Christmas "Letter" 2023

 Alan and I wish you a most happy holiday season! As usual, instead of mailing a card or letter, I will do an update on things of note this year that I haven't covered in this blog.  Some of you who are Facebook friends, may recognize some of the pix.

We did four trips that I haven't told you about:

In June, we had a modified "Bliese" family reunion at Folly Beach, SC, near Charleston.  My sister Rosemary, niece Jeanne, and husband Kris came from PA; grandniece Lea from Charlotte; nephew Pete and wife Karen from Chicago; and nephew Paul from Columbia. We had a lovely time exploring Charleston, enjoying the beautiful beach, and just being together.

Rosemary and I with Jeanne, Kris, and Lea
Paul had to leave early, so we didn't get a pic of him.  

Pete and Karen on the boardwalk from house to beach.

Nice outdoor deck for eating and enjoying the view.

Great screened porch where we spent lots of time

915 Ashley, if you ever want to rent a pleasant six bedroom beach house at Folly.

In August, we took the trailer to Rock Creek Recreation Area, which is very near where we live, for our annual outing with our friend Kevin and his daughter Emily. It rained torrents while we were there, but we still had fun.  It made the creek into a spectacular set of rapids, rather than the lazy creek it usually is.  The only pix I took of the creek are videos, which are difficult to get into this blog.  You can check them out on my Facebook posts, if you wish.

Our favorite site

We drove up to Beauty Spot.

View from Unaka Mtn. overlook

In October, we joined Alan's sisters and their husbands at a cabin at Rock Island State Park, in central Tennessee.  It is a beautiful park with many wonderful waterfalls.  We had a fantastic time with everyone and seeing the beautiful sights.  

That orange dot is Alan, who was the only one to do the trail
 to the bottom of the gorge.  This was just one month after
he had his hip replaced, but he was determined to do it.
No ill effects, luckily.

We spent a delightful Thanksgiving week near Atlanta, GA at the home of Alan's sister Susie and her husband Ed.  Besides having a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner, we did a lot of most enjoyable things, including celebrating Susie's birthday.  Unfortunately, the only pix I have are from a fun Winter "Lantern" Festival we attended. 

Everyone got a halo light to wear,
which did help in keeping track of folks in the dark!

These "lanterns" were huge.  See person for scale.

Susie and Ed's cat Mitsi became Alan's best friend.
Alan really misses our dear Shelby,
so this was a lovely thing to happen.

I continue being active with a local garden club.  We had a flower show at an art gallery this year, which was way more complicated than I ever imagined.  My part was to handle publicity since I am not good at doing the fancy designs.  They were very grateful, though.  It was extremely well attended.  I did enter a couple of the horticulture categories, and my hay-scented fern got best in the fern class.

I spend a lot of time in the yard, also, and the flowers are usually quite pretty.  Due to the steep lot and my advancing age, I am hiring people to do things more and more.  

Basket on front of house

State Fair zinnia with butterfly

Black-eyed Susans with crepe myrtle

bee on sweetspire

The daffodils continue to be beautiful each spring.

We reached the 70/80 milestones this year, so we are ever aware of how our time is getting shorter.  Alan's hip surgery helped his pain a lot, and we are grateful for his complete recovery in such a short time.  I have issues with my feet, knees, and shoulder, mostly from arthritis, but I am trying to stay as active as I can. Because towing the trailer is becoming more of an issue, we have decided to sell it and the truck and get a used camper van--probably a Winnebago Travato.  A van would be much easier to drive and back up, park in a regular parking place, and would be something I could drive in an emergency. But we are in the earliest stages of that process. So if you know of someone who would like to buy our truck and/or trailer, they are for sale.  The truck is a 2007 Toyota Tundra with a cap on the back, in excellent condition. It has a back-up camera on the hitch, so you can easily hook up the truck to trailer without assistance. Trailer is a 19' 2017 Lance, model 1995. Trailer has a full bath, but I don't have a pic.

Once we get the van, we plan to do an extended trip out West, and maybe take the ferry to Alaska. At least, that is our present plan.  Not sure when we will pull it all together, but hope that we can do it next year.

As we have done for the past few years, we will spend Christmas in Huntsville with Alan's family.  It is always a wonderful time of joy and love. May you also have a joyous holiday season with those you love.  

Alan models his new Christmas hat.