2025 Christmas Newsletter

Here is my Christmas newsletter to friends and family. We had a wonderful 2025 with lots of things happening and a big trip.

January:
We enjoyed watching the fireworks usher in the new year! We visited the Manatee Lagoon and saw lots of manatees. On the way home, we stopped at the Jupiter Lighthouse and took the tour. We also watched the inauguration of our newly elected president. We also went to the Wakodahatchee Wetlands. My online graduate classes started this month and lasted through April.

February:
We visited the Kinetic Art Show in Boynton Beach, which we always enjoy. We took a 5-day Celebrity cruise to Key West and Nassau. We had wanted to go to Key West, and this was better than driving the long distance. Of course, we didn’t even get off the ship in Nassau. We also attended the Lake Worth Street Art Festival, which spans two days. We watch them get started and then go back the next day to see the finished artwork. Don celebrated a birthday at the end of the month.

March:
We started off the month by walking around in the Hypoluxo Scrub Natural Area, which is near our house. We also spent a week in Orlando attending Kaeli’s softball tournament. Deanna booked a 3-bedroom condo, so Lauren and her family joined us. We got to know her husband, Ed, and her two children better. We loved spending time with Harley and Milo!

April:
We returned to South Carolina in time for Easter. We were able to get the huge pecan tree that fell during Hurricane Helene removed, and we got our HVAC system replaced. I’m glad we had it removed before the annual Easter egg hunt that is held in our backyard. I also sent Stephanie’s children the knit octopus that I made, and they liked them! At the end of the month, we met Lauren and Stephanie’s families at the Riverbanks Zoo. It was wonderful getting to spend the day with all of them!

May:
We went with the senior center members to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. We had never been there before, so it was a lot of fun. On the way home, we stopped at the Varsity for dinner. We also finally got our roof replaced on our house after 14 months! I was so excited!

June:
Most of the month was spent repairing our kitchen. We had the ceiling replaced and painted. Then we painted the kitchen cabinets and got a new gas stove and gas dryer. Sometime during this time, Don fractured his back and was unable to do much else after that. He was in so much pain that he couldn’t even put on his socks and shoes. Thankfully, physical therapy and time helped him heal.

July:
My friend Sheila came over to watch the fireworks with me. Our town has a wonderful firework show. I also taught my Furman practicum class online during this month so we didn’t get to do much. At the end of the month, we went to Charlotte for the stamp show and had a lot of fun. We saw a friend from our FL stamp club there.

August:
This month involved a lot of physical therapy and dental appointments. At the end of the month, we went to Atlanta to the postcard show there. We also saw a friend from our FL postcard club there. My wedding gown was displayed at the history museum in the vintage wedding gowns exhibit.

September:
We hiked with our friends in downtown Greenville at the beginning of the month. In the middle of the month, we went to my knitting retreat on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We hiked during the day and I knit in the evenings. It was a perfect time for both of us. When we left the retreat, we headed to Washington, DC, and spent the week there. We stayed in a Hyatt near the Dulles airport and rode the metro into the city every day. What a wonderful way to celebrate my birthday! On the way back to SC, we stopped to visit my knitting friends, Marlicia and Tahlia, in Front Royal, VA.

October:
In mid-October, we returned to our Florida house. It was nice to go where it was warmer than SC. We were able to go to the beach and go swimming. It was great to see our neighbors and visit our favorite restaurant again.

 
November:
We went on our first Viking cruise. We flew to Paris and spent 2 days there. Then we got on the ship in Trier, Germany, where we cruised down the Rhine River ending up in Basel, Switzerland. After 2 days in Zurich, we flew home to FL. It was a fun but exhausting trip!

December:
Time to decorate the inside and outside of the house. I didn’t have time to do it last year so I’m glad we did this year. We are visiting places nearby that we enjoy and just plan to enjoy the season.

We hope you enjoy this holiday season and that it is filled with lots of love and laughter!

2025 Year of Gnomes

I joined a knit-a-long where you knit a gnome every month. It’s a lot of fun so I thought I’d share my gnomes with you. 

1. January 2025 gnome, 2. 2/20/2025 February gnome, 3. March 2025 Gnome, 4. April 2025 Gnome, 5. 5/2/2025 May 2025 gnome, 6. June 2025 Gnome, 7. 7/5/2025 July gnome, 8. August 2025 Gnome, 9. 2025 September gnome, 10. 10/10/25 October gnome, 11. 2025-11November, 12. 2025 Santa gnome

Traveling Home From Zurich

Click here for pictures. 

We were given the option of putting our suitcases in the hall at 5:30 am or bringing them to the lobby ourselves by 6 am, so we decided to do it ourselves. This was much better because I was able to put all my last-minute things in the suitcase. When we got to the lobby, there was a breakfast bag that included a stuffed pretzel with butter, an apple, and orange juice. The pretzel was very good! At 6:30, we boarded the bus and were taken to Terminal 2. A bunch of us were going to Philadelphia. After we checked our bags in, we had to go through security. Then we had a long walk to find our gate.

While we were waiting, I saw a couple that we had seen on the ship, but I really didn’t get a chance to talk to them much. I don’t think we ever had a meal with them, so I asked them where they were from. When she told me that they were from Greenville, SC, I asked them if they knew my friends Dick and Kathy. These were the people that Kathy told me to look for when we were on the cruise! I can’t believe we had been on the same cruise and never connected until we were on our way home. 

The flight to Philadelphia during the day was much easier than a nighttime flight. The middle seat is really cramped, but I was able to watch movies. I stayed away the whole 8 ½ hour ride. Going through the Philadelphia airport was very nice and went smoothly. We had to go through Passport Control, pick up our luggage, walk them through to another place, check our luggage back in, and then go through Customs. Then we walked almost a mile to our gate to get the plane to Palm Beach. 

The 3-hour flight to Palm Beach went smoothly. After we got our luggage, I texted Donna. She said Bob, and she was on the way. We got home just before it started raining really hard. 

After we unpacked, we went to bed. By this time, we had been up for 24 hours. 

Original photos by Pat Hensley

Zurich, Switzerland Day 2

Click here for pictures. 

We spent the night at the Radisson Blu hotel at the Zurich airport. The room is so dark that we had to use a flashlight to see in our suitcases. We went to the breakfast buffet at 6:30, and it was nice. There were only seats for about 40 people, and there were 176 of us. No one mentioned that there was another dining area around the corner. Everyone at dinner was complaining about how dark the rooms were. 

At 7:45, we were in the lobby to get ready to board the buses. We were driven to downtown Zurich on a scenic route with nice views. Then, when we arrived in Zurich, we had a walking tour. It was cloudy when we started, but it rained on and off while we were walking. Those who didn’t want to do the walking tour could return to the hotel. 

At the end of the tour, we were given three options. We could return to the bus and go back to the hotel. Or, we could stay in town and take one of the shuttle buses back at 2:30, 4, 5:30, or 8 pm (the meeting place for this shuttle was not very clear, though). Or, we could take a train or Uber, or taxi back to the hotel. We chose to go back to the hotel. 

We walked to The Circle again and had lunch at McDonald's (I didn’t find out until I saw my credit card transactions at home that the total was over $25 USD!). Then we went to Migros (the supermarket/department store) where Don bought more chocolate. After that, we returned to our room and repacked our suitcases. I was able to call the front desk and ask about weighing our suitcases. When we took them to the front desk, a girl took us to the back (maybe a loading dock) and let us weigh our suitcases. Don’s suitcase was 19 kg, and mine was 17 kg. American Airlines allows 22 kg. So we are okay. 

Original Photos by Pat Hensley

Basel and Zurich, Switzerland

Click here for more pictures: Switzerland Day 1

It was pouring down rain this morning! We boarded buses at 9 am and headed for our tour. We arrived downtown Basel at 10:15 am and had a one-hour tour. It rained the whole time, but we got some free time to have lunch and shop. We found a store to buy some chocolate. After exploring around town, we found a McDonald's for lunch. We also went to the department store, Pfauen, to use the bathroom and found a wonderful eating place on the 5th floor, but we had already eaten. We were back on the bus by 1:45 pm. It took about 90 minutes to drive to Zurich, and a lot of us took a nap.

We arrived at the Radisson Blu hotel, which is right in the Zurich Airport. It was a little chaotic, and we weren’t given much instruction about how to get to our rooms. After we were given our room keys, we dropped our stuff off in the room. Then we went exploring. We could have taken a 5 pm shuttle to town, but we would have had to wait until 8 pm to come back. Instead, we found out that we could go to the Circle and find lots of food. We found a food court (with McDonald's, KFC, and other places) as well as a grocery store. After eating dinner, we went to the grocery store for some Coke Zeros and more chocolate. When we got back to our room, our luggage was there, so we could get comfortable and relax. The only TV channel I could find that spoke English was the BBC News channel, and I was able to put on the closed captions.

Original photos by Pat Hensley