Blue Christmas

Swiss Mountain Lake

When we were gathering and sorting photos for a 'Christmas' card to send to family and friends this year we realized there was a blue theme that unified many of the pictures. You can see our card here as well as a couple of the originals.

In some ways it doesn't seem that long ago that we posted Christmas greetings on this site a year ago. I don't feel like I have any profound Advent/Christmas thoughts to share this year - but if you need some encouragement or a reminder of some things that matter during this season that often becomes so frantic - go to Geography of Grace - the website that I still manage and edit for CTM. There have been some powerful and moving thoughts posted this Advent season.

We had a great time taking photos of swooping seagulls one day at a NC beach.

We are grateful for the opportunities that have come our way this year - the opportunity to continue in school and pursue a calling (see Andrea's school update below), being able to return to work and have a steady income, catching up with old friends and classmates, Switzerland, clear blue North Carolina skies, and profound moments at Duke Chapel.

Duke Chapel lit up by sunlight shining through the stained glass windows at this time of year.

Wherever you find yourself at this time, may you find hope and joy and peace this season.

Duncan and Andrea

Andrea's School Update

Duke Campus this Fall

Well it has certainly been a while since you heard directly from me. School has been all consuming for good and for bad! I continue to feel very privileged to be able to take three years and learn many things that I had never even heard of before, but I also struggle with impatience in wanting to be back in the real world. At this point I’m exactly half way through my dual degrees (Master of Public Policy and Master of Business Administration) and have another year and a half left.

Duke Library

This past semester was my first semester of business school. It was a whirlwind of eleven classes in twenty weeks! For those of you who knew my fear of taking an accounting class and learning that I had done it all wrong for my job as Finance Manager, the good news is I don’t think I’m going to jail. J The bad news was, my years of bookkeeping and accounting experience in a nonprofit did not help me much in for-profit accounting! I had no leg up in taxes, inventory, bad debt, investments, and common stock, which, you know, turned out to be the entire premise of the class. Oh well, the point of school is to learn, no? J

Other highlights from this semester include: participating in an overnight case consulting challenge and getting third place overall with my team, working on a project for a new marketing campaign for a domestic violence and sexual assault center that will continue through next semester, “starting” a company and “making” over four million dollars in six weeks for a class, hearing interesting speakers who come to Duke (like Apolo Anton Ohno), and finally presenting two papers I wrote at Southern Connecticut State University’s conference on human trafficking at the end of October.

Andrea and Apolo Anton Ohno, Andrea speaking at the SCSU human trafficking conference

In January I start my second semester of business school and then will do another summer internship. In what, I am not sure, but trust that I am working hard over this break to make contacts and figure it out. However, do rest assured that I am also spending some quality time over break laying on the couch reading for pleasure and catching up on news, TV, and sleep!

Duke Gardens this Fall