Our Annual Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas to our family and friends! For the past 20 years or more, we have sent an annual Christmas letter with our Christmas cards to family and friends. The letter briefly covered the past year’s events for each member of the family. Since we are traveling, it is much harder to handle mail, especially Christmas cards. We decided to include this year’s letter in our blog instead of sending cards. It will hopefully still reach most of our family and friends. For the few that we know do not use social media, I will still send a card with this letter. (If you get a hard copy and want to follow us online but don’t use social media, you can subscribe on the blog for an email notification with a link to the latest blog post. Just log onto www.exploringtomorrows.com and subscribe on the Contact page.)

2021 was a busy and exciting year for our family. Tim and I are still living and traveling full time in our Cedar Creek Fifth Wheel trailer and we typically travel with the weather so we started the year in Wildwood, Florida. Just like the previous year, we were still being pretty cautious and stayed somewhat isolated so we didn’t do much touring around Florida. Our first excitement came in January when our youngest daughter, Kim, got engaged to her boyfriend, Greg. We are thrilled for them both and look forward to Greg joining our family.

Between work and wedding planning, Kim and Greg have had a busy year. Kim is in her third year of her residency at Cincinnati Children’s and she continues to enjoy it even with the long hours. Only a few more years to go! Greg is an engineer and he was working in Dayton, OH which was a little bit of a commute from their house. Recently he started a new job in Cincinnati so he now works closer to home. That will be much more convenient for him. In between work and wedding planning, they have been doing some work on their home.

One benefit to living in an RV is being able to travel to see family and have your home with you. Kim asked if I would help with wedding dress shopping so we planned our spring travels to take us to Cincinnati in early May. Luckily, there are a couple RV parks nearby that are part of Thousand Trails, so we stay at no cost with our membership. Kim scheduled wedding dress shopping for the first weekend I was there and Katie came out to help shop for the dress, too. Wedding dress shopping was fun and it was such a thrill to see Kim’s face when she found the perfect dress.

Katie brought more excitement when she arrived that weekend. She brought us a new member to our family. We had an opportunity to adopt a dog named Trent, through the Leader Program for the Blind. Trent didn’t make it through program but we are able to work with him and train him to be a service dog for Tim. Trent is a very handsome dog, half black lab, half golden retriever. Getting a dog that is already well trained is a plus when living in an RV. Trent has adjusted well to his new home in the RV, and he is a great traveler. He enjoys going new places and loves long walks so he helps me get my daily exercise. We bought Trent a cot so he could lay more comfortably at the campsites. Some have heavy gravel so the cot is much more comfortable for him. I think his favorite past time is laying on his cot and watching the activity in the campground. He especially loves when children are playing nearby. He is a wonderful companion. We really lucked out getting such a great dog.

Trent enjoying his cot at his first campsite.

Trent loves playing with his ball in the RV.

Trent wasn’t the only excitement Katie brought with her. When she arrived she gave me my mother’s day card with a special note letting me know I will be a grandmother soon. Our first grandchild is due December 27. What a wonderful Christmas present that will be. We are very excited to become grandparents and look forward to spending time with her. Yes, it’s a girl and we can’t wait to meet her. I am flying up to Pittsburgh on 12/24 to be there for the birth and staying for a little while to help Katie and Jon as they adjust to life as parents.

Wasn’t this a great way to let us know she was pregnant?

Speaking of Katie and Jon, they both continue to work hard at their jobs as well as buying and renovating rental properties. They decided to renovate their home this year and it was under construction the last time I saw it. I am looking forward to seeing the finished job when I get there for Christmas.

After we left Kim’s, we did a little traveling before heading to Pittsburgh for the summer. We finally got to add another state to our travel map. Between Covid slowing down our travels, and longer stays to be with family, we hadn’t added any new states in 2021. I thought we needed to go to at least one new state so planned a month in Michigan in early summer. While we were in Michigan, we received more exciting news. Can you tell that 2021 was filled with exciting news?

Whitney called to tell us that she and Ian got engaged. Wow, another wedding being planned for 2022. Whitney is very excited to be planning her wedding and we look forward to welcoming Ian into our family. After our stay in Michigan, we headed to Pittsburgh for 3 months to spend time with our family and friends. It was good to be home and able to help Whitney with some of her wedding planning. I got to go wedding dress shopping with her and am thankful to be part of the experience.

Whitney and Ian with their two fur babies.

Whitney and Ian are also very busy with their jobs and working on their home. Whitney has been working for the Postal Service for about a year now and she started a cupcake business this year. Ian continues to work at the casino and recently started a job with the carpenter’s union.

While we were in Pittsburgh, the family was able to all get together a few times for some exciting events - a baby shower for Katie and an engagement party for Whitney and Ian. What fun to be part of these celebrations and to have our family altogether. That doesn’t happen often enough these days.

2021 was filled with exciting news and celebrations of that news for our family. We look forward to celebrating the holidays with our growing family and to the coming year where we will have two weddings. What a wonderful life!

We wish you and your family a Very Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year. May your new year be filled with good health and many joys. I know that 2022 is going to be very joyful for our family.

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