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The Adventures of BJ and Tony Morris
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Christmas 1997 Merry Christmas! Due to the
complaints regarding the brevity of my Christmas letter last year, I have returned to the
longer more boring iteration this year! One of the most
significant events that happened to me this year was that I spent most of it without one
of my front teeth. The dental implant
procedure that I had done, required that I wear a partial denture. I got a big kick out of taking out my tooth at
opportune moments and surprising people. I
had my tooth pulled in December ‘96 and finally got my new permanent tooth December
5, 1997. It gave new meaning to “All I
want for Christmas is As usual, we did a
lot of traveling this year. Our first trip
was to New Orleans to have lunch with a friend who now works for American Airlines and
flew in from Dallas. We enjoyed all of the
traditional New Orleans treats (beignets, muffulettas, & hurricanes) and made a small
donation at the Flamingo Casino. Next, after
visiting friends in Denver, we went to Bozeman, Montana to ski at Big Sky and snowmobile
in Yellowstone Park. The weather was bitterly
cold, but our handwarmers made it tolerable. There
was plenty of snow and we saw buffalo, elk, and eagles while snowmobiling. We went on our
annual “Braves Spring Training” trip to West Palm Beach at the end of February. We have been doing this for so long and In March, we took
two trips to Key Largo where we enjoyed wonderful dinners and relaxing days by the pool. We flew into Ft. Myers, drove across Alligator
Alley and took our first air-boat ride! It
was neat seeing alligators in the swamp. It rained most of
the weekend during our annual cabin camping trip to Georgia’s Fort Mountain State
Park. We were able to have a good time anyway
by doing a lot of eating, drinking, card playing, and fire poking. In May, we went to
Bermuda, one of our favorite Caribbean destinations.
We rented scooters and explored the island.
Tony even caught a We went to New
Orleans again in June to have lunch with Tony’s brother who was vacationing there. Also in June, we made a quick trip to Denver to
visit friends and stopped by St. Louis on the way home to try our luck on the gambling
boats. Not surprisingly, our luck remains
about the same. We don’t ever lose more
money than we take with us, and we always have fun! July 4th weekend
is traditionally a good time for us to travel overseas so we decided to go to Ireland. Unfortunately, so did a lot of other people, so
there weren’t any empty seats on the plane for us.
We had our bags packed and were already at the airport, though, so we
decided to join some I made a couple of
quick trips to spend some time with my sister’s family on their vacations. I flew a puddle jumper to Brunswick and joined my Tony & I
celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary in August by spending a week at the same resort
where we had honeymooned. This time, though,
we took 6 friends with us to enjoy the all-inclusive resort! The resort had been completely rebuilt following a
recent hurricane. In September, we
visited a friend in Sacramento who took us rafting down the American river and then to
Lake Tahoe. The American River Our day trip to
Williamsburg in September was very interesting. A
lot of the buildings reminded me of ones on the farm where I grew up. I really outdid
myself at the Delta Ladies’ Golf Tournament this year.
I won first place in my flight and it was not because other people withdrew! It was held at the Esmeralda Resort in Palm
Springs California, probably the most ritzy place I’ve ever been. They even had pool boys with misting bottles to
spray you by the pool! In October, we
embarked on a new hobby. We went backpacking
along the Chatooga River in South Carolina. I
wasn’t sure we were going to like it, but we had a blast. We have now started a quest to buy all new lighter
equipment! We went to
Staunton, Virginia in November for a friend’s mother’s funeral. We discovered that Staunton is a wonderful little
mill village that might warrant another trip when we have more time. We spent
Thanksgiving in Rome, Italy with Jared, my 10 year old nephew. It was a lot of fun. We stayed in a convent where the nuns spoke no
English. We saw the Colluseum, the Pantheon,
Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps, St. Peter’s, and much more! December 5th,
we flew to Miami to go on a holiday dinner cruise with folks from Worldspan’s Fort
Lauderdale branch. Tony is trying to
talk me into going to London for New Years, but I’m not sure I’m ready for
another transatlantic flight yet. My plans
for the rest of the year, are to stay close to home and look forward to getting your
Christmas card and finding out what you have been up to! Hope you have a
wonderful holiday! |