Christmas, 2007

Happy Holidays, one and all,

We've been retired eight and a half years already and are enjoying every minute of it! January will be the start of year number seven of escaping the Northeast winter for three months, staying at Sea Crest Condominiums in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. We have made many close friends there and have a much more active social life there than we do at home!

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

Last winter my mother and my sister Marty joined us in Florida for seven weeks. The condo we stay in can be rented as a 2- or 3-bedroom unit, since there is an efficiency apartment with a connecting door attached to our place. Marty had the efficiency and Mom had our second bedroom, which she generously shared with my crafts. It was wonderful having them with us, and they both shared in the getting of, and/or cleaning up of, meals. In February we also got to celebrate Mom's 93^rd birthday!

From Ft. Walton, Marty & Mom drove down to Sarasota where they participated in an Elderhostel program entitled Spring Training with the Boston Red Sox and the Minnesota Twins! They had a ball, meeting some old-time baseball players who delivered some of the lectures about baseball, attending four Red Sox games, and just generally spending time with other baseball fans. (As an aside here, needless to say, they were both thrilled that the Sox went all the way to win the World Series again this year! Mom even feels this is a sweeter victory than 2004, when they finally broke "the curse of the Bambino.")

Sadly, Mom has decided not to join us this year. She's beginning to feel less steady on her feet, and tires more easily than she used to. Besides, when she's away she misses her friends and all the events that go on at Havenwood/Heritage Heights, where she's lived for the past sixteen and a half years. We had so much fun with her in Florida that we know we'll miss her this year. Ah, well, time does march on, doesn't it?

Marty, on the other hand, had such a good time for the seven weeks she was there, that she's coming back for all three months this winter! She even agreed to be secretary of our condo's social committee!

Other highlights of 2007 include the birth of grandchild # 5, Ethan Rielly Sauvageau, born July 29th to son Tim and daughter-in-law Cristy who live in Spokane, WA with their other son, two-year-old Alden; being present in Spokane back in May, when Cristy - originally from El Salvador - became an official, naturalized U.S. citizen; meeting Ethan this fall when he flew east with his mom, brother and other grandmother; and assorted travels which I'll discuss - briefly(!) - in a moment.

Dick continues to enjoy golfing 1 or 2 times a week in season - which tends to be January-November! Puttering around the house, walking with a couple of buddies and swimming round out his hobbies/activities.

I still love my papercrafts, though I don't seem to be doing as much with selling them at craft fairs as I did for a couple of years. I still do my water aerobics 3x a week. (When we're around, that is!) And in November I rejoined Weight Watchers, with the plan of learning to make healthier food choices than I've been making for the past sixteen years or so (or for most of my life, for that matter!)

We've had no major illnesses, injuries or surgeries to report this year. Thank heaven!

In May we flew out to Spokane to spend a week with Tim, Cristy & Alden. They drove us to Seattle where we embarked on the first leg of a wonderful 3-week trip. Week one involved a cruise up the Inland Passage of Alaska. Although we had done 4 days of that trip on our 1996 trip to Alaska, it was really nice to see it again - and we always love cruising!

Week two was spent traveling across Canada by train from Vancouver to Montreal with a 2-night stay in Toronto, where we hooked up with 12 of our Florida friends, most of whom live in the Toronto area. On our one evening in Montreal we also hooked up with 4 more Florida/ Canadian friends. What a treat!

I have to add here how magnificent the Canadian Rockies are! Day one on the train was spent watching one fabulous view after another out the train windows. Days 2 and 3 were very different, as we traveled through the prairies and forests of central Canada. Our train accommodations were great, and the food was fabulous!

In Montreal we boarded another cruise ship, this time traveling up the St Lawrence, stopping in Quebec City, a couple of places in Nova Scotia, Bar Harbor, Maine, and ending in Boston.

We spent 6 weeks at Sebago Lake this summer and loved it - as always!

Our kids and grandkids are all fine. Teddy and Kayleigh are now 11 and 8, respectively, and are very active in school, sports, music lessons and, at least for Kayleigh, horseback riding.

Ayden turned 4 this summer, and he is a pistol! Very bright and very articulate, he is certainly a lively, charming little boy - though sometimes a tad demanding.

Alden, at just under 2 when his brother was born, is not at all happy about this little interloper who takes up space in HIS mommy's lap, demands her attention, and otherwise interferes with the status quo he remembers from before Ethan was born. On the other hand, he is a generally easy-going child, sweet and beautiful. Ethan is a very even-tempered baby and chubby, chubby, chubby with his pinchable cheeks and sausage-roll arms and legs!

The only major change with our kids this year is that Tim will have graduated from his nursing program by the time most of you get this letter. He should have his R.N. soon after finishing the program. Of course, as of this writing, he intends to continue on to get his bachelor's degree, so his intense schedule of full-time school and full-time work, with 2 small children, a wife and a home to attend to will continue to take quite a balancing act.

Last, but not least, in our news for this year; by the time most of you get this epistle, Dick and his cousin Ron will be in Antarctica! The guys decided this was some place they wanted to visit and neither Andrea (Ron's wife) nor I were interested in going, sooooo, they leave here Dec. 5^th, spend 3 days in Santiago, Chile, and 1 day in Argentina, before boarding a cruise ship that will take them across the Drake Channel to Antarctica. The return trip hits the same 2 South American countries and brings them back home Dec. 20^th - just in time for Andrea and me to have already completed most of the preparations for Christmas! They're no dummies!

Well, that just about wraps up the Sauvageau news for '07. Hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a healthy, happy new year.

Love,

Dick & Gee