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Thirty-seventh Edition

 

 

 

 

 

 

We send you Christmas Greetings from the desert and wish you the best of everything this Holiday Season. We hope you had a wonderful year in 2005, as we did. Here are some of the highlights.

  Keegan Joseph Tennison

Keegan Joseph Tennison entered this world on January 20, 2005 in Michigan, a Midwesterner. Proud parents, Paul and Robyn, have a delightful little boy. In February we flew into snowy Michigan to meet him for the first time. He cooed and gooed and generally delighted us. Keegan brought his parents to visit us in Arizona at Easter, where he met his Arizona relatives at a big family Easter celebration. Then he made a trip to California in June to see his cousin Monica graduate high school and to let his Daddy show him off to his friends in California.

 


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          Selina's First Communion

 

Early in May Selina made her First Holy Communion at St. Joan of Arc in Danville. Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles descended on the town for this important Sacrament. She was the model of decorum when making the opening greeting to the congregation.

Selina is now in the third grade and is a bright student (I’d say brilliant, but you’d think I was bragging) with lots of interests that keep her and her parents going most of the time.

 


Rico keeps everyone busy

Rico was four years old in February and seems to have four times the energy he did when he was three. Or maybe we’re just slowing down as he speeds up. At any rate, he keeps his grandpa busy playing ball–soccer, baseball, football, and bocce. He beats everyone at bocce. They have their own court and he gets plenty of practice, but that is a lame excuse for having a four-year old beat you at bocce.

                                                                                                     

                   

 

Monica's High School Graduation

Yes, I know, it was just a short time ago that we were cheering her on to her first steps, and now look at her. She is a freshman at Chico State University where her Mom received both her B.S. and M.S. degrees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Square Dancing in 2005

January through March in Mesa we enjoy the best dancing. Folks like us who have been here since October or November are really getting some good dancing in, and then the influx of dancers from the colder climes takes the levels up one more notch. Not only is the dancing great, but the new friendships we have forged are another bonus. When the dancing ends the first of April and everyone retreats to their real homes, we miss all of it.

But, in June we flew from Oakland to Louisville, Kentucky for an Advanced and Challenge Square Dance Convention, so we whetted our dancing skills once again. Then later in June found us at the National Square Dance Convention in Portland, Oregon.

Labor Day week we returned to McCloud, California for a week of dancing and visiting and eating–yes, eating seems to go hand in hand with square dancing. We managed to attend a couple of dances in the Bay Area as we passed through there in the fall.

And now we are in full swing in Mesa again to begin the cycle once again.


 

Travels - 2005

 

We didn’t go far or fast and furious in 2005, but we did keep on the move. After we returned from Michigan in February, we took some local trips in March to the Biosphere in Oracle, Arizona and to the Casa Grande Ruins with some California friends visiting here.

In mid April we celebrated birthdays with some friends on a Mexican Riviera cruise out of San Francisco. There were over twenty of us, and we enjoyed each other’s company as much as the pampering and traveling onboard.

We returned to Arizona for a few weeks to summerize the house and get the motor home ready for our annual sojourn.

We made another stop for more festivities in California to celebrate Monica’s High School Graduation. The whole family was in for this momentous occasion, so we had some additional time to visit.

Then we flew to Louisville, returned to California, picked up the motor home and headed north to Oregon. Following the Square Dance Convention in Portland, we spent a leisurely summer enjoying the cool weather on the Oregon and Washington coast. The scenery was spectacular. Our Travel Pages can fill you in on all the details. You can’t beat Mt. Rainier for spectacular views.

After some September time in the Bay Area, we visited Yosemite for a few days to enjoy the views. Add a few days in Las Vegas for some business matters, and we suddenly found ourselves back in Arizona. Early October is way to early to return. It was HOT!

So, as soon as we could, we packed our bags and flew to Michigan to visit grandson, Keegan, and his parents.

 

                                                                                                     

And the rest of the story. . .


 

Lloyd is busy with his business and pets. His dog takes him out for walks regularly, and his cats entertain him while he works at his computer.

 

Mark has returned to Hilton as Director of Sales and Marketing at the San Diego Mission Valley Hilton, and he keeps very busy. A return trip to Thailand to participate in another world record jump is planned in February.

 

Pam teaches 4th grade in Antioch, California and is in a social whirl with her ballroom and country dancing. She loves teaching and working with the kids.

 

Gail is overcoming withdrawals from Monica being 160 miles away in Chico. She is quite busy with her job as a pharmaceutical rep and has added responsibilities of training. She travels locally for business and attends conferences all over. Monica’s graduation present was a trip for the two of them to Italy. Gail and Tom are busy with their own activities–ice skating the other night when she called.

 

Bev, Rick and kids are always on the go. Rick’s business travel is considerably less than it was a few years ago. They travel to Florida a few times a year to visit family and spent Easter here in Arizona with us. Thanksgiving they were in San Diego with Mark and Rick’s brother and family. The children’s activities are nonstop, and Bev has organized a program called “Odyssey of the Mind.” This is an enhancement program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students. It is sort of a competition of creativity. Selina loves it and is very engrossed. Rico presents Bev with her own problem-solving opportunities on a daily basis. He is a great kid, but he never rests.

 

Paul and Robyn’s life has changed considerably with the arrival of Keegan in January. The first months were the normal sleep deprived times, but life has leveled off now, and he just keeps them happily busy. Their dogs, cat and Keegan are a handful. Paul still works long hours at Ford, Robyn teaches two days a week at the local college, and they take it all in stride, enjoying life as it goes along.

 

 

 

 

 

As for us, we are enjoying our retirement. We still love our traveling time in the warmer months, and life in Arizona is great (in the winter). We love our times square dancing and have made so many new friends.

 

Our California buddies are still great friends, and we enjoyed cruising with them on the Mexican Riviera to celebrate some birthdays. We join them at various activities when we’re in the Bay Area and have some non-family time free.

 

We always love when friends and family visit us and hope more will be able to do so. Come See Us! We’d love to have you–but don’t come when its hot, ‘cuz we won’t be here!

 

Thanks to the grace of God and perhaps some good genes, we are both healthy and try to take the proper steps to remain that way. I walk daily and Ray keeps busy with homeowner things when we’re in Arizona and other miscellaneous stuff while we’re on the road. He rides his bike, but needs to do that more.

 

While square dancing takes a great deal of our time when in Arizona, we are also involved in a Wine and Dine Group and the Computer Club here at Trilogy. Ray is on the board, and I have been teaching Computer Genealogy and Building Web Pages in their education program.

 

I constantly pursue my genealogy research while on the road and on the internet. Scanning photos and slides was the project for 2005, but it looks like it will sprawl over into 2006–or more??? Have some sewing projects lined up to do, but keep falling behind in those.

 

That’s about it for us as we wind up 2005. We wish you and yours a Very Merry Christmas and the Very Best in 2006.

 

                                            Love,

                                                Joy and Ray


 

Thought I’d share some of the photos I’ve been scanning.

    

Senior Prom - 1956

Joy on a bad hair

day in 1942

   

Ray in Paris - 1976

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At the Matterhorn in Switzerland 1986

Beijing’s Forbidden City 1999

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Dunsmuir, CA 2005