Thursday, December 20, 2018

Christmas Letter 2018



Man, is it Christmas already? This year has gone by so fast but they say that is what happens in your mid seventies!

We had no big home projects this year other than Norma's ever present struggles with her gardens and lawns which always seem to take up as much time as she wants to spend on them. The drainage on the rear bank is still corralled by all the drain pipes and sumps we had installed a few years ago to send it on it's way down the driveway, under the road and into the ocean. I just have to climb up the bank every three or four months to ensure all three sumps are empty of sand. We really enjoy having that year round stream behind the house but it does require maintenance.

Brooks' fencing and deck business is doing very well, in fact he is almost getting too much work which is OK because it lets him refer the jobs he really does not want or does not have time for to other people.  He and LindaLee have been on several mini vacations, this year's destinations have been Seattle, Nashville and Vegas.

We, on the other hand, only got away once and that was to our great niece Karen's wedding in Lacombe, Alberta. The groom is Irish and their home is in Ireland so as you can imagine the wedding had it's share of Irishmen (and ladies). The venue was on Karen's brother's farm and it was a blast that lasted several days! We made a slow trip out in the motorhome and an equally slow trip back. The return trip would have been longer but the forest fire smoke forced us to cancel our planned time in the Okanagan. As it was, we were gone almost a month!

The grandkids made it up in the summer. They are both incredibly busy but Jayde took time off to come up from Vancouver with Brooks and Sierrah caught a ride from Victoria with Caroline, her other grandma. It was a fun couple of days and so great to see these young adults (and fun to see Carolyn again)!

Norma had one eye worked on to remove a pesky cataract and add a new lens and I had a minor heart thing, A-Fib, which they tried to get back into rhythm with an electric shock. It didn't work but my specialist assures me that no one has ever died from A-Fib so I have added a blood thinner a day to my diet and am living with it. Not a big deal as I didn't know I had it (or even how long I have had it) in the first place.

I don't know where the rest of the year went. I know we spent more time relaxing, or "chillin" as they call it now than we used to but that is probably a good thing.

We are staying home again this winter for a couple of reasons, the primary one being my reluctance to spend any of my hard earned Union pension in a country governed by Trump.

So, Merry Christmas to all and as always, "Life Is Good"!


Image result for yule log





15 comments:

  1. Merry Christmas to you and Norma!

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  2. Merry Christmas enjoy your winter there and keep warm.

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  3. Merry Christmas to you and Norma and all the best in the New Year.

    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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  4. Have a great 2019. Maybe the moron will be gone by next winter and you can come back down.

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  5. Dear Norma and Croft Merry Christmas from Cuba

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  6. WOW, that's pretty sad that you thumb your nose at all of USA just because you don't like one person. WOW

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  7. Linda and I spent some winters in Antigua Guatemala when we first retired. The air fare was more than Mexico but it cost less to rent. We would get condos for between 400 and 800 USD depending on location and how fancy the place was fitted out. They all came with internet, cable and utilities packed into the price. I've followed your spreadsheets on your travel costs over the years; Antigua is much cheaper than what you posted. We would get around with shuttles and buses to the tourist attractions, rent 4x4 cars for the backcountry runs. Some of the backcountry motels were a little primitive (like bring your own padlock for the door primitive) but it is the nature of the backcountry.
    Antigua is pretty upscale as Guatemala goes-lots of good restaurants and some of the best rum anywhere. We always rented online but you don't have to, people reserve a hotel, use the hotel's airport service to get to Antigua and then scout out a place once they get there.
    Winter in Antigua is the dry season, little or no rain, not too hot, maybe a little dusty come March, just an endless run of blue skies, day after day.

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  8. Croft and Norma, hope you are having a very Merry Christmas! As I said to Les, it is soooo very quiet here today on Christmas Day. All of our festivities occurred over this past weekend with a lot of commotion and food with children, grandchildren, God grandchildren, dogs, and Todd's old roommate (and his family) from college. They left to return to NC Monday morning for the in-laws Christmas festivities.

    Yes, I agree; a Canadian Christmas right now I'm sure is a lot happier than one here in the US with all the turmoil in the White House and Congress. A substantial number of government employees and contractors will not be paid over the Holidays because of 25 percent shutdown of the federal government. I don't think Beach and I will receive our civilian and military retirement checks or Social Security checks because of this shutdown. All of this over a stupid wall. But I have faith that when the "new" Congress take their seats on January 2nd, changes will occur. You know, Nixon resigned when he was smart enough to figure out he was out gunned. Not so sure about the "smarts" regarding this one; more concerned now (more than ever) about national security with him in charge.

    So, enjoy your Canadian Christmas and cherish it!

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  9. Love your reasoning re spending money in Trumpland. I wish we could get rid of that bugger but I'm not as optomistic as Dee. Hope Christmas was great for you and 2019 even better - and that you can come down and visit a new USA!

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  10. Happy New Year to you and Norma and many blessings in 2019! We are wishing for a 2019 blessing of a new USA and peace and harmony.

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