HAPPY NEW YEAR....AND WHAT A WAY TO BEGIN!

Here are our Happy New Year wishes to all of you! Hope 2009 will be a winner - full of good health, happiness and prosperity!

Our year got off to a very happy start with a picture message on my cell phone first thing this morning of our son Ryan's girlfriend's hand --- showing a sparkling diamond ring! We are waiting for some pictures of the event which took place in Vegas where they live. All of Jessica's family were there to share the momentous occasion. I sure wish we could have been there too! Best wishes to them both - Jessica is a jewel and we are so glad she will be part of our family! Life with Ryan will be interesting I know.

Kate spent the holidays here with us and she seemed to enjoy everything about her visit EXCEPT for the air travel part. She had a wild adventure and swears she will NEVER fly USAIR again (nevermind the free ticket they gave her to use in the future). The outbound flights were plagued with delay and cancellations. We ended up scrambling to rescue her from Philadelphia on the way here, and got her to Binghampton, NY which is about a three hour drive south. Thats in good weather. On that night it was a full-on blizzard! On her return flight she had to be in Syracuse at 540am. We left the house at 230am, drove through a nice snowstorm, arrived in plenty of time, watched her go thru security, and heard her voice from the plane after boarding. We headed north and when we were almost home she called in tears saying they sat on the runway for an hour and therefore she missed her flight out of Philly. When she arrived at 715a they gave her a ticket for the NEXT DAY at 8am. "I'm having an anxiety attack!" she told us. So we did our best to try and find her a flight but in the end she was able to get on a 6pm flight to Vegas and then another to San Diego. 15 hours later she arrived in San Diego. Hopefully in a few weeks the travel part will be a faded memory! Hope she tries again with her free ticket in the summer!

We had a wonderful Christmas. Lots of laughs, cookies, and goodies. We had such nice times with my cousin and her husband and their circle of friends which included us in their Christmas dinner parties. We like it here in the north country A LOT. It's fun to watch the lake freeze and thaw and freeze again. We are new enough at this winter stuff that the snow seems magical. We are loving our cozy "retirement trailer".

We start 2009 grateful for the good days we have, for our family and friends, for Max the Wonderdog, and for the 19 days left of having G.W. Bush as our President!