Happy New Year

Yup, I have just jumped from Thanksgiving right to the New Year....but I will give you a glimpse of the intervening weeks.

To start at the end, we arrived today at Travis AFB Famcamp in Fairfield which will be "home" for about two weeks. In addition to our annual time with the Schulers, we are awaiting the arrival of the Spragues. They hope to leave Spokane on the 4th so if the weather cooperates, we should see them around the 7th.

Our trip down was uneventful, and we had great roads all the way with barely any snow in sight except the upper half of Mt. Shasta. Getting out of Steilacoom was a bit hectic because the kitchen had to be completely emptied. We are having it remodeled while we are away this winter so it had to be ready for the contractor to come in and demolish and rebuild. Trying to juggle Christmas, a four-month trip, a kitchen remodel and Christmas proved to be a bit overwhelming at times.

We spent Christmas Eve with the Johnsons in Bellevue and Colleen came back to Steilacoom for Christmas day. Craig and Cassie came by before we left and arrived with pizza in hand which was a godsend since I had nothing left in my kitchen but some empty cabinets. Colleen stayed two extra days and helped us with last minute packing and organizing.

I had hoped to get down here in time to attend a Kaffe Fassett quilting class today, but there was just no way we could get out of town in time. I am waiting for a call from Bev to hear how it was. Marvelous, I'm sure because he is so talented.

Keith and Janet and the girls are cruising in the Caribbean as I write this, and Brian is home from his lonely outpost overseas for the holidays.

Brian has learned that his next job come July will be at Seymour-Johnson AFB in Goldsboro, NC, a base where he has never been stationed. So we have a good excuse to hop on one of my private jets to go join in the transition the latter part of July.

After we leave here, we are going to travel with the Spragues to southern California with a stop at some hot springs in the Salton Sea area, and then on to Quartzite for a week in the desert with about 250,000 of our closest friends. I'm sure it sounds awful, but there is lots of desert so if you stay away from the town of Quartzite itself, it is quite enjoyable.....until the waste water tanks are full and the fresh water tank is empty!!!!!

We have made no plans beyond the week at Quartzite although we will probably end up back in Casa Grande where we have been going for the past few years. We know many of the regulars, and it is a good spot for Cooper.

Happy New Year and all the best to each of you in the coming year. Ciao

Deep Freeze Time

Brrr, are we ever feeling the Arctic blast from the north. The furnace has run almost non-stop all day, and it is having trouble getting the temperature above 65. What does that tell you about a 90+ year-old house with plaster walls and scant insulation? I was stringing some lights near the fireplace and discovered a major cold spot between the fireplace and the outside wall.

We have continued to fine-tune the next three weeks to coordinate Christmas and leave-taking. We are going to spend Christmas Eve with Curt and Cinda and family in Bellevue and then come home to have Christmas morning here. Then we hope to be on the road by noon. Since I hope to be in Pacific Grove the morning of the 29th for a Kaffe Fasset Quilt presentation, we need to make tracks and getting an early start can't hurt. This plan gives Colleen both of her Christmas favorites; Christmas Eve dinner with fondue and Christmas morning gifts and breakfast.

We dutifully trekked out to the Madigan clinic today since this is the week for flu shots only to discover they have nothing to offer. What little regular flu vaccine they received is depleted and they don't expect to get any more. So we will just have to continue to be judicious about hand-washing, and hope we have a bit of leftover immunity from years past.

We are closing in on time for the evening news. Ciao