So where does the season begin? Is it the first snow fall? Perhaps it\u2019s when we put up the lights after Thanksgiving. Maybe it began with the purchase of the first gift. Barbie thought it started when she sent out invitations for our Christmas wine and cheese party. Grandma and Grandpa\u2019s arrival may have given it that boost. Rita\u2019s family dinner could have clinched it. It’s hard to tell when the season starts, but you know when it is here.<\/p>\n
This year has been full of visits both here and away as well as several firsts for us.<\/span> Here is what happened.<\/p>\n John was home at his base for most of this past year. He was back and forth between North Carolina and Home when he could make it. We saw a lot of him it seems. Quite suddenly he was called to duty and with out so much as a \u2018how do you do\u2019 he shipped out on the USS Ponce<\/a> on his way to Pakistan. He\u2019s been to Bahrain, the Seychelles Islands, and Kenya (is there snow in Africa? ). It\u2019s anyone guess where he is now. I know he is constantly in our thoughts and heart.<\/span><\/p>\n We did a bit of traveling this summer. In July,<\/span> Steve and Barbie made a driving trip through the mountains and farmlands of New England to get to Baysville, putting at least a thousand miles on Barbie\u2019s new car. They stayed in the Mount Washington Hotel but found no ghosts, made sure Montreal was still in one piece after Alec\u2019s visit two weeks prior and had a great time in Ottawa enjoying a lovely visit with Tim and Carolyn Leslie. We managed to find some sunshine along the way which we took to Baysville. It had been a very wet summer up till then. We stopped in Georgetown on the way home and had a very nice visit with Pat and Walter. In August we were invited to Victoria BC to visit with Rod and Rita. This vacation turned out to be an adventure in house hunting, fundraising for MS, family reunions and sharing the other side of the country with friends including a quick trip up to Whistler to see Maribeth and a nice stay with uncle Joe.<\/p>\n In September a cousin of Barbie\u2019s from New Zealand was whizzing past and stopped in for a visit. What a delight to feel such a strong family connection and share stories with this person I had never met before in my life.<\/span><\/p>\n September also saw Alec begin his senior year in High School. He has decided on attending Raritan Valley Community College and to study Gaming Design. Two major decisions out of the way. He acquired his driver\u2019s license in November and purchased his first car. Barbie asked for a defibrillator for christmas and Steve is all gray now. You have all been forewarned to stay off the roads.<\/span><\/p>\n Everyday brings something new and so where does it all begin and where does it end?<\/span> It seems it doesn\u2019t matter as long as we are fortunate in the adventures that come and go and the people we get to spend time with along the way.<\/p>\n God Bless us Everyone and CHEERS to 2011. <\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So where does the season begin? Is it the first snow fall? Perhaps it\u2019s when we put up the lights after Thanksgiving. Maybe it began with the purchase of the first gift. Barbie thought it started when she sent out invitations for our Christmas wine and cheese party. Grandma and Grandpa\u2019s arrival may have givenRead more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts","tag-christmas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderfleet-martin.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderfleet-martin.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderfleet-martin.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderfleet-martin.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderfleet-martin.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderfleet-martin.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderfleet-martin.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderfleet-martin.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderfleet-martin.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderfleet-martin.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderfleet-martin.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWe\u2019ll be seeing you!
\nBarb, Steve, John & Alec<\/span><\/p>\n