xmas2021

At least it wasn't 2020 over again!	I am not ashamed to admit I am one of the anti-mask, anti-vaccine, anti Fauci and pro conspiracy theory folks throughout this whole fiasco. And yes, I took the vaccine, but only so I could cruise. I will not step up on my soapbox and rant and rave. (Because Micky hid my soapbox.)

Kiddos	Jamie spent almost three months on a project in Borger. It was his first time to work with steel hangers and he says he is now a pro at "hanging iron." Luchi's job changed again, thank you very much covid. With so many kids that fell behind she is spending this year as a star test tutor. Natalie moved to the 9th grade which is a separate campus in Weatherford She is playing club volleyball and also made the school tennis team. She will be 15 in January. - YIKES. She has a boyfriend and attended her first high school football game wearing a homecoming mum. Welcome to Texas! Martin has moved to middle school campus as a 6th grader and turns12 this December. He is ok with school but could find much more interesting things to do with his time (bike riding, trampoline jumping, dog chasing, etc.)

	Casey continues to work from home. When we ask he just shrugs and says, "Who really needs a dining room table anyway?" Mary is in her 2nd year back in the classroom. She has moved into her new farmhouse style home and is building her courage (and pocketbook) to start landscaping. Katy is an 8th grader and will be moving to the big 6A high school next year. She loved staying home but did not enjoy the distance learning. She is once again sporting braces on her teeth and hopefully this is the last time. She turned 13 in May giving us 2 teenage granddaughters. Kira is a sophomore at Texas Tech and has survived both dust and ice storms not to mention a couple of tornados. She is making a great Red Raider.

	Bethany works full time x 2. She is the payroll and accounts payable clerk for Will Call and her proofreading business has picked back up to where she is billing enough hours to be considered fulltime. Michael has suffered through / survived a company reorganization at work while dealing with miserable dental work. We all know how much fun those activities are. Gatlin is a "big boy schooler" which is his term for kids that go to the REAL school. He is doing great in kindergarten and just turned 6 in November. Lincoln is the adorable mess we all want to grab and cuddle. As the youngest of all he is Mr. Attention. He has zero patience and had a meltdown when his mean old momma said he could not go to daycare naked.

	We had planned the 2021 Gcamp to be GCruise. But as many things, thanks to covid, the cruise was canceled. So we enjoyed two weeks of grandkids. Micky introduced Martin to golf which he enjoyed in spite of the heat and humidity. Both Natalie and Katy pieced small lap quilts and avoided the backyard workshop (which is not air conditioned). They tried and quickly figured out pattern piecing and did a great job. Gatlin liked spending time with the big kids and Gramps. Lincoln took long naps and entertained us all. Cousin Riley came for one week and then left to go fishing for a week. GCamp included a class on finance after we heard college graduates telling CNN that they didn't realize their loans had to be paid back. I told Micky our grandkids are not going to look like idiots on national television. We were very proud of the efforts they made and the interest they showed in planning how they would need to pay for their future.

Company	Joni's kids all made trips to Texas to visit and get away from the rain. Yes they have had "plenty" and then some.

	Gary and Voni stopped by a few times to load us up and head out. Usually to the doctor in Houston and on to the Louisiana casinos.

	We spent Memorial Weekend in the Amarillo area. We saw the play Texas, visited with Lynda and Stanley and spent a few days with James and Mendy. Then Labor Day weekend James and Mendy made the trip down to Temple to watch Tech win at football and eat prime rib.

	We made a few trips to Lubbock to our favorite bed and breakfast (Paulette's house). On one trip we toured our nephew and his wife's (Tim & Amber) new home and finally met their son, Jeremiah. Another trip we attended a Texas Tech football game. which they won! And we have had two "planning" meetings for the cruise to Europe.

Travel GRRRRRR Vaccine	We traveled to Vegas in March. We got our first covid vaccine shot just before we left and were told the 2nd shot was scheduled for the day after we returned. While we were there we got a message that my 2nd shot would be given 3 days before we came home. Our options: show up or cancel. At that time the local CVS did not have any other appointments and would not discuss why my appointment was changed or their follow up plan if I missed the appointment. So we came home early. CVS has now joined with Walmart on my "Never happening again list." As to the vaccine . . . I say I only got it so I could cruise. I do not . . . wait my soapbox is still missing! Ahhh Vegas where marajuana is legal and you can get high walking down the street. We enjoyed watching the conference tournaments and thought we would have better luck / knowledge betting on them. HA! We did enjoy watching ACU whip the longhorns. (and no it should not be capitalized).

	In May we spent two weeks in Honolulu, Hawaii. We learned that the weather is the reason it is amazing as it has very little humidity or rain. Pools were heated (thank goodness) and ocean water was plenty cool. We spent most evenings on the balcony listening to the outdoor luau music from the resort next door.

	We traveled to Cozumel in August, back to the resort where we traveled 20 years ago for our first trip to Mexico. We did a lot of reading, eating and drinking. Mainly we floated in the ocean and admired the peaceful days and beauty of the surrounding.

	In August we traveled to Seattle and then on to Alaska with Joni, Marvin and Linda. This was a rescheduled cruise from April 2020. We went to the Space Needle and Pike Market in Seattle and found (hit) as many thrift stores as we could find. Alaska was cold, rainy and amazing. However for the trip, we had to be vaccinated, then tested within 72 hours of departure and then were required to wear masks on the plane and any common area on the ship. I wanted to cruise so bad that I was semi-ok with this requirements until we came home to numerous stadiums with 50,000+ football fans with no vax status, no test and no masks needed. Political medical advice and Fauci better stay out of my Texas! Regardless we left footprints in Alaska and had a great family time..

	When the covid fiasco escalated and they began canceling our cruises, Gary noticed the price of cruises (as well as cruise line stock) had dropped. He suggested we book a cruise out of Florida and see some different ports of call and check out the newest Carnival ship that holds 6,000 passengers instead of the 3,000 we were used to. Since he does not fly and we would be driving to Florida we booked a 5 day cruise on one ship and then a 7 day cruise on the new ship. The man (Gary) was brilliant. The price of the 7 day cruise had almost doubled in cost from what we paid by the time we actually boarded the ship. We stopped at Bimini, a gorgeous island in the Bahamas only 50 miles east of Miami. We visited a local casino (Hilton) and received a player's card for free play. I found that they had a William Hill sports betting machine. So I placed some bets on college football and got lucky with one of them. So we gambled and won in the Bahamas. We ate sandwiches in the car, saw new islands, stopped at every Buc-ees on the way and had a fun road trip adventure.

	Due to our kids work schedules and family commitments we planned our family Xmas for early November. Oh darn - that meant we could take a cruise during December. Once again we talked Joni into joining us. We booked two five days cruises, Back to Back. We are not cruising just to eat the butter cookies and drink their amazing coffee. We will also eat their cranberry wheat rolls, alligator fritters and poblano soup.

	THEN we got a call from Audrey (our cruise guru). She asked if we could travel last minute and we said sure. Oh my - we were shocked at the offer she made us. We booked, Joni booked and Marvin and Linda booked. So now we had 3 cruises between Thanksgiving and Christmas. A few days later Audrey called again and offered a New Year's Eve cruise. Micky and I looked at each other and said, "Why not?" No one wanted to go with us so we are taking our first solo cruise ever. I suspect Micky told Audrey not to call again! Cheap cruises are the ONLY good thing I've seen from covid. (Audrey did call again - oh my).

Plans	We have made a major decision, sort of. After being in Vegas 17 of the last 18 years for the NCAA tournament games we have decided to stay home in 2022. We have big cruises planned and we are too old to sit in cold hard chairs for 16 hours a day.

	In April 2022 we are traveling with Marvin, Linda and Joni on an anniversary cruise. January 2022 is Marvin and Linda's 30th anniversary and September 2022 is ours. Marvin talks about "leaving footprints in places we never dreamed." For small town farm kids . . . WOW!

	In July 2022 we will be heading back to Alaska for an adventure cruise with our kids and grandkids. There will be 14 of us and we are excited about spending time as a group and seeing Alaska through their eyes. We hope the grandkids get to see a whale.

	In August the Hopkins will join us for a celebration of old age. James and Micky will both have turned 60 in the last year so we are taking the birthday party on the road to St Martin. It always makes me a bit sentimental to think these two have maintained a friendship that began many years ago when they worked on the Tech farm while attending college. And it is nice that Mendy and I are similar in a lot of ways (mouthy, drinky and bossy)

	Taking a Trans Atlantic cruise has long been on my bucket list and I talked Marvin, Linda and Joni into signing up. Joni was tired of cabin sharing with us so we convinced our friend Jan Morgan to join us. When I talked to Audrey she said most folks do the "Med" cruise Back to Back with the Trans Atlantic cruise we were booking. I shrugged her off and thought that is just "crazy". It turned out I was the only one who thought it was crazy. So in October 2022 we will fly to Rome and do a little sightseeing, cruise the Mediterranean area then leave Portugal and cruise across to Tampa Florida. (I still think crazy might apply.)

	In late November we have a cruise booked to the Panama Canal with Gary and Voni. This is a replacement for a cancelled cruise that was impacted by covid. This one goes out of New Orleans and gives us another reason to say "roadtrip adventure".

More plans	In 2023 we have two big cruises (at least we thought they were until we booked Europe). We book ahead and enjoy the anticipation and the smaller although numerous monthly payments. It is nothing for us to get an email saying "only 422 days till your cruise". Covid did one thing, it reminded us tomorrow is not promised. If you ever wanted to go somewhere, do something, see someone - do it!


Life as we live it	We have one of the nicest yards in our area. We have had neighbors stop and ask who "does" our yard. We just point at Micky and smile.

	Micky is working on perfecting his grilling practice. He does a great prime rib, when he will give in and pay the $$$. He has a generic pellet grill and admits that James was right, you don't even need beer to cook out. The opthomologist found a narrowing of pupil depth in his eyes which could cause serious issues. He had laser procedure on each of his eyes. The good medical news of the year - his problem is solved.

	I spent a good bit of my year making lap quilts for the kids. I will never figure out what put that idea in my head, but I will smack it if it tries to come back. WOW. I am struggling with a bunion on one foot and bursitis in my hip and laziness. Micky had to replace the mouse on my laptop, I wore it out.

	We make it a point when traveling (our friend George set the example for us) of stopping and verbally stating how blessed we are to have the opportunity to travel and enjoy so many places.

2021 thoughts	Everyone needs to recognize that our freedoms should never be taken for granted, neither should good health and time with friends and family. The world is a scary place and I fear for the future of my kids and grandkids. We hope our kids have mastered self reliance and independence tempered with kindness. And for us golden agers, we need to stop dwelling on pills and politics and replace those with hope and happiness.

	And NO Paulette, we are not ready to slow down. But friends - Paulette gave up and got a passport. She is thinking about joining us on an adventure. How about a big yee haw!

	We wish each of you a wonderful year ahead with health and happiness. We hope you will keep in touch (and not just clicking like on facebook). We are home (occasionally) and have a spare bed with your name on it. Send us photos of the grandkids, the granddogs and yourselves. Please know that we love and care for each of you and are happy you are part of our life. Merry Christmas. Micky and Kathy