HAPPY NEW YEAR
It is that time of year when we pause to remember family and friends far and near. For those web friendly, a link is sent – to all the rest – we’ll do a print.
Christmas 2003 was one of rare bounty. Ken’s sister, Barbara, from Brazil; brother Don, wife Linda; nephews Mike, wife Jeanne and daughter Katie; John, wife Alice and daughter Stephanie; Cousin Rich and wife Wanda along with Terri, Gary, Marci, Lauren and Sean; friends Phil and Sheri joined us for our annual Christmas eve hoopla.
On Saturday after Christmas, several “Gray” cousins joined us for brunch to round out a wonderful Christmas season. Our table “runnethed” over.
Over New Years, the Burns siblings attempted to revive their youth by reliving desert memories, exploring sand dunes, desert floral, ravines and gullies in and around their old haunts in Palm Desert. It didn't help. They still looked their age.
Barbara joined us in “travel by RV” for a visit to Tucson, Tombstone and Karchner Caverns before return to her adopted homeland. Ken and I then spent the next two months in the Southwest and Mexico experiencing the RV lifestyle.
On June 6, the Burns and Helmstetter families celebrated the High School graduation of granddaughter, Lauren. We beamed and applauded with pride as our lovely graduate received her passport to higher education. Ah youth – it is too soon spent. Lauren is completing her first semester at SMU and will be “home for the holidays”.
Grandson, Sean, grows taller as he pursues a “niche” in sports while engaged in the “art of learning” and adjusts to his acquired “only child at home” status.
Ken and I enjoyed a three-month trip to Alaska by RV. We explored a vast wilderness both en route to and in Alaska. During our travel,we visited an old friend in Alberta, friends in the Seattle area, a niece in Portland with her fiancee whom we met for the first time and lunched with a friend in Medford, OR.
In Alaska, we experienced with wonder the tranquility of open spaces, the grandeur of towering mountains and marveled at the awesome sounds of calving glaciers. Who can ever forget the majesty of Mount Denali, the sight of animals grazing in the wild and the enchantment of lakes fed by flowing rivers? These are sights that will forever be etched in our memory bank. When the reality of 586,412 square miles of land with a population of only 643,786 (more than 50% of whom reside in Anchorage and Fairbanks) is grasped, one realizes that the Alaskan challenge requires a pioneering spirit of immense proportions. A highlight of our Alaskan adventure was an overnight stay in Barrow, the Northern most part of the United States. The “native Alaskan” is a rare breed that deserves our highest regard. It was a wonderful trip filled with experiences that will require a lifetime to assimilate and savor.
We arrived home for Labor Day to baby sit with the cat while Terri “sprung” herself away for a few days in Mexico. She continues to pursue her career as a MFT (Marriage and Family Therapist) and, thankfully, resides with us which gives us greater flexibility for our “nomadic” lifestyle. When we get testy, she threatens independence. We shape up!
In October, we joined friends for two weeks in Kauai and the big Island of Hawaii respectively. It was a very good year.
As we approach the end of another year and look expectantly into the New Year, may you be blessed with family and friends and your life glazed with good health, happiness and prosperity.
With sincere good wishes for a very Merry Christmas.
Ken and Pat Burns
