2005
Greetings and Salutations. Best Wishes for a Merry
Christmas and a Happy New Year.
The highlights of this year involve travel, family, and friends, often
combined in the same event.
In January Sue Anne set off to Wisconsin for a short stay with her
sister Aimée and husband Steve. She enjoyed a nice family
dinner with the three grown children. Yes it was very cold, but
she likes to visit in mid-winter. Everything is calm and
beautiful in the surrounding farmlands.
In February we got a treat when daughter Sarah, husband Dan, and
granddaughter Noelle came to visit in Maryland. Sometimes the
weather was nice Maryland-mild, and then came a good ol’ Maryland
blizzard where all roads are a mess and all plans are canceled and
there is nothing to do but play in the snow. Little
Canadian-tough Noelle played barehanded in the snow like it was a
sandbox. Sadly we lost our little black dog Nicky during that
time. He was of indeterminate age when we acquired him many years
ago, and his time finally just ran out.
March brought us back to Edmonton for the birth of our second
granddaughter Roxanne Nina, now known as Roxy. Noelle loved her
from the get-go. “The more the merrier” is her motto.
Noelle gazed upon her new sister in surprise, then smiled in delight,
then reached towards her and honked her nose! Roxy now rolls
across the room, and entrances all with her grin.
We met some of the Wisconsin relatives for a mini family reunion in
Massachusetts. Nephew Nate ran up another mountain.
Literally. It’s his thing.
June…back to Edmonton to check up on the growth of the
grandchildren. Since Sarah and Dan had their house on the
market, it was a time of scurrying around cleaning the house, and then
disappearing for a while. Highlights include trips to many
playgrounds where Noelle would delight us with some trick while
shouting out “Watch me, Grandma (or Granddad).” We take pride in
the progress of both of the kids.
A high point in July was the reunion of the parents of our daughter
Karin’s childhood playgroup, organized by a neighbor who was the
playgroup’s organizer over 25 years ago. We love to hear how the
girls are doing. All have families of their own now, scattered
around the country and the world. Karin and husband Dan moved a
few blocks east from their Baltimore rowhouse into their new (100 year
old) house, once a corner store and now nicely renovated. It’s so
interesting that it will be on HGTV soon. We look forward to
their 4½ minute segment that took all day to film.
Sedona, Arizona in August. Weather and location wonderful.
Sarah and Dan were there for a wedding and needed babysitters, so we
volunteered! We had a fabulous week. The scenery is truly
spectacular in all directions.
October: two trips, The first to NH to welcome our Wisconsin
family to New England. We climbed Mt. Kearsarge, kayaked, ate
lobster rolls, toured Woodstock, Vermont. Played tourist in other
words. This was the first trip to New England for nephew Nick’s
wife Emily. Our famed foliage wasn’t its very best this year, but
there were enough isolated examples for Emily to believe that the
calendar pictures weren’t a fraud! The other trip…back to Canada
to celebrate Halloween with Noelle and Roxy and help Sarah and Dan get
organized in their lovely new house. Noelle now knows what candy
is, so she thoroughly approved of this holiday. She was attired
as a kitty cat. Sarah was a hockey player with a Washington
Capitals uniform (and a black eye).
At Christmas we’ll be in British Columbia with our Canadian
branch. They promise snow, skating, hockey, and lots of great
eats—some around a bonfire.
Sue Anne continues to explore tapestries in the form of contemporary
hooked rugs. A few of these are on exhibit now at the Harbor
Gallery in Sunapee Harbor, NH. She is also preparing for a show
in West Virginia in January. See artists-eye.com.
Oh yes, the other project….getting our house ready to sell and moving
to New Hampshire. We really expected to be there by now.
Well, we have NH plates on the cars, NH licenses in our wallets, and
much of our stuff is sitting in a container in a storage yard somewhere
up there, but, except for our many vacations, we are usually still in
MD, fixing, sorting, repairing. Some major unexpected repairs
involved jack hammers and wheel barrow loads of gravel disappearing
into the basement. Trust us, that is all you want to know about
that project, other than to note that Dan Tracy has put a lot of work
into helping us get the place in shape. Mark your address books
for next year: PO Box 66, Elkins, NH 03233, phone 603 526-2496,
bbb@acm.org. And if you already sent Christmas cards to that
address this year, don’t worry—we’ll get them.
Again, we wish you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2006!