End of the year celebrations

After our trip to Tennessee in September we attended  a few other events before we finished out 2017. We enjoyed being a part of the celebration of our friend Chandler and his wife Kait's wedding in early November.

 The ceremony was at the beach and then there was a nice party back at her parent's house. It was a beautiful (not too hot...a little cool, but not bad) evening. The families were gathered and it was a fun time. Chandler and Kait both had big smiles on their faces all night.
Thanksgiving was pretty quiet...just John, Brenna, my brother Mark and I. Josh had gone up to see his mother. My  other brothers had other plans....so it was just the four of us.
Other events in December included a trip to Disney with my friend Gayle. We had fun taking in the rides and shows and holiday decorations at the different parks and sampling some of the treats at the Food and Wine Fest at EPCOT .

next up was a Pot luck Holiday lunch at work...something I always enjoy!

another December highlight...I happened to catch this amazing sunset after a stop at the Dry Cleaners after work...just beautiful!

Later in  December John and I had plans to go to NorthCarolina to meet up with Martha and Tony and other family to celebrate Martha's 60th birthday. Martha was trying to keep things low key...but that's hard to do in a big family. hahahah In the end..Elizabeth, Jon, Meredith and her boyfriend Adam came. Tony's sister Maris, and Wim came from Maui, his sister Cathy and her husband Andy came from western NC; and of course my nephew lives in Kure Beach where we all gathered. We were celebrating his graduation from University of North Carolina-Wilmington

 and Martha's milestone birthday....and Christmas was right around the corner...so there were lots of reasons to have a party.We stayed at the house next door to my nephew's and it was so nice having everyone all in one place

.It was also great to stay with Elizabeth who came with bags of food and coffee and paper goods. We teased her...but it certainly was nice not to have to go shopping for anything!!!!!!

 At night we played some board games together, we watched football, cooked out and caught up on everyone's latest news. It was nice!

Part of the motivation for this gathering as I mentioned was the graduation...something Martha has encouraged ever since he graduated from High School. For years he's taken classes here and there, inching towards his 4 year degree.(..in Physics! no less) And all along Martha has said "I just want you to get your degree." So that was well worth the wait.
Another reason we felt compelled to get together is because Martha was diagnosed with cancer seven years ago. She has done well all these years going through the trials of chemo and working and keeping herself in great shape all these seven years since. In July, shortly before our cruise to Alaska, she found out that there were signs that the cancer was back. It was a huge disappointment to all of us, especially her, because she had done so well all these years. It was tough emotionally, but she told us while we were on the cruise.  She started with the prescribed chemo shortly after they got home from the cruise in early August. The bottom line is this...this development was not completely unexpected...but...damn it...we certainly had all hoped it was gone for goo years ago! So far things seem to be going as the doctors hoped they would...but it is a reminder that we just can't take anything for granted. So when we heard Martha would be in NC for her birthday...we all wanted to be there to join in the fun.

our brother Mark had hoped to come...in the end he couldn't make it...but he sent these to Martha

 It was reassuring to see her looking so well...and feeling positive. The party was a blast...good friends, good music, great food and drinks and family to enjoy it all with. My kind of holiday!
Naturally, while we were in town we had to check out some of the local sights

 and try some local spots.

we were tourists...we didn't care...."Can you please take our picture?"

We had a delicious breakfast and then made a pit stop at a local donut shop for some tasty donuts then made our way back to the house.
We helped get things organized for the party.

 Martha, Cathy, Maris and I took a nice walk around the neighborhood. It was a good place for walking and/or riding the bikes. Lots of back streets to check out. Similar in many ways to our hometown. However... It was much cooler than Florida...and I didn't pack quite right for the weather. Originally we thought it was going to be really cold...then the forecast changed and it seemed that it might actually be more mild...well...it was neither...hahaha. I had enough warm clothes to get by...but the coat I took out of my luggage....would  have come in handy!

lots of cooks in the kitchen

blurry shots...but you get the idea.

                     The party was a lot of fun and a nice celebration for Martha .It was great
having so many of the family members (ours and Tony's) there to participate. We ate, drank, listened to some fun music. Some of the friends  played card/drinking(?) game, there were s'mores down by the firepit,( for the hardier souls,hahaha) and a good time for all.
The next day some folks were heading home...and some of us were heading to a house a the beach (a different beach). More on that next time.😉