Sunday, December 30, 2007

Christmas on the Road

We had a great drive on Christmas Day down to Jared and Stefs in Virginia where we had fun playing with the Grand dogs and cats. The cats aren't nearly as friendly and only appeared when there was food to be had. Once we arrived we went over to Stef's parents (Norm and Sharon Levesque) and had a very nice dinner. It had been two years since we had seen Norm and Sharon so it was nice to visit with them. After visiting with Jared and Stef and the puppies. (Jared promised to put up pictures of the puppies in their Christmas finery)
We headed down to Spencer and Elizabeth's home, arriving to find them healthy and doing well. We had a real treat of having some bear ribs for dinner. One of their friends had given them some frozen bear so Spencer, ever being the adventurous person made up an apple marinade and cooked the ribs. They were yummy, we also had some of their recently killed chickens in a stir fry to round out the meal. We are hoping for some bear stew on the return trip.
Our ride to Norfolk was uneventful, as was our flight to Utah. Matt and Angie and Jayson picked us up at the airport for the ride to Orem, and then let us use a car for our ride down first to Bethany and Ryans and then off to the Edmunds to visit with them, and the Chatfields who are leaving on a mission to Albania next Monday.
We of course got everyone together for the Patriots game on Saturday night. It was nice that Mike and Penny were away, so we were able to use their large TV for the game.
On New Year's eve day we went to Tucanos for lunch. This is a Brazilian restaurant, where if you are a vegetarian you would not be real happy. They grill meat on skewers and bring them around to tables and cut off meat for you. Everyone had a great time. There were 23 of us there. We were only missing Sean and Kyle.
We had a New Year's eve party at Matt's home, where we very sensibly rang in the New Year at midnight Eastern time. We were all headed out the door by 10:30.
That's it for now. We wish everyone a very Happy New Year.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Retirement

Well it finally came - the last day of work that is!! Friday, Dec. 21 was it. My official beginning of retirement is Jan 1, but there will be no more work days at Raytheon for the foreseeable future. I was given a wonderful party on Wednesday at the Green Valley Country Club. There were about 70 people there, spanning my entire work career - NUSC, Hughes and Raytheon. There were some very nice words said and some very nice gifts.

It has not sunk in yet and I don't think it will until we get home in late January. Maybe when we're sitting in the Hallen's back yard with the temperature in the 80s it might also sink in.

Stay tuned for our continuing travels. We'll be in Easthampton, MA until Christmas Day.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Thanksgiving 2007

Just looked and it has been over a month since We blogged. There has been lots happening since that time. I continue to go to my parents every week for a couple of days. This is our new car.

It has almost become a pleasure to drive the 2 plus hours to Easthampton. Having a CD player and Harry Potter CD's along makes the time go by faster. I also get to listen to Christmas music, can't tell you how many times i have heard Dominique the donkey. HEE HAW HEE HAW

We brought Thanksgiving up to Easthampton this year. Clive joined us, and we had a great dinner. I, of course, was holding the camera


Once Thanksgiving finished, it was time to continue with getting ready for Christmas. Lots to do and not much time to do it. Will be exciting to see most of the family at Christmas time. It starts off with Gordon and Carrie and Geoffrey, then Grandpa and Grammy and Pepere, then Hank and Susan and family all in Massachusetts. We will then drive to Virginia to have a quick visit wit Jared and Stef, and Spencer and Elizabeth and Meredith. We will be taking Julia with us to Utah. Once we arrive in utah we will see those living there. Whew, I am tired already just thinking of it. We will be stopping to see Adam on our return from Florida after our trip to Utah. I am really looking forward to sitting in Florida with nothing to do. Maybe will get a day or two of that.