The Christmas Letter You Hope Never to Send

Dear Friends and Family,

Highlights of the year 2008 would have to include our trip to Clark, Wyoming to visit our cousins. They are fabulous hosts and have an eighty-acre “ranch” with the Rocky Mountains as a back drop. Our visit included our fourth trip to Yellowstone, a short drive to the west.

After visiting with them, we were able to fit in a long awaited trip to Iowa, fulfilling our goal to “see America first.” We have now visited every state in the union. We’ve also visited six provinces of Canada.

We joined an Elderhostel group at the 33rd Annual Glenn Miller Festival in Clarinda, Iowa and had three days of wall to wall Glenn Miller music played by bands from around the world, including an eighty piece all girl high school band from Japan.

Upon first arriving in Iowa we were surprised to see so many lakes. These lakes turned out ot be flooded farm fields. Do you remember reading abou the Iowa flood last June? We were there. An added bit of excitement was being rousted out of bed to take shelter on the first floor hall of the motel due to a tornado threat. Fortunately no tornado materialized.

In August we spent a very nice week on Mount Desert Island, Maine which includes Bar Harbor. At low tide we even walked the sand bar for which the town was named.

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the many exciting hours watching our grandkids play volley ball, flag football, soccer, ice hockey, baseball, swimming, track and cross country. This is especially true when all we had to do is get to the game, watch and then go home. No practices, getting the kids ready, washing uniforms, etc., etc. Having grandkids is a great blessing!

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009!