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!