.

It has been a rich year for us, one full of all the small pleasures and joys life can offer. We continue to be grateful for the many gifts the universe pours out for us and we think often of all of you. Then, as now, we send every wish for good things in abundance.

Keep well, and rest merry.

With much fondness,

Joan and Bob