Recently we have appreciated receiving wonderful, newsy Christmas letters. Thank you! Whether we hear from you through online media or carrier pigeon, we are always happy to catch up on news from friends and family. This year in particular our thoughts and prayers have been with each of you.
Don, Kay, and Deb (front), Kally & Russ, Peggy & Ted, Lana & Jim, Scott & Connie (missing Tim)
Kay, Don and grand child Angie with Kayla, Brandi and Everett in the background
We have all felt some loss and disappointment but we continue to remind ourselves of the happiness we have daily. We enjoy walks and hikes, good views of mountains and oceans, flora and fauna to discover, and new homes nearly every month. We are thankful for kind people the world over, meeting new friends, safety, security of food and supplies, family, good health and so much more. We hope all of you have been able to count your blessings as we have. We are missing a few things such as access to museums and concerts and the freedom to fly country to country without all the restrictions, tests and paperwork. But when we grow tired of this lifestyle and some of the headaches it creates, we will know it is time to “settle down!” We are on year three and still loving it!
Kay, Don , grandchildren and great grandchildren
From L: Deb, Jim, Peg, Scott,Kay, Don and Kally
This Christmas I was able to fly to the US to be with family for 10 days. I do not remember the last time (25 years?) all of the siblings and my parents were able to spend Christmas together! WAY too many years. We even had many of the grandchildren with us! What a blessing to be together… preparing too much food, eating the traditional oyster stew, visiting, doing dishes, watching football, knitting, and playing games. Christmas eve was spent at my folks on the farm with some of the most incredible sunrises and sunsets as well as moose, fox, coyotes, and birds.
Dad watching moose in the back yard
The Christmas tree was up, thanks to Peg (sister) and mom, and was sitting in the corner of the family room with the cozy fireplace. The food was organized by Deb’s sister, Kally and niece Angie. Angie and husband Ryan and three children are SO easy to have and a bundle of love and fun. The world’s best homemade ice cream and chocolate sauce was made by dad and mom, who also provided a cheery warm house. Deb’s mom was able to be at the farm with us for the entire holiday, home from the nursing home. Christmas mass was early evening and the music was beautiful. Music was provided by Peg, Shan (Peg’s sister in law) and a lovely contingent of Mohall “regulars’ who have been making beautiful music for many years. Jim (brother) and his wife Lana hosted Christmas Day in their home up on the Canadian border. Both girls, Madison and Hayley were able to be with us. Scott (brother) and his wife Connie, came with children and grandchildren. We were WELL entertained by these sweet children.
Kay and Don Christmas 2021 (in the background is Kayla, Rick, and Lana keeping us safe from Tyrannosaurus Rex, held by Owen)
I even had time with university friends for a pre-New Year’s Eve get together. Thank you Carol, Geneal, Pat, Colleen, Kurt and Ann. I can’t help but think how amazed many of our friends from outside of the U.S. would be if they visited. My eyes see the flat, open prairies that only end at the horizon. I see the whitest fields of winter, snow covered trees, and the brightest sun due to the reflection from the snow. Cold so biting the sun has a sun dog and your feet squeak while walking. Temperatures were around -30 F (-34 C) and windchill around – 60 (-51 C) at times. When it warmed up to -5 F it felt like a heat wave. We had one good snowstorm while I was there and it dropped about a foot of snow. I got the full North Dakota experience this Christmas and could not have been happier!
Trying out the new bike
And the “work hands” who put it together. Thank you Rick, Scott and Jim.
Scott, Jim and Rick
Tim decided to stay in Paphos, Cyprus and enjoy some wonderful weather and lovely walks. …..He prepared our “home” for my arrival by cleaning and cooking and was my Christmas “elf” who worked while I slept, advising me of the regulations of each country I passed through. Did I mention we went from Gibraltar to Scotland, Cyprus before Deb got in a taxi the next morning to fly Cyprus, Amsterdam, Mpls, Minot. On the way back I flew Minot, Mpls, Paris, Vienna, Cyprus and another 1.5 hr taxi ride to get to Tim. Ha! He was one busy elf and I was one tired traveler!
Random craziness Christmas Eve at the farm
Kal, Kay and Mariah with Ryley in the background (his adorable puppy kept us all on our feet!)
A little noisy and “Here is to women who farm Lana and Madison!”
Please know how much we value your communication with us. Thank you again for keeping in touch.
A note from Tim:
After nearly 3 months in Belgium, we headed to Gibraltar for about 5 weeks. We had planned our next move to Cyprus when Deb decided that she would really like to go back to Mohall North Dakota for Christmas. It took some planning, and didn’t look like it would work, but we were able to find a last minute flight for Deb at a reasonable price. The only way we could do it, though, was for both of us to fly to Cyprus via Scotland, then for Deb to head on to Mohall via Amsterdam and then Chicago. With an overnight for each leg, we had two days of travel to Cyprus, and Deb had two more to get home. Which is bad enough, except that each country now has regulations about pre-testing for Covid, filling out locator forms, quarantine forms, and pre-booking arrival tests. It took a couple of days just to figure out the paperwork involved. And on Deb’s return flight back to Cyprus, when she missed her connection, it meant two new countries had to be researched, and all the paperwork done for them as well as re-doing it for Cyprus. (which I was able to do while she slept in Austria, hence the “elf” moniker) A lot of work, but it was fine in the end.
I ended up “holding down the fort” in Cyprus for two weeks. We’ll do a larger post later, but I did enjoy 65 degree (18C) weather with long walks along the ocean. There are also multiple archeological sites dating back to Roman and earlier times, so I enjoyed exploring those. Below is a view from the edge of a Roman fort, looking out over Paphos.
And the ocean view along the walkway.
The weather was typically mostly sunny and windy, but there were a few cloudy days, and a rare rainy one.
And a picture of a Roman mosaic tile floor, one of dozens of mosaics they have found here.
Since Deb was able to go back to the US, we took the opportunity to upgrade our Macbook computer to one of the new Macbook Pros. Unfortunately, that did leave me without a computer for about a month during Deb’s travels and as I got the new one set up. So now we are further behind than ever on posts. But, we will try to catch up. Next up- a second post on Belgium. Then a Gibraltar post, which will include cute baby Macaque monkeys. And finally, a post or two on Cyprus.
We are finishing off our last 10 days in Cyprus, and have decided to head to Israel next. It’s always been high on our list of places to visit, and this is a perfect time of year for us to visit. Not too hot, and we expect it to be relatively uncrowded.
This time also marks our 3 year anniversary of starting our travels after living in Washington state. We don’t like everything about being on the road full time- sometimes it seems to be more of a burden than others. But we still haven’t found anything else we’d rather do. It’s a lot of work to arrange, but we enjoy having new cities and trails to explore, new foods to sample, and new places to explore. And, we get to follow the best weather around the world as we go. Doesn’t get much better than that.
Bye for now,
Tim and Deb
