Christmas, 2006

Dear Friends and Family,

This year has found us traveling more than usual, with trips to New Hampshire and Canada for Gee, a golf weekend in NY for Dick, and vacations in Florida, the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, Sebago Lake in Maine, Martha's Vineyard, North Carolina, and Maryland for both of us. But probably the highlight of our travels this year was a wonderful cruise to the Baltic/Scandinavian capitals for 2 weeks followed by 3 days in London. Our trip took us from Dover, England, to Germany, Estonia, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, then back to Dover and on to London - all fascinating places to visit!

Dick & Gee Sauvageau
c/o Seacrest Condominiums - Unit 301
895 Santa Rosa Blvd.
Ft. Walton Beach, FL 32548
Phone: (850) 301-9600 ext.1301

email: geesauvageau@att.net

       dicksauvageau@hotmail.com

When we weren't busy gallivanting, we continued our hobbies of paper-crafting for Gee and golf for Dick, as well as our newest addiction, Sudoku (logic puzzles done on a 9x9 grid.)

Dick's knee replacement a year ago, was amazingly successful, and he's even taken up walking again as another form of exercise. Two of our old square dance friends retired recently, so Dick has a couple of buddies to walk with.

Speaking of retirements, my sister Marty retired at the end of this past school year, so now I have somebody else to play with too. In fact, this coming winter Marty is renting the efficiency apartment that is connected to our condo in Florida for February and March, and Mom is going to drive down with her and stay in our second bedroom! It's exciting to have them come join into the fun that we have in Florida each winter!

Aside from our various travels and hobbies, our grandkids continue to keep us busy. Ten-year-old Teddy and his seven-year-old sister Kayleigh continue to live in upstate Connecticut and are very involved with various school and extracurricular activities. Because they have such busy lives we don't get to see quite as much of them as we did when they were younger and had more flexible schedules. (Of course, with all our gadding about this year, OUR schedules were probably even less flexible than theirs!)

Three-year-old Ayden lives in a converted school bus with his parents and spends most of the year south of the Mason Dixon Line. We see a lot of him from June-September, but then rarely see him again for the next nine months. This year we did manage to find a timeshare for Thanksgiving week in North Carolina not too far from where his parents were working at the N.C. Renaissance Festival. We brought Ayden to the timeshare for 3 days, then his parents joined us for the holiday before they headed to Texas and we headed to Maryland.

There we got to spend a few days with 15-month-old Alden, who lives in Spokane, WA, but was east with his mom visiting her sister. We don't see a lot of Alden either, unfortunately, but we did get to spend ten days with him and his parents at Sebago Lake this summer. We were delighted that they were able to be there, but realize that it may not be an annual event. It's hard to predict what son Tim's schedule will look like each summer, and they DO live 3000 miles away. Tim is still going to school and working as an LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse) in a nursing home full time. He is hoping to have his RN by the end of next summer.

We are planning a trip west next May that will allow us to spend about a week with Tim, Cristy & Alden in Spokane before going to Seattle where we will board a cruise ship that will take us up the Inland Passage of Alaska. When we return to Seattle a week later, we will be bussed to Vancouver where we'll spend a couple of days before taking a train from the west coast to Montreal. There we'll board another cruise ship that will take us up the St. Lawrence to Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Maine before disembarking us in Boston three weeks after the first cruise began!

And all of this takes place about 6 weeks after we return from our 3-month stay in Florida! As you can see, we already have the first half of 2007 pretty well booked.

I mentioned Tim and his family, but gave short shrift to our other sons, mainly because not much has changed in their lives since last year. Michael and Jennifer still run their toy business and travel around the country. Scott still works as a computer programmer for a consulting firm, and his wife Amy's horse farm is still doing well.

My mom is also doing well and is looking forward to her trip south this winter. She will turn 93 while she's with us and is still going strong. She did choose to give up her car this summer and sold it to grandson Tim. She was still a good driver, but felt it was time to stop driving; probably a good decision on her part, but the end of an era always brings a tinge of sadness.

And that seems to pretty well wrap up our news for this year. We wish all of you a blessed holiday season and a happy, healthy 2007.

Love,

Dick & Gee