May the spirit of Christmas live within us
and its light shine upon our path.
and its light shine upon our path.
The years came and went and hardly a whimper was heard?
We hope that you have had a good year. Although the joy and mystery of Christmas fades with age, the spirit of the season reigns. We look forward to news from those we hold dear and from those whom we seldom hear.
Ken and I celebrated our 60th anniversary this year. Regretfully, our celebration remains vicarious within tons of brochures, plans and dreamed of adventures. We planned a six week trip encompassing a two week voyage on the Rhine, Main and Danube Rivers in Europe, a one week Mediterranean cruise and a two week cruise back to the US with a week of “rest” in Florida. What do they say about the best laid plans of “mice and men”? While we were traveling in October, Ken had to be hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer. We returned home and one week later, he was back in the hospital. This series of events apparently resulted from a stent inserted in July that required him to take Plavix. We failed to recognize the importance of his ulcer medicine when taking Plavix and irresponsibly let his prescription run out. It was a hard learned lesson. He is now doing fine and is back at his usual action packed “chores” which includes building a waterfall in the backyard. Of course, we could have had the waterfall built – but what price entertainment? All that said, I’ll leave it to each of you to decide whether Ken’s stomach ailments may be from 60 happy years of wedded bliss or 60 years of misery manifesting itself as a pox on his wife.
In spite of the above narrative, we are fine and we have been blessed. We incur aches, pains and gloomy days on occasion, but “WE WERE NOT PROMISED A ROSE GARDEN”.
Gary and Marci continue with their respective work schedules and Terri is busy with her Marriage and Family Therapy Practice. Lauren lives and works in Dallas (we are hopeful she will soon return to CA ) and Sean is going to school in San Diego. Our cup may not “runneth over”, but we are content.
We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful Happy New Year. May the New Year shower you with good health, happiness, the hope of our fore fathers, faith from our source and the promised abundance of your hard work.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR
Ken and Pat Burns
