A Christmas Card for 2024

I did not make or mail Christmas cards for the first time in at least 20 years.  It simply got away from me this year.  Mo and I wrote a Christmas letter together and she mailed many cards and was kind enough to sign my name to some of them. I worried about this, wondered what to do, and finally decided that a Christmas blog post would have to do this year.  I couldn’t quite let go entirely and learned my lesson.  No matter how outdated the cards may be, I will start making them in July, and send them at the end of November.  So, here for your reading pleasure is our Christmas letter for 2024.

In January we traveled to Catalina RV Resort, where we spent much time in the hot spring pool and spa.  It is a winter tradition that we have enjoyed for many years and this time we stayed two full weeks.

Our friends Jimmy and Nickie, who live in Nevada City, California also spent a week there as well, and the four of us had a great time walking the streets, and eating good food, and soaking up the warm winter sunshine in nearby Palm Springs.

We then traveled south to a favorite boondocking spot in the desert west of Yuma, Arizona for an incredibly quiet and beautiful night all alone in the middle of nowhere.  

Camped in the middle of nowhere on Ogilby Road

Continuing south and west toward Tucson, we camped once again at the Davis-Monthan AFB Military Campground. During our stay in Tucson, we visited friends Wes and Gayle at their lovely home.  They took us to visit the beautiful and historic San Xavier Mission just north of their home which in all our years visiting Tucson we had somehow neglected to visit.

We turned the MoHo toward home in mid-February, visiting with friend Gaelyn on the way to the wild and beautiful Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. 

Our route north was the one we often travel, with a night in Tehachapi and another night in Lodi.  Lodi is home to one of our favorite wineries, specializing in old vine zinfandel, and we arrived in time for a short and fruitful visit to the family-owned Klinker Brick Winery.

Mo on her birthday under the Rogue River BridgeSharon (Mo), loves to plan a special trip for her birthday in March each year.  This year the trip was local, and we visited several ghost towns and historic sites in our part of Southern Oregon. The day was sunny and gorgeous, and we enjoyed seeing sites we have often bypassed.  Sue’s favorite was the historic bridge we often use to cross the Rogue River, this time viewed from below and reading about how it was built. We ended the day with a visit to our favorite local winery, Schmidt Family Winery, where Sue’s daughter Deborah met us to treat Mo to wine, snacks, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

In late March, Deborah also joined us for a coast trip to Brookings in the MoHo.  It was spring break, and we were there on Easter morning when a group of people woke us at sunrise with music and singing by the beach wall in front of our RVApril was a quiet month of home maintenance, cleaning up the property, and preparing for the growing season to come with lots of trimming, raking, and readying the sprinkler system. By May, we were ready for another trip in the MoHo, We met Sue’s long-time friends from her years living in Northern Idaho, Phil and Joanne, and Harvey and Colleen for a couple of days at Honeyman State Park on the Oregon Coast.  In addition to shared campfire suppers and walks, Sue and Mo launched the kayaks for some wonderful paddling on nearby lakes where we had never been before.

The end of May in Grants Pass includes the famous Memorial Day Boatnik celebration with a parade and a big carnival in the park.  We opted to skip all the festivities except for the magnificent flyover of the F-15s coming from Klamath Falls for a noisy, fast moment low over the Rogue River.  The two of us parked where we could have a perfect view from one of the three bridges that cross the Rogue in our town.

June included a trip to Northeastern Washington for a visit to Sharon’s (Mo’s) brother Don and his wife Wynn’s property close to the Spokane River. Mo’s brother Dan and his wife Chere joined the family for the campout.  We visited, shared meals, and spent time on the Spokane River and on another beautiful inlet of Lake Roosevelt for kayaking.  Don took all of us out for a fast spin in his motorboat on the lake.

Sue’s grandson lived nearby and met us for a visit with his two sons Steven and Matthew, at a great little hamburger joint just minutes away from Don’s property. When we left Don’s property, we traveled just a few miles south to spend a couple of days at Sue’s daughter Deanna’s home where we had a great BBQed steak dinner cooked by Deanna’s husband Keith.  Sue’s great-grandson Orion was visiting from his home in Wenatchee.  Deanna and Keith have a fishing boat and they took us out on the southern portion of Lake Roosevelt to see the top of the Grand Coulee Dam.

July in Grants Pass is often hot, but this year was even more so.  We planned a family picnic for the Fourth of July with Sue’s daughter Melody and her husband Robert, Sue’s daughter Deborah and grandson Matthew, and the two of us.  Our outdoor pans were nixed that day when the temperature reached 116 F, and we enjoyed our picnic and Sue’s famous potato salad indoors at the dining table. The long shared weekend was spent visiting indoors, doing a puzzle together, and watching Melody and Robert knit and crochet with incredible speed and skill.

In late July we once again traveled to the Oregon Coast for a MoHo trip shared with Mo’s family, including Dan and Chere, Don and Wynn, and Mo’s brother Roger’s widow Nancy, and her relatives at Nehalem State Park. We spent time at the campfire eating and visiting, mornings kayaking on Nehalem Bay, and driving around the area looking for other possible kayak launch locations.

August was typical for summer in Grants Pass with record heat accompanying most of our excursions.  Our friends Wes and Gayle from Arizona stopped in for a short visit and Sue drove north mid-month to spend time with her daughter Melody for her birthday.  We spent a magnificent afternoon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland seeing the play Macbeth.  

On another day we traveled over the mountains to our old home base in Rocky Point for a day kayaking on Recreation Creek.

In September, for Sue’s birthday, we had a wonderful dinner with Deborah at River’s Edge, decidedly one of the best restaurants in the area, with a table overlooking the Rogue River.  The next day we traveled to Northern California for a 4 day MoHo trip to Eagle Lake, an area we had never visited before.  We were treated to days of kayaking, and more white pelicans than we have ever seen in one place.

Daughter Deborah bought a home this year and Daughter Deanna and husband Keith traveled from Northeastern Washington in early October to see her home and spend a short weekend visiting and sharing meals with us.

In late October we traveled once again to Harris Beach on the Oregon Coast for a camping trip.  Sue’s friend Laura from Northern Idaho traveled the Oregon Coast with her sister-in-law, and we met for a couple of nights at the beach, and they followed us home to spend a night here at Sunset House.

Our Thanksgiving celebration this year was here at home.  We hosted Deborah and Matthew and his sweetie Katty, Melody and Robert from Brownsville, and our friends Maryruth and Gerald who live here in Grants Pass. With only 9 people it was a simple and beautiful dinner that was completely stress-free thanks to everyone’s help in preparing the meal,

Christmas will be quiet for us this year.  With Melody and Robert in Paris over the holiday, the celebration will be a small one.  The size of the celebration has nothing to do with how much effort Sue puts into decorating the house and yard.  We will also celebrate with a visit to the beautiful light show in Brookings with a short camping trip to Harris Beach with Deborah, returning home on Christmas Eve. 

It has been a good year, with both of us in good health overall, Sue’s disease holding steady with very slow progression, and our happy, and healthy dog Mattie, in her tenth year.

Thanks for sticking with us for one more year of blogging, and to those of you who noticed I didn’t send cards, I do hope this makes up for that a tiny bit.