Happy holidays! It's one of my favorite times of the year. The house is filled with Christmas jazz, there's a foot of snow icing the neighborhood and I'm ready for vacation and eating mom's cooking. After last year's holiday post, I went out to California to visit the family and a few friends in Palm Springs. It was such a winning formula that I am doing it again this year but Serge is coming too.
Here is the last picture I ever took of George last December before we had to put him down. I miss him so much. Soon after that terrible vet appointment, it was Christmastime and after I got back from California it was so snowy and cold, I couldn't wait to get out again. Snow and cold is fine in December, but after that there is no joy for me.
I headed to Ecuador first this year. It would be my longest visit yet - 10 and a half weeks. I found an amazing little airbnb unit in a great location with a lovely rooftop patio with a view over the city. It was thirteen hundred dollars for the whole stay there. (We booked it again for 2025.) For about a month, I enjoyed the sunny days and hanging with friends that we have down there. Thursday game day was one of the weekly highlights. Also, even though I work a little bit down there, it feels like I am in retirement. Can't wait to go back in January.
Then, as in years past, we went on a cruise with our campcamp.com friends. It was the first time we had gone on a cruise with MSC and it was delightful! I think the ship wasn't full and therefore it was never super busy and one never had to wait long for anything. About an hour after we had gotten on the ship, they announced they were canceling a stop so the remaining ports were Miami and Nassau, yawn. We ended up never getting off the ship and it was wonderful having the pool largely to ourselves during port stops. Of course we had great fun with our camp friends and nightly meetups and dinners. I can't recall what Serge was doing here. Maybe we were talking about When Harry Met Sally but who knows.
After the cruise, Serge flew back to Ecuador with me for about 6 weeks. We did things we had never done there before like visit the zoo (very big on the steep side of a mountain that took us a good three hours to walk through. The pic is from there.) and visit the Amazon (a very long and ardous journey to get there and back, but we saw amazing waterfalls and wildlife) and eat guinea pig (tasted like greasy chicken). The winter vacation formula worked so well that we are doing almost exactly the same thing in 2025. I think we will swap out the Amazon excursion for a beach excursion this year though.
We got back at the end of March and winter was still hanging on but the snow finally quit in April. In May, I joined some campcamp folks to scope out the new location of camp in Maine. What an upgrade! We all had fun planning for the summer and really enjoyed the bowling alley. I now know what the back of the alley looks like and how to get the pins and balls unstuck as they are wont to do.
In June, Serge's mom celebrated her 80th birthday with us. We went out to dinner at 5 thinking we wouldn't need a reservation (though it was Saturday) and the first place we went was completely full and they wouldn't be able to take us until 7:30. Luckily the next choice had room for us. More and more these days I find myself thinking that there are just too many people everywhere. This was one of them.
Finally, summer arrived. Here we are down in Old Montreal for the jet boat ride. I had gotten half-price tickets on black Friday so we took our next-door neighbors who, as I've said before, have become our best buds. We hung out all summer around the fire, at the beach and frequently at each other's house. For the Carnival-like party here, we ordered costumes from the wizard of oz and dressed up. They left for Thailand in October this year for a five-month stay like they did last year. In 2026 though, we are planning to stay more time here in the winter and hang out together.
When a girl's got to go, she's got to go. Serge in his Dorothy costume. He made the ruby "slippers" himself.
In September we had a visit from an acquaintance inquiring if we would like to have a pug (he knew I had a pug in mind for a future pet). The only catch was not to castrate him so that he could continue to make puppies with his two female pugs. Frankly, I don't think either of us were ready to get a dog again, but we took him for a one week trial and of course fell for him. He is really a good dog, very vocal and VERY attached to me. It will be hard to be away from him for so long when I am in Ecuador this year (plane tickets had already been bought when we got him).
The fall has been fun with Freddy. I took him down to the river and he loved splashing around and biting the water. We even took him to Montreal when we went to our friend's birthday party. He did great. There was a kid of about 11 years old there who took to Freddy right away. It was fun seeing them play together and reminded me of the bonds I had with dogs when I was a kid.
That is a basic recap of the year's highlights. I'm still working part time teaching and Serge is still working part-time at the local hardware store. Although I'm a bit of a news junky, I feel like the holiday letter is not the place to weigh in on current events. Suffice it to say, there is plenty to fret about. But at this time of year, I just like to feel grateful for all the good in the world, our friends and families and good health and happiness. I wish the same for all of you. Merry merry!
