2025 Christmas "Letter"

 Alan and I hope that you have a wonderful holiday, full of joy and health.  We will be in Huntsville with the Gamble clan for Christmas, as we have done since Alan's dad died.  We look forward to spending time with the extended Gamble/Spear relatives.  Even though we will be gone at Christmas, we still get in the spirit of the season by decorating here at home.

This will probably be the last year for our 9' Christmas tree.  When we got it out last week, some of the lights wouldn't work.  Plus, climbing on a ladder to put the decorations on the top is now scary business.  We both decided that it was no longer safe at our ages, so next year, we will get a smaller tree. So we have a sort of Charlie Brown tree this year, but that is fine.  It has many ornaments of sentimental value on it:  Each place we go in our travels, we pick up an ornament.  Others have given us beautiful/fun things that we cherish and love bringing out to enjoy each year.

From our trip to Acadia National Park

We have many beautiful bird ornaments.

We have our stockings on the fireplace.  Alan's is extra special because it is the one his mother made when he was a little boy.  It is probably over 70 years old. 

We did put the cute trailer decoration (nephew) Brian and Amy gave us on the fence and garland around the top of the fence.

On the island, I put up the lovely candelabra from Ethiopia that we got from (brother) Loren and Edith many, many years ago. I put greenery from the yard around it.

The German cart we got from Charlotte and Harry when they were stationed in Germany now has a great poinsettia that was a gift from a friend.

We leave our decorations up until Epiphany in the Lutheran tradition of my family, so we will continue to enjoy them after Christmas.

On to other events of this year:

We continue to love traveling in our new-for-us van.  We didn't go far, but we did do several fun trips.  The biggest was the trip to PA to visit my sister, which I told about in an earlier blog.

In February, we went back to Hunting Island State Park, SC.  It is a favorite place near Beaufort, a lovely, historic city that we enjoy exploring.

We got our favorite site.

The beach is beautiful, very close to the campground.

The "Boneyard" of dead trees is really interesting.

In early April, we spent a chilly, rainy week at Roan Mountain State Park.

The effects of hurricane Helene were still evident.
The road to the upper campground washed out.

We did have a nice site next to the river.

In June, we went to Walnut Hills Campground in Staunton, VA.  We toured Staunton, went to see a comedian Alan likes at a comedy club, and revisited nearby Ft. Defiance, where Gamble ancestors immigrated to from Londonderry, Ireland in 1736.  They were Scots-Irish Presbyterians.

Alan enjoyed reading outside next to the lake at night.

The graveyard of the Old Stone Church held Gamble
ancestors from the 1700's to about the Civil War.

In October, we went to New River State Park, NC for a lazy, but fun few days.

We love how easy it is to come and go, and especially to back up. 
 No trouble leaving the site to prowl around and look at things.

We took a couple of nice hikes next to the river.

Fall colors seen from our campsite

I spent a lot of time this year working on various committees and projects for the Shady Oaks Garden Club. I was chair of a committee that rewrote their by-laws, which was an almost year-long project.  I was delighted to receive the Iris Award for service to the club.

This was Flower Show year.  Every member was required to enter both horticulture and a design for the show.  My native hay-scented fern won blue in the fern category, and my design got second in the petite linear design category.  (I'll admit, one of the other members helped me a lot on the design, but I did do it.)

Speaking of flowers, the yard was lovely this year.  I am very grateful for Privilege, my wonderful yard guy.  He is a graduate student from Zimbabwe, who does yard work to support his family back in Africa.  I wouldn't be able to continue to garden on this steep lot without his help.

Weeping cherry tree and tulips

Candytuft

New Guinea impatiens flourished in front of house.

Many daffodils

Crocus

Speaking of the yard, we had a couple of bear visitations.  One night, I woke up in the middle of the night to a huge ruckus at the garbage cans.  I looked out the window and saw a bear heading up the hill next to the house with a bag of garbage in its paw.  Alan ran out and scared it off by banging on a pan.  After that, we kept our garbage cans in the garage.  It did come back to neighbors' houses though.  Here are prints it left on their driveway:

We also saw some bears on the Blue Ridge Parkway when we were in Black Mountain, NC for Thanksgiving with nephew Paul, wife Marta, daughter Ellie, and friend Phil from DC. We saw a young bear afraid to cross the road.  Its mother patiently waited for it on the opposite ridge until it got the courage to cross.  These pictures taken by Paul with his telephoto lens.  We stayed well away from them.

Junior was really scared.  Made a sad, mewing cry for its mother.

Mom waited up on the ridge so she could be seen.

I don't have pictures, but we have had several most enjoyable visits with Paul and Marta this year.  They live in Columbia, SC, where we stopped for a few days with our van on our way back from Hunting Island. For many years now, we have gotten a cabin with them for a long weekend each fall.  This year, we were at Weaverville, NC.  We have celebrated Thanksgiving with them at various places starting when Emma was a baby, 25 years ago. Paul has agreed to be the executor of our estate when both of us are gone.  Thank you, Paul!!

At Cabin Creekwood when Emma was a baby

I can't talk about the year without mentioning how saddened and disturbed we are about the Trump administration and its illegal, inhumane, and unethical activities.  We participated in two No Kings rallies, and have attended a training on non-violent resistance.  There is a very active Indivisible group that we have been working with.

Physically, we are in fairly good shape, all things considered.  I am scheduled for right knee replacement February 18.  I've found a well-regarded surgeon in Knoxville who does the robotic surgery, which is much less invasive, with a shorter recovery time.  If all goes well, I will probably get the left one done soon after that.  I really want to be able to walk and hike without pain again, if possible.

We continue to love living in Johnson City.  We have movie nights and game nights with friends, attend concerts and recitals at ETSU, go see jazz on a regular basis, and love spending time with our wide circle of friends and acquaintances.  Life is good.

Alan and I celebrated our 33rd anniversary this year with a dinner at a lovely restaurant and vineyard.  What an incredible journey this has been with my sweet, wonderful husband.

Anniversary flowers Alan gave me