Merry Christmas!

Ours will come and go before most of you will have yours.  Merry Christmas!

I have never thought that I would do a Christmas letter but this is one I guess - oh dear!

We are busy keeping old traditions - baking is delivered to our neighbors - and making new traditions - we will be having a bbq on Christmas day!  There are folks at the hospital that are away from their homes so we are hosting them for burgers and sausages on the barbie - FUN!  I cannot let go of the Christmas brunch meal though, so we will share our egg casserole, sweet rolls (not as fine as mama's), and an introduction to cheese grits with our new dear friends Jenny and Jan.

Jenny is in her 80's and is quite a spitfire!  We get along just fine.  Sometimes we have a cup of tea but more often we have a glass of wine!  I found a bag of lettuce on my front porch from her garden yesterday.  I shared some really nice mango with them.  Love good neighbors!  I am used to that from home - Peggy, Len and Jeannie, Becky, and more.

Our first year has been so wonderful and not without some struggles.  The travel and the new friends, the new, easier way that we think about things, the movement - exercise and earthquakes - have all been factors in the success of this year.  Adrian is happy with his work!  He enjoys the walk to and from work!  He is reading and studying journals of Radiology, teaching the up and comings, taking on a leadership role - who'd have thunk it?!?!  The trips we have shared - New Zealand, Australia, Spain, France!  Facetime is great when someone answers!

AND

It is really cold and drafty in the house - no central heat, no double paned windows, food cost is HIGH!  Choices are very limited.  There is no Chex cereal for reindeer food! Who knew that coriander is cilantro? corgette is zucchini? stinky french cheese is not available everywhere?!?  Skype and Facetime can have a bad connection when you really need to talk to your mama and daddy!

All that being said, we talked tonight about how hard it will be to leave.  We talked about our original plan had us leaving now.  We are glad to be staying.  We really love it here.  We also really miss our families, our friends - Adrian NEEDS a golf game with Harry and the boys! I long for the ease of sharing the day to day with my lifelong girlfriends.  An Indian meal with dear friends, Timi's porch for heart-felt conversation, dropping in to hug mama and daddy, dinner with kids at Nero's - we miss all that!

The world has not ended and it should have by now.  I do not think anyone can foretell such events so we dismiss that just like we dismissed all of the election talk.  This is the place to be if you do not want to be yelled at by the media in regards politics, or anything else for that matter.  Nice to be able to turn that off!

Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you.  Either you are close by and we can hug your neck or you are further away and we can send you big hugs and kisses, either way, xoxo...

so thankful

We have had our first pumpkin-pie-free Thanksgiving and we lived through it.  We quite enjoyed it really.  We opted for a roasted chicken - turkeys are big and really expensive! - and we enjoyed an apple crumble for dessert.  We all thought it was just fine!  We love the internet even more as we were able to be with the Richardson side of the family for their pre-meal celebration - we laughed with Maddie, saw the sun in Anna's hair, saw the love in Richie's eyes, had a cyber glass of wine with dearest Peggy, chatted with Jack and Colson - go Coast Guard;-) - spent some time on the porch with Daddy, talked with Mom and Aunt Jacque in the kitchen!  What could be better than that!

We have been enjoying some sunny, windless days as spring comes on.  I have even been hot!  There are still times of chilly, windy days and cool nights but we are all feeling the lifting of the winter blahs.  It is really strange to see all the Christmas decorations in the shop windows with summer clothes and sandals.  As far as I can tell the weather in Nashville is about the same as here right now with the strange warm weather there.

Grace had a fun birthday with a party for 18 of her friends/classmates.  They played capture the flag in the backyard and decorated Christmas ornaments.  Hard to imagine that it has been 10 years since she arrived - she is a lovely young lady and is thriving here.  I am loving watching these girls grow...

We are coming up to the one year mark and as most of you know we have opted to stay on for at least six more months, more likely another year.  Now that I am getting used to the price of things being high, I can only say that this is a great place.  Life is easier, the pace is slower, there have been so many benefits!  There is so much to be thankful for...