2011 Christmas Season’s Greetings from Maryland

Travel

We had fun being tourists/vacationers with friends and family this year. In April we spent three days in Duck NC

with David & Kate Goodman, their three kids and her

Mom & Stepfather. And one of those days was their son’s first birthday!

Then we spent five days in Carolina Beach and

Fayetteville NC with Gary & Robin Willis in May,

including a special ceremony at the Airborne Museum

in Fayetteville for Vietnamese Army Airborne and USAF “Red Hat” FAC veterans. Impressive group!

We toured the Surrat house (the woman implicated in Lincoln’s assassination) with Bonnie & Charles

Dondlinger, went to the Blue Angels air show with Dan and Roni in September,

and local lighthouses and the Gaithersburg doll show

with Jeanne Johnsey when she came up from Hattiesburg the next week.

Point Lookout

Piney Point

Piney Point

And then we saw Oklahoma! (the musical) in DC with the Willis’s (plus their son Ryan). Sorry, no pictures.

We did make one long trip to Nebraska in late July, primarily for the biennial Childers Family Reunion weekend at Maranatha Camp near North Platte.

The 2011 reunion organizers – Aunt Helen and (son) Matt Alderson – Thank You!

Lots of green space (and ice cream, too) at Maranatha!

Places to sit

And lots of places to talk

But there’s also the lake with the Blob

and frogs

And the climbing wall..

Sam made it to the top

And so did Lauren

We were sorry to leave our “motel” room…

We spent a couple of days in Lincoln with Jackie’s cousin Lane and his family,

Two days in Genoa with cousin Dana and Judy Christman and other Strain cousins. This is Dana’s

grandson Brady’s stock car – that’s his Dad, Kevin with Dana. Kevin had to do some repair work before the next

race.

Also visited Jackie’s brother Gary and wife Tammy in Hebron, cousin Jean and Al Haiar in Omaha,

Charles and Bonnie Dondlinger in Shickley,

and Vic and Peg Salinas at her Dad’s house near Wilber.

On the way home, we stopped in Grand Island at the

Stuhr museum (a great place for even a short visit),

and, (finally, at brother Gary’s suggestion - we’ve been driving by it for years) in South Bend IN at the

Studebaker museum (neat place, even has Fozzie’s Studebaker from the Muppets Movie).

We’ve been mostly homebodies since then, except for

a daytrip to the B&O museum in Baltimore a couple of weeks ago to see the trains and the model train

exhibits:

The roundhouse is huge!

As are the locomotives in one of the other buildings.

We could pretend to be “engineers”

Saw lots of old railcars (this is a mailcar)

And a few REALLY old railcars!

And, of course, cabooses

There is an HO model train layout in a full-size railcar

And a carousel for the kids to ride.

Thanks to son-in-law Jim and the grandsons, we now have hard flooring in the guest room (yes, finished and

available!) office and sewing room. No more pins hidden in the carpet, and it looks fabulous!

And then we got a new roof, thanks to Hurricane Irene

Jackie

Has been busy with the doll clubs, including several “custom” sewing jobs for members, the annual display

at a local museum, and attending several doll shows. At one, we found Harry a Schoenhut circus elephant at a

very nice price!!!

I also added to my technology “score” by getting an

iPad. That makes one for each of us!

Harry

Has discovered that a 3G iPad, a Kindle, and a cellphone will do nearly everything he wants an

electronic device to do on the road. We still use our GPS “Dora” in the car and a desktop, landline, and TV at

home, of course.

Dan, roni and the Grandcats

Son Dan still works at NSA. He and Roni found time to

go on a cruise and had a great time.

Sadly, their Charlie and Ramses have gone to cat

heaven, leaving them only with Selena until Leo came to live with them.

Jim, Melissa, and the grandkids

Daughter Melissa is now a 6th grade Language Arts

teacher at Spring Ridge Middle School (a St Mary’s County public school), Jim only has a few more years

before retirement from the St Mary’s Sherriff’s Department. Randy also works for the Sherriff’s

Department as a Correctional Officer. He’s been selected

for several training opportunities this year. Kevin is looking seriously at a firefighting or EMT career, but may

also take a job as a Correctional Officer. Jenny is a High School Senior, and Steven is a Sophomore. No little kids

anymore.

Finis

It was a good year at our house for flowers

and a cat named Puppy.

Best Wishes from our family to

yours

Harry and Jackie Childers