Christmas Greetings

[Gregory Matthews]

At this time of the year many of us send Christmas Greetings to our friends and family.

Many of us consider C A to be part of our family.  So, I thought that I would establish a thread where we could send greetings to this great family as a whole.

I will start this off with a letter that Sharon and I sent out.

NOTE:   Remember that safety concerns must be considered in any public posting of personal information.  One point of concern is any public posting of a specific address.   Therefore, I have edited my letter below and I suggest that you all do the same.

Please, I wish to restrict this thread to greetings that we can send to our members here.  If you wish to post on other subjects, to include any discussion of a pagan background for Christmas, I will remove it.

To all reading this:  Merry Christmas.  May you enjoy the blessings of this season.

 

[Gregory Matthews]

Christmas 2016

Dear Friends & Family:

As you may recall, in October 2015, we embarked on a journey that led us to move from Colorado to the California area.  We finalized on the purchase of our new home in December and in January, we took delivery of our stuff.    We enjoy our new home, although we have spent a major part of the year adjusting to it.  It is about 2/3 of the size of our Colorado home.  Our journey has involved getting rid of stuff that we are unlikely to be able to use.  It has involved  opening up new storage areas in both our attic and in our garage.   

We sold our automobiles and purchased a Toyota RAV-4, Hybrid—the 5th hybrid that we have owned.  We both like it.  It has many new safety features that I needed in a car.  We also purchased a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle.  To some it is only an electric golf cart.  But, ours is more.  It is licensed to drive on some of the roads and streets here in California.  So, I have learned to drive it to nearby shopping centers, the local town and even the local SDA Church.   

Christopher:  After spending a summer as an Intern for Microsoft in Washington State, he returned to Iowa State University where he is working on a degree in computer science.  We expect for him to spend a few days with us for Christmas.

David:  He continues his employment as a Prison Correctional Officer.  We enjoy spending time with his family, our grand daughter and even a step grandson--Noah.

Gregory # 4:  It has been a pleasure building a relationship with him.  We generally visit with him in the home  he shares with his mother, each week.   At times we do things together.

Sharon:  She has been exceptionally busy in working on getting our home set up.  I appreciate the work that she has put into making it a center where we can have family gatherings for our local relatives.  We are establishing and building relationships and that is good. 

Gregory: Life is just beginning to slow down from events connected with our move.  My goal in retirement included reading some of the books I have that I have not had the needed time to read.  I am finding it is going much more slowly than I had expected.  

May you receive the blessings of  the season.  Let us know what is happening in your lives.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

Sounds like a good year for you and family, Gregory!

(I've done absolutely nothing that would be of interest to anyone over the past year... )

[Gregory Matthews]

We are interested in  you.  Therefore, we are interested in anything that you might want to s hare with us.

 

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

  Really... I didn't go anywhere or do anything that would interest anyone.  I took my Mom to appointments, mowed her quarter acre lawn every week, planted her flowers and walked down to her place to water everything every morning... Took care of her house while she was gone visiting my brother in California.  Took Dashley for walks.  Planted my garden which the slugs found fascinatingly delicious, to my disgust.

 About the most interesting/maddening thing that happened was when some knothead stole my special blue lightbulb out of my front porch light fixture.  Oh, and I watched three idiots pull up in a car in front of my house last week.  One got out, ambled back behind the car, crossed the street to some bushes, and took a paper-wrapped package that was hidden there.  Then he hightailed it back to the car, and they took off.  Obviously a drug pick-up.  The cops weren't interested unless I could give them the name of the men (like I was going to go out and interview them), or give the license plate number of the car (impossible to see with all the snow coming down).

I *have* found quite a few new cousins from my genealogical research.  I don't feel quite as alone now, what with having more family to chat with on FB. .... Dashley thinks I'm the most wonderful person in the world, and considers me to be "she-who-provides-doggie-cookies-and-peanut-butter-treats-every-day"

[Stan]

Your hunting down your family history has been really interesting...  I keep on thinking I should do that.