THE "CROSS-MAS" CHRONICLES
Christmas, 2024 – 50th Anniversary Edition


Dear Friends and Family,
Hi everyone! We hope you are well and have had a good year! For us, it’s been a year of extremes – a significant passing, a major solar event, a hurricane during a trip abroad, a milestone anniversary with all the family and an interesting, fire-challenged train trip around the Canadian Rockies. Truly an eventful year!

The Passing of a Generation
Sadly, on January 14th, my mom – Rose Coussens – passed away, just 2 months shy of her 100th birthday. She had a long life that included the Depression and WWII. She, with her Swiss heritage and, my dad, with his Belgian heritage, started a dairy and grew a great farm. All my family and many relatives, friends and neighbors came together to honor her in solemn funeral rites at St. Edward’s Church in North Plains, Oregon.

Total Solar Eclipse Comes over Texas
In April, Texas was one of the “hot spots” for viewing a rare total solar eclipse. My sister, Theresa and her husband Rod Williams came to Houston and we all went to the “Hill Country” to see the big event. My cousins Ken and Debbie Collyer live in Georgetown, north of Austin, in the “path of totality,” so a rendezvous was planned. The weather was “iffy,” but the clouds miraculously cleared on time to get the “total” effect. ?? Glad to have seen it because we can’t be sure what the weather will be like in 20 years when the next one comes over the US.

Traveling Abroad During Hurricane Season – The Attack of Hurricane Beryl
In late April, long after the eclipse, we had still not planned any trips. In the last few years, we had been criss-crossing the US a lot and finished seeing all the state capitals, national parks and presidential libraries. I thought, maybe we could get one of those “last minute good deals.” Ha! That may have happened before Covid, but now everybody was traveling more than ever and it was challenging just booking tours and flights. We finally found a 3-week trip to Ireland with Road Scholar. John had not been to Ireland before and I hadn’t seen Northern Ireland, so there were some new places for both of us. We headed out June 30th and, after landing in Dublin, started in Belfast. Everything was going fine, until a few days later when we learned about Hurricane Beryl brewing in the Gulf. Then, it strengthened and – my worst nightmare - headed straight for Houston. Although the weather forecasters predicted more and stronger hurricanes this year, it was unusual to have one so early in the season. Our neighbors kept us informed. The eye went right over our house and the wind blew down so many trees that our subdivision was impassable. Lucky for us, we called in the chain saws on 3 dead or dying trees a month or two before and had no property damage. We then enjoyed the rest of Ireland – going from north to south around the western coast before getting back to Dublin. We learned a lot about Irish history, saw beautiful scenery, including Giant’s Causeway, the Cliffs of Moher, the Buren, many castles and churches. But, of course, John especially liked the distilleries – Jameson and Bushmills – and, very much enjoyed his nightly Guinness. He also kissed the Blarney Stone for the first time and, I, needing it or not, got a “Gift of Gab” booster!

Our 50th Anniversary – All the kids and grandkids, Texas cousins and close friends came to party!
Many people are lucky to live close to their kids and grandkids. Ours are spread around the country, so we were especially grateful when they all came to help us celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday, August 17th. The weather was a scorcher! 100 degrees in the shade and Houston humidity to boot! As a starter, everyone came in for a Friday night Astros game at Minute Maid Park. The next morning, we had a photo shoot. The afternoon was a party at the house with our Texas cousins and close friends followed by dinner at Merlion, our favorite Thai restaurant, in sight of Galveston Bay. After dinner, we had a champagne toast with a tiered anniversary cake that looked like the one at our wedding. Quite a night to remember!

September - The Canadian Rockies and the Train Trip That Almost Didn’t Happen
After making the “last minute” Ireland trip, we wondered what else we might we be able to book at the “last minute.” John had always wanted to do the Rocky Mountaineer train in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, so I looked into that for early September. No problem, but on July 22, only 3 days after coming back from Ireland, Jasper, in the Canadian Rockies, was hit with a devastating wildfire burning out of control and closing Jasper National Park. Then, Canada Rail went on strike. To top it off, Air Canada’s pilots and United Airlines’ flight attendants also voted to strike. In spite everything, we decided to go anyway. After all, most of this train ride was gourmet eating and unlimited drinking while seeing lovely mountain scenery. And besides, Canada in September was much cooler than Houston! The 2-week trip started off with 3 picture-perfect days in Victoria, including Butchart Gardens, before going to Vancouver to catch the train. Bypassing Jasper, we had beautiful sightseeing in the mountains north of Kamloops, Banff and Lake Louise, where we stayed at the iconic Chateau Lake Louise.


And the rest of the story…
When we are home, we have our projects – some long overdue. Like, when the car’s “check engine” light keeps coming on - way too many times! Randomly, when you least expect it! What if we’re out in the middle of nowhere? Besides, the car had over 234K miles on it – time for a new one! Hate car shopping - just want to get it over – and quickly. And, since Covid, there still weren’t many cars on the lots. Luckily, we only had to go to 2 dealerships to find what we wanted. And, cars have changed! Now, we have to learn to push a lot more buttons!

Talk about technology, thank God for John - i.e. “Tech Support.” With his old computer sputtering and Windows 10 going off life support, John ordered and set up a new one, which took quite a few beers! He also has his two planes – one for flying and one for fixing, but, mostly, it’s all fixing and hanging out at the airport!

Gardening is one of my pleasant pastimes. It’s great therapy – and I think it has lowered my blood pressure! Seriously! I’ve also got a theory that the more expensive the plant, the faster I can kill it. So, this year, after so many expensive plants bit the dust, I am trying to put in cheap and free plants and seeing how much drought and neglect they can take. Maybe, … I need some plants that are related to weeds. They seem to survive - even if the ground is as hard as concrete! I even started a WOW (“War On Weeds”) program this year. But, I still can’t tell who’s winning. They’re not giving up – and, so far, neither am I! Stay tuned.

Richard and Christiane, Andrew and Austin into Hiking and Cub Scouts in California
Richard, Christiane and family live in Oak Park, north of Los Angeles, and are really into the outdoors and hiking, which they do on most weekends. In late summer, they hiked the 2-day, 35-mile St. Junipero Serra Pilgrimage from Mission Santa Barbara to Mission Buenaventura. Not sure, if they wore out (Ha! Ha!) 10-year-old, 4th-grade twin sons, Andrew and Austin, who attend Brookside Elementary and whose milestone this year was being altar servers for the first time. Richard (43) is the scout leader for their first-year Webelos den. We think he’s enjoying it as much as they are. Both Richard and Christiane work from home where Richard is the Senior Director of Quantitative Research at Moody’s Analytics and Christiane is in product management at DexCom, which makes continuous glucose monitoring sensors. For Thanksgiving, they went to Las Vegas – mostly for red rocks and hiking. Between Christmas and New Year, they’ll be in Cancun with Christiane’s family.

Rob and Laura, Peyton + Kensie finish remodeling their Alpharetta home and travel to Italy and France
Robert, and his family are running circles around us travel-wise. After finishing a massive remodel of their kitchen, bathrooms, living room and floors, Robert and Laura, Peyton (12) and Kensie (9) started off on a year of domestic and international adventures. In February, it was the Cayman Islands where they swam with sting rays, and, in March, they went to northern Italy (Pisa, Milan, Florence, Tuscany, Siena, Cinque Terra and Rome). In May, Laura was awarded a trip for her and Rob to get away to the Italian Lake District and Sicily. (It looked awesome and now we have to go!). In October, they all went to France and came back with a suitcase full of wines and champagnes! And, there was US travel, too, like Charleston and Savannah. Peyton is on a “traveling” baseball team, so, some of the trips included tournaments. In the summer, Rob took Peyton to Chicago and Milwaukee to see major league baseball in iconic places like Wrigley Field. Rob (41) is the Director of Product Management at Promethean and Laura is Vice-President, Chief of Staff to the CEO at Aptean, involved in business solutions software. Peyton is in 7th grade at Northwestern Middle School and Kensie is in 4th grade at Summit Hill Elementary. We’ll be with them in December for an early Christmas celebration.

Dave and Kristie Get a Rocky Mountain High and Move to Colorado
Early in the year, Dave (38) and Kristie surprised us with their move to Mead, Colorado, just north of Denver – leaving the Gulf Coast and dodging hurricanes for wonderful non-humid weather and scenic hiking in the Rockies. What a trade-off! Dave “commutes” to work in New Orleans at Shell as a Completions and Well Interventions Engineer in natural gas fracking. Kristie works from home as a Senior Product Manager doing strategic marketing with new (to her) company, PosiGen Solar. “Super dog” Jesko loves being trained in dog agility moves. “Other dog” Brody loves just watching.

Well, that's what we're up to.  Would love to hear how/what you're doing – and, even better – see you!
 
All the best for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!