Christmas 2009
Ho
Ho Ho and Merrrrrrrrry Christmas!
It
has been an interesting year, to say the least.
We’ve encountered a number of changes in our lives.
We have continued to enjoy our airline travel benefits, but we’ve
thrown in a few driving excursions as well.
We bought a lot on the coast of Carrabelle, Florida and added two new
pets to our little family. We
mourned the loss of BJ’s dad, but celebrated a life well lived.
Tony’s mom continues to enjoy good health and we are pleased to have
her living nearby. Our little German
“daughter” Carina has settled into her American life and is living in an
apartment just around the corner from us.
Work-wise,
everything is status-quo. BJ is
still with Travelport and Tony is still doing part-time contract programming at
Lockheed Credit Union. We are very
pleased to be employed during this economic downturn.
We have several friends who are out of work and we are praying that they
will find something soon.
We
seem to be befriending a lot of young folks these days.
We attended 3 weddings and celebrated the births of several babies!
Neither of these are activities that many of our age group are
participating in.
In
January, we began anew our quest for retirement property, this time in Beaufort,
SC. We found a house we liked, on
the Broad River but could not agree on a price.
BJ
flew to New York in February to help a friend do some marketing at the Toy Fair.
She appeared in the audience of the Today Show 3 days in a row!
At the end of February, we flew to Prague, coincidently on the same
flight that one of our former neighbors was working as a flight attendant.
We enjoyed touring the city with her and catching up.
In
March, we joined BJ’s college room-mate and her family at Suwannee Fest in
Live Oak, Florida. This was our
first Bluegrass Festival so we did not realize that there was a dress code.
We now have the requisite tie-dye ensembles for the next one!
The motor home (aka Rolling Slum, aka Mobile Ghetto) decided to act up
causing us to rough it just a little more than we bargained for.
One
of Carina’s friends came over from Germany in April so the four of us drove
down to St. George Island to visit our friends and then ended the week at the
Travelport Golf Tournament in Panama City. The
weather was spectacular but the Spring Breakers were out in force.
We followed the tournament up with a trip to Cinque Terre, Italy with
friends. It seems we were destined
to encounter good weather and crowds during our April travels.
We just happened to be in Cinque Terre on Italian Liberation Day which
thousands celebrated by hiking the Cinque Terre trails with us.
We
started May off with a bicycle trip around Spain.
After landing in Barcelona, we trained to Girona where we rented bicycles
and biked out to the coast stopping at several quaint medieval villages along
the way there and back.
In
June, we found ourselves back in Beaufort, SC for a wedding.
We took the opportunity to continue shopping for a retirement home.
We made an offer on a different house, still on the Broad River, but
again, could not agree on a price.
July
started out to be a driving vacation month.
We took the Mobile Ghetto to historic Banning Mills in July for a
friend’s birthday celebration and later in the month drove down to Carrabelle,
Florida with BJ’s sister to preview a house we were considering purchasing.
We decided against it, but a lot on the beach caught our eye while we
were there. We celebrated BJ’s
“Big Fat Greek” birthday week at the end of the month on the Greek islands
of Naxos and Santorini with six friends.
In
August, we successfully negotiated the purchase of the Carrabelle Beach lot that
we had found in July. We’ve never
built a house before so we’re looking forward to the challenges that will
bring. Tony has drawn up some plans
that we will take to an architect to finalize.
We’ll have an extra bedroom so we’re hoping you’ll come to visit us
in our new home!
BJ
won second place in her flight at the Delta Women’s Golf Tournament at Mission
Hills, California in September (AND, there were more than 2 people in the
flight!). Tony flew to Düsseldorf
while the girls were in California. He
got to spend an extra night when the return flight was cancelled.
We returned home just in time to fly to Sarasota, Florida to attend a
lovely beach wedding on Anna Maria Island.
We
drove to Panama City in October to meet up with BJ’s sister and her husband
while they were taking their mandatory furlough days from school.
While we were there, we went to the Seafood and Wine Festival where Styx
was playing! We also attended a
condo auction in Mexico Beach where we almost bought a condo.
Afterward, we swung through Apalachicola and over to Carrabelle to check
on our property as well. BJ also
attended Gold Rush in Dahlonega, Georgia this year.
BJ’s dad passed away on October 29th one year from his
diagnosis of a blood clot on his heart. We
were very glad that we had gotten to spend so much time with him over the year.
BJ
and her girlfriends spent a weekend in Sky Valley, Georgia in early November.
They were among the last people to get to play the beautiful Sky Valley
Golf Course before it closed. Our
traditional Thanksgiving trip was to Paris this year with our niece and nephew.
The trip was preceded by a quick last minute jaunt up to Washington, DC
to renew our niece’s passport. We
had a great time seeing all of the museums and monuments but we were anxious to
get home to our NEW PET! We adopted
our 3 pound Chihuahua puppy Lucy just before we left so she had to stay with
BJ’s sister while we were gone. She
has already attended First Grade at Sardis Elementary School.
The day after we got back from Paris, Tony flew to Charlotte to pick up
Lola, the kitten that is twice Lucy’s size.
They are both a handful but such a joy.
Lucy and Lola have been blogging on the web a bit.
http://www.bjandtony.com/FamilyLucy.html.
We’ll
probably stay home in December since we are so occupied with refereeing and
house-training!
Read
more about our adventures at www.bjandtony.com
!
Click here to download a printable copy