2014 Christmas Letter
As
I sit here still eating Thanksgiving leftovers and looking at a snow covered
yard, it’s time to recap the year and get Christmas cards in the mail. To save you time I think we’ll give a “Top
10” list. For further details you can
read on after the list.
The
year in summary:
10. 10 years that Lynn has been breast cancer free!
9. Tahoe for Frank’s 75th birthday (bottom left
picture on card)
8. Mariners, Huskies, Eagles and Seahawks games
7. Singing, singing, singing
6. Lots of boat time
5. Seahawks Super Bowl champions (top left picture on card)
4. An engagement (Jess and Kyle)
3. A wedding (dad & Lil – bottom
right picture on card)
2. Lost job - Microsoft
1. New job – King County
That’s
the summarized version. Now for a quick
month by month of the year that was.
January: We started the year as we have for a while
now visiting with Kevin and Heather in Lebanon, Oregon. The trip never lasts long enough but is a
great tradition. Of course, now that we
have a guest room (true empty nesters) and Dave is the only one of the foursome
still working, we may have to change this year and have our celebration in
Edmonds. We’ll still have a great time
wherever we hang out. And in January we
watched the Hawks win their playoff games to have the opportunity to face the
Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII.
This was also the beginning of Lynn’s new duties with Rotary as an
assistant district governor responsible for helping five clubs locally
(Ballard, Northshore, Edmonds Daybreakers
- breakfast, Edmonds - lunch and Seattle Metropolitan).
February: Seattle 43, Denver 8. Enough said.
In other February happenings, Lynn sang a thirty minute set of jazz
standards at a Seattle jazz club, Tula’s, with a live combo after lessons with
Greta Matassa.
And she began another retirement activity becoming the director for the
2014 North City Jazz Walk. Work began
with meetings, planning, web site updates and other logistics.
March: As a semi-healthy activity, we (along with
Kimberly) participated in the “Hot Chocolate 5K” (top right picture on card). Due to Dave’s lousy knees we walked it
together (at an acceptable fast pace) and were rewarded at the finish line with
hot chocolate (obviously) and other healthy stuff to dip in chocolate like
bananas, marshmallows, pretzels and a rice krispy
treat. This was also the month where
Lynn and Kim went to Jess and Kyle’s place to help spread gravel and topsoil in
the pouring rain in order to get sod in place for Molly and Lucy to have a
place to wander. Dave was not able to
participate as he was at work. But not
for long.
April: As of midnight, April 3rd, 2014,
my 10+ years of employment came to an abrupt end. Crazy part was, I felt better driving home
after the meeting then I have for the last couple of years. And so, after taking the weekend to clear my
head it was on to a daily routine of searching the job boards, turning in
applications and recording my activities in my unemployment log. And that also triggered filing my State of
Alaska retirement to have benefits in place.
May: That meant that as of May 1st,
2014, we were both officially retired.
While Lynn’s retirement provided actual money to live on, Dave’s
retirement provided medical, dental vision and prescription benefits. So the job search continued. But we also had time to spend several days
with Frank and Esther for some golf and quality distraction. And as the weather turned beautiful early we
took numerous trips to the boat. And we
sang with Buck and Elizabeth at the Kitsap Harbor Festival (where it poured
rain all day).
June: In addition to searching for work, Lynn
decided it was time for us both to get healthier. So we started the Shoreline 3 million stair
challenge. Three times a week we headed
off to Saltwater Park to climb the 188 stairs as many times as we could. Abby loved it, Dave hated it. But this was also the month that included
multiple rounds of interviews for an IT job with King County. And we sang at the Lake Forest Park Secret
Gardens event; visited with our friends Joe and Chris at their cabin on Lake
Cavanaugh and celebrated Lynn’s good friend Mary Rennie’s
retirement in Yakima. Oh yeah, and more
time on the boat.
July: Success!
A job offer from King County.
After 23 years in the private sector, I returned to work for the
government. But before starting back to
work, we sang with Buck and Elizabeth in Lacey; went to a Mariners game (which
they won); spent several days on the boat with Buck, Elizabeth and Casper (Abby
had a friend); spent a week on the boat with Kevin and Heather; spent time on
the boat with the kids and went to a concert at Ste Michelle with our friends
Al and Tara. And while we were at the
concert, Dave received a text from his dad that he was officially engaged.
August: Having a job felt very good but we still
found time for more boat trips (and more crabs – our best year on record). This included a special weekend meeting up
with Joe and Chris in Blind Bay with our boats (and eating more crab). And we sang with Buck and Elizabeth at the
Taste of Edmonds (an annual tradition) as well as at the Evergreen State Fair
(another annual tradition). Plus all of
Lynn’s work throughout the year led to a very successful 2014 North City Jazz
Walk. Planning is already underway for
next year as she will continue as director.
And most importantly, August 31st marked the 10 year
anniversary of Lynn’s win over breast cancer.
But August had one more exciting piece of news. We got a call on August 24th from
Orcas Island where Kyle had just proposed to Jessica. The wedding will be sometime in 2015 (we’ll
leave those announcements for them to make).
September: More boating, more crabs, more friends (Kevin
and Heather, Susie and Robert, Tamra and Dee and dad). And a chance for another EWU vs UW football
matchup. The game went back and forth
but eventually the Huskies won. Much to
the chagrin of one very faithful Eagle fan (Timothy) who cheered his best. We also had a great visit from Dave’s cousins
Tom and Deanna as they ended their 29 year sojourn in Anchorage, Alaska and
moved to Circle, Montana. We now know
you can fit a 32’ motorhome in our driveway.
And thanks to a birthday gift from Erin, Lynn started kickboxing in September. Look out world, she’s in fighting shape
already.
October: Off to Harstine
Island for a quick overnight with Frank and Esther and then we sang at Oysterfest with Buck and Elizabeth. And off to Victoria to deliver a wedding
dress to dad’s fiancé, Lillian. And off
to Anacortes for an overnight with Dave and Terri (Dave’s uncle and aunt) and
to prepare the boat for winter. And off
to Tahoe with Frank and John (Lynn’s brothers) and their wives (Esther and
Linda) to celebrate Frank’s 75th birthday.
November: First day of November and dad is no longer a
single man. We had a lovely wedding and
reception at the Olympic View Golf Club.
And staying in the wedding mode, Lynn had the pleasure of joining
Jessica and her bridesmaids (and maid of honor, Erin) for wedding dress
shopping. After that it was off to
Mexico for Lynn and Erin for the week before Thanksgiving. A good time of year to leave Seattle for some
80+ degree weather. Then back home for
all the kids joining us for Thanksgiving dinner. And an awesome Apple Cup Husky victory!
December: Our plans include our annual Christmas event/show
with Frank and Esther, our annual visit to the Lights of Christmas (and singing
with Buck and Elizabeth) and cheering the Hawks on to victory against the San
Francisco forty-whiners on December 14th. There will be no Microsoft holiday party this
year (we had eleven straight) but we will have the family here for Christmas
Day (including dad and Lillian). Then
it’s time for New Years and 2015 planning.
2015: Although things can always change, we expect
to be reporting in next year’s letter about a trip to Europe (postponed from
this year thanks to the changing job scenario) and another wedding (Jess and
Kyle).
Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year from our house to yours!
Lynn
and Dave