(Click to enlarge image)

HAPPY 2015!!

As you can see, in 2014 I adopted a new social media platform: Instagram! Check me out at @etindc. Or keep following me on Facebook. Or just look forward to receiving my annual updates!

It was hard choosing the photos to feature from the past year. 2014 was pretty good! Some nice travel opportunities, quality time with old and new friends in old and new places, and a new family member! Read on for more on my 2014 adventures, as seen in this photo collage.

Starting in the upper left hand corner:

1. Cherry blossoms in DC! I didn't make it over to the Tidal Basin, but snapped this over near the White House. Come visit DC--it's wonderful.

2. and 3. I visited New Orleans for the first time! My sister Ellie was at a math education conference down there that ended just before her spring break, so I joined her for a few days of fun. We Did It Right, renting a little shotgun house uptown (not the one in this photo, but almost as cute), sampling the French Quarter Music Festival, joining a second line parade, and eating a ton.

4. From a book club excursion to the National Arboretum, which somehow I had never visited before.

5. and 6. I served as a co-chair of my 20-year Yale reunion, and while the weekly conference calls were not my favorite, the overall experience was incredibly rewarding. We broke attendance records right and left, and if there were a record for awesomeness we would have broken that too.

7. NYC over 4th of July weekend, where I celebrated the wedding of dear friends.

8. Carouselfie! My parents serve on the board of the beautiful Carousel of Light in Falmouth, Mass. Come take a spin!

9. Lying on the lawn at the Kripalu yoga retreat center in the Berkshires in August. OMMMMMM

10. Tori Amos concert at Constitution Hall! Still the best!

11. Feeling lucky at the US Botanic Garden

12. DC's first Diner en Blanc, a sort of flash-mob dinner party held around the world where ticketholders dress all in white and pack their own picnics (including table, chairs, china, and linens--again all in white) and convene at a location announced at the last minute. This took place at Yards Park near the Navy Yard in Southwest DC along the Anacostia. Beautiful, chic, totally insider event.

13. Lunch from Nica's Market in New Haven. Why can't DC have deli sandwiches like this?

14. THE BIG ONE!!! My baby sister Ellie's wedding at Club Getaway in Kent, Conn. She married the awesome Tim Vierling in a lovely ceremony that was part of an incredibly fun camp-themed weekend. Here's Ellie and Tim showing up for the rehearsal. My phone photos can't do it justice so take a look at the official photographer's shots.

15. Fall weekend in Bethany Beach, Del. with some good friends.

16. Snapped on the edge of my grandmother's house in Kingston, NY, up on the Hudson River. I divided my birthday weekend between the Hudson River Valley area and Manhattan.

17. Selfie taken at an over-the-top event a friend who lives in Rappahannock County, Va, took me to that involved a bonfire, a Celtic rapper/storyteller, bagpipers, and a "spectacle" loosely based on Dante's Inferno performed in a stone circle by masked actors of all ages.

18. and 19. I spent a few days in Guayaquil, Ecuador for our annual MIF conference dedicated to micro and small business development. Ecuador has amazing chocolate--photo 18 shows a bin of cacao beans drying out--and the city has a park with free-range iguanas, as seen in photo 19.

20. Thanksgiving in Falmouth, where my parents live and where I am always thankful to visit!

More adventures and photos lie ahead in 2015--in mid-January I am off to India for a couple of weeks!!!

With hopes that this note finds you and yours well, and best wishes for the new year,

Elizabeth