December 2021

To our family and friends,

We hope this letter finds you and your family happy, healthy and enjoying the holiday season! Continuing the Neader tradition, here is the 2021 Year in Review.

Cameron is 24 years old. He finished graduate school in March at EAE Business School in Madrid, Spain, with a dual Masters in International Business and International Economic Analysis, with a minor in Data Analysis. His first job is a paid internship at Gathered Foods, the makers of Good Catch plant-based fish products, and they recently offered him a full-time salaried position as Sales and International Development Coordinator, which he will start after the first of the year. This is a remote job, so this fall he took advantage of that flexibility and moved to New York City for 3 months. He really loved his time in NYC and plans to move back in February.

Ashlyn is 21 years old and currently a Junior at UW-La Crosse. She is majoring in Interpersonal Communication and German, with a minor in TESOL (teaching English as a second language). She is still working part-time at the People’s Food Co-op in La Crosse and really likes it. In between school and work, she enjoys the outdoors and also likes to go out with friends and co-workers in Downtown La Crosse, especially to a bar that offers vintage arcade games.

Macy is 18 years old. She graduated from Central High School in May, and is now a Freshman at UW-La Crosse. She is enrolled in the Music program and hopes to teach music or band in the future. In her free time, she enjoys sewing and many types of arts and crafts. In August, Macy met up with some of her Rotary Youth Exchange student friends for a two-week trip to Spain, including stops in Madrid, Barcelona and Granada.

In July, Scott made the big decision to semi-retire. He sold his web hosting business to two long-time friends / business partners. He will still help them at times, and be involved in some other smaller Internet ventures, but will have a lot more time for travel, ham radio and other activities.

Speaking of travel, Laurie and Scott were able to take two international trips this year. In August, we spent two weeks in Italy. A highlight was meeting two of Scott’s Italian cousins that he connected with after doing the Ancestry DNA test. They showed us all around the mountain villages in the Calabria region, where Scott’s “Cortese” ancestors lived. We also spent about 10 days driving around the island of Sicily, including stays in Catania, Syracuse, Ragusa, Agrigento, Trapani and Palermo. A few of our favorite photos of this trip to Italy are in this Photo Album.

In October, we took a 3 week trip to Europe, which included 3 days in Dublin, Ireland, 4 days in Malta, and 15 days in Greece (4 days on the island of Santorini, and 11 days driving in and around the Peloponnese area). A few of our favorite photos of this trip to Dublin/Malta/Greece are in this Photo Album.

In other ‘international news’, with Scott’s roots in Italy, and how much we enjoy the country, we have been working on receiving Italian dual-citizenship for our family. Italy allows citizenship through descent, with certain criteria (that we meet). We will be flying to Italy in January to make our formal application there. The kids will come with for the first 3-4 weeks, then return to the US, but Laurie and Scott will stay in the country through March. Italian citizenship will especially be a great opportunity for the kids, offering them new options for work, education and travel in Europe. While Italian citizenship by descent is available to Scott and the kids, Laurie will need to apply via marriage, and the rules state that she must be fluent in the Italian language, which is a significant hurdle, but she is doing her best to prepare for it.

Well, that’s the 2021 Year In Review. Until next year… Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Scott, Laurie, Cameron, Ashlyn & Macy Neader

Click photos to enlarge