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Our Christmas Letter for 2003
Nancy and Bob Murdock, Editors - murmuse@erols.com



HOLIDAY GREETINGS 2003
FROM
NANCY & BOB MURDOCK

We've been fortunate to see many members of our extended family this year. In May we flew to CA, where we attended our first college graduation by a grandchild (Christel) and visited three of our children and all of our CA grandchildren. We added a lot of miles to the rental car, including a round trip from Orange County to Redwood City on Memorial Day weekend.

It was fun to shop with Meri and Natalie, picking out fancy lingerie and tiny tops. It was like old times watching the latest generation play softball (Natalie) and baseball (Tim). We had great meals at Ian and Becky's favorite restaurants and thoroughly enjoyed a timeshare condo in Anaheim.

One day the men all had a Night at the Ballgame, and the women had Chick Night. Becky and Ian introduced us to reality TV, and we can't believe what people like to share with the world!

Valerie regaled us with stories of her jobs teaching in a middle school and at a weekend class for drivers who have been ticketed for various faults. Valerie and Jerod led us to an excellent Mexican restaurant, and grandson Sean and his Grandma Soto took us to a nice place in Downey, our former hometown in CA. We chatted with Marjorie Hanson, grandson Robert, and several of Christel's family friends at her graduation reception.

With Ian and Meri, we spent some time at our old favorite, Joshua Tree National Park, where we bought a booklet to help identify some of the small desert flowers. Nancy and Bob also enjoyed a visit with Carl Martz, who has taken up hiking.

In July we made a wide swath through New York and New England, where we happily attended the Howlett Reunion at John and Cathy's house in Chichester, NH, a gathering of 48 people. We also visited with Bob's Aunt Ona (Charlton) Fellows and her daughters Donna and Priscilla and their husbands in VT and NH. We visited Roy and Priscilla's beekeeping business at a Farmer's Market in Concord, NH. We played Scrabble at Donna and Chris's home with its beautiful view and tales of bears that are at home on their back porch.

We stayed a night with Orrel and Charlie Frost in ME, and saw Pam and Colleen Clark and Stephanie Chamberlain. At Polly and Carl Sobergs' we watched (with cousin Clyde and his daughter Claudia) videos of bygone Howlett gatherings taken by cousin Roger Howlett, now deceased. We saw Mom (Edna Howlett) and even Grandma Howlett in some of them.

Marge and Jack Aukstikalnis (and his brother Paul) hosted us for dinner and a tour of their gardens and gave us copies of photos from old Gardner publications, including some with two families of Murdock children when their dads worked at Heywood Wakefield.

Our last stop was with Barb and Pete DiStefano, where Barb treated us to a lunch of strawberry and cream pie and we enjoyed their favorite Italian restaurant. They invited Ernie and Sally Bacon (Bob's niece) for a good visit to catch us up on their family. We left for home early enough to visit the local quilt shop, where they were having a great sale, and Nancy bought fabric and Bob bought a directory of quilt shops. It was a great trip and we made the most of the one long drive Bob allows per year now. We're already looking forward to next summer's trip.

In 2004, possibly late springtime, we plan to visit Darrel and his family. It's hard to decide on a time, because we don't want to miss the peak of his garden's splendor. Roy and his family bought the new house they were renting. Tami had some health problems this year, but now she is taking up golf and bowling. Khendra is enjoying college life and getting all A's.

Nancy is working on smaller and smaller quilts as she gets particularly interested in art quilts and hand dyeing of fabric. She is working on some landscape quilts based on photos from our album. Bob has been learning even more about Web pages, and he specializes in selecting and putting up pictures for our Murdock Muse online. We are looking to buy a new computer, but the old one is doing so well that we are not pushing the purchase. Our car is now 13 years old with 180,000 miles, and it is in such good shape that we have put off indefinitely the idea of buying a new one. The Toyota service manager tells us that it's been well maintained, especially by having the oil changed every 3.000 miles (a tip from Nancy's instructor at her auto maintenance class in CA), and should last for another 150,000 miles.

We feel really blessed with our good health and our life together after 53 years of marriage. Bob just had a complete physical and got a clean bill of health. He has decided not to drive at night except for very familiar routes nearby, but otherwise he does fine. He has taken the lead on our star gazing project (which began with Mars) and is excited about identifying ever more stars, constellations, and planets with his new charts. We're even watching the moon more.

Nancy is still working full time and enjoyed seeing colleagues from Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) and several U.S. Embassies a few weeks ago at a training session at FRBNY's facility in E. Rutherford, NJ. They were trained on a Web based application that will streamline their International Direct Deposit processes. She expects to work about 5 more years, as she prefers this work to cleaning the bathroom.

We wish you a fine holiday season, good health, and a great year in 2004.

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