05-DEC-B-6

THE MICHIGAN STAGE FOR THE CHIRSTMAS EVE

AND CHRISTMAS FAMILY VISITS AS I DRIVE

AROUND THE MIDWEST NEARING YEAR’S END

December 24--25, 2005

The Audi purred along smoothly on cruise control, and with minimum traffic, and no weather-related problems, I mad good time in driving south from Wisconsin and through Chicago through the bleak industrial stretch of Indiana to drive north along the eastern side of Lake Michigan. The Audi A-4 is dong very well as I again this year make the driving rounds in my four destination hops through my Christmas visits. I arrived at Millie’s house in time to pull out the first of the photo albums to fill in color the review of 2005 of the year-end letter that each sister had received about a week after they had been mailed. On arrival I unpacked a bit, and learned of the on/off invitation to go rabbit hunting in the morning, which cycled to the “off” position despite my having carried the equipment for it by the threat of rain for the morning. It held off rain until later, and Arnie had gone with five guys total to collect eighteen rabbits. We settled on the rendezvous of the four siblings at the Russ’s restaurant in Wyoming.

We went to get a few of the items on my own wish list, such as a new tape recorder to replace the one that has failed more recently, the Sony Walkman I had got in the Philippines and I bought an extra one as backup since they seem to last a very short time. I also bought Hotel Rwanda in DVD so that we can see that picture before going on to Rwanda and also because the star of that event is coming to Calvin’s interim program. Milly had got the March of the Penguins as a DVD, so the movies I had wanted to see that passed on before I could see them are now re-surfacing in DVD form.

After we had gone to Russ’s restaurant in Wyoming to see the whole of the sibling family, I learned that there may be a filled vacancy in Arizona where Don and Martheen were planning to return to after picking up their car in Houston and driving to Arizona. But there are several other potential positions there they might take, so it is likely they still will be returning to Arizona, but they must go back to Houston. Unfortunately, Michael and Judy will NOT be there at the time they are returning since they will be in Florida and cruising for the holidays. I got a chance to have a couple of us call both Donald’s answering machine and we each talked with both Michael and Judy on the new hand phone on Christmas Day. I visited Shirley and went over a few photos on the laptop, and then on to the Griffioens’ to see the whole gang there as they opened up their Christmas presents. I had dinner there, and then returned to see the whole of the Holtvluwer clan in their celebration. I went to bed at Millie’s house on Christmas Eve, with the Audi packed up and ready to depart.

Christmas morning I got up and road into Cottonwood Church for their Christmas service, then after seeing Don and Martheen and the elder Holtvluwers arrive for Christmas Day dinner, I packed up Millie’s good lunch and left for the long drive to upstate New York in a heavy rainstorm. I listened to Christmas music and the audio book “Shiloh” of the Civil War battle along the way, as I covered 625 miles in just less than 8 hours with only one stop at Toledo for refueling. I had to slow down out of cruise control a few times as the rain turned to snow at several points along the way, as in mid-Michigan at Flint where an Expedition had rolled over in the snow, and at the turn of Lake Erie as I went north after the Ohio turnpike, when heavy fog covered the road. I drove through Erie PA to the NY Throughway to Mayville and pulled in at 7:45 PM where the whole Elwell family had awaited dinner of wild turkey and fine wines for my arrival. We could swap stories and lots of future plans as we settled in to see what we might get done besides the large Boxing Day celebration which is a very big event here with the Readingtons’ and the Elwells’ and all other pairs and spares along the Chautauqua County groups here. We will see if I get a chance to go out for either rabbits or deer in the Elwell farm.

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