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This year we vacationed at a New Hampshire ski resort in May, and in Palm Springs during the hottest part of August. However, it did snow at the beginning of our New England trip, on May 18 in Gardner MA, the latest we've ever waked up to thick, mushy snow all over the car. We had niece Lori Howlett's wedding that day, followed by two Murdock reunions the next weekend, so we stayed at a timeshare as out-of-season tourists in between. We had a great time at all the scheduled events and also visited the Frost family in ME and most of our siblings in MA and NH. Bob even saw two classmates from high school and college. Our first trip to CA in five years to see our children and grandchildren was very enjoyable, although we wish we could have seen all of them. We did get to see four of Ian's five, but not his first grandchild, Payton. His son Robert called to wish Ian a happy 40th birthday. Val and Jerod weren't able to come down from Redwood City, but we had several visits with Meri, Ian, Becky, Christie, Sean, NaTT, and Tim. We found that our love of board games extends to the next two generations, and Trivial Pursuit or Scrabble in teams gives everyone a chance to astonish others with brilliant moves. In the Palm Springs area, we had a fine visit with three generations of cousin Chip and Rose Martz's family, and made a sentimental journey to Joshua Tree National Park. We also toured the art museum and the aviation museum with Ian's family. We went to Howlett Reunion West at Claudia and Dennis Lindsey's home in West Covina, at which we saw a lot of Nancy's cousins. Several of them are in their 80s or 90s and living energetic lives, so Nancy realized she'd better plan on another 30 years. Fortunately she likes her job and works less than three miles from home. Laziness tends to creep in when she stays home all day. Well, in between making quilts, that is. She recently took several quilt classes from nationally known instructors, so now we have a stack of partially finished quilts on the guest bed. We're enjoying the ones that get finished, and she plans to finish at a higher rate in 2003. This may be the standard quilter's resolution, but it could actually pay off. Stranger things have happened. Bob has made great strides in Website improvement for the Murdock Muse at http://d21c.com/murmuse/. In the November issue, he provided a way to click on each item in the Table of Contents and go directly to the article. He has also set up some nice photo pages. He plans to do separate pages for each Muse family, as the opportunity arises. He reduces the "size" of the photo so we won't run out of Internet space and has found he prefers to scan the photos instead of using them from a CD. It's always interesting to see how we can enjoy and integrate technology into our lives without going off the deep end. We are blessed with a good life. We had a serious loss when our close friend Lynda Brugge died in February this year, but we have great memories of her. We have friends nearby from church, work, and in various quilt groups. And we can connect better than ever with friends and relatives at a distance. Roy and Tami are in Joplin MO, with Khendra in college. Darrel has a great Website at http//d21c.com/AAALynx/101/. Jason and Nic are in MN near him, and Sandy and her girls are in FL. Vive la email! Both of us are blessed with good health, except for certain nuisance things that don't work the way they used to. And not everyone has 52 years of marriage to someone they like. So we wish for you in 2003 a pleasant year with many enjoyable events and some new memories to treasure. May you look back on 2002 with fondness and ahead to 2003 with hope and faith. We love and cherish you all!
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