Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from lovely Bella Vista, Arkansas. This is great time of year here and a time when we look forward to communicating with friends we may have neglected. Like eMerry Christmas and Happy New Year from lovely Bella Vista, Arkansas. This is great time of year here and a time when we look forward to communicating with friends we may have neglected. Like every year, 2016 has been a year that passed quickly with more ups than downs. We remain very fortunate in our good health. We hope that it has been a good year for you as well.
Our most traumatic event of the year was the loss of our faithful family member, Sadie the Dog, on Good Friday. She suffered her last year with a nasty fungus infection to her sinus cavity and finally cancer of the blood vessels. We miss her. She brought us much joy. But we also look forward to getting another shelter dog early next year.
Sylvia departed Habitat for Humanity just before Christmas last year. She had been there for well over ten years, but disliked many of the recent personnel decisions made by an uncharitable senior manager. Unemployed for almost a month, she started a new career at the small Gravette Library near Bella Vista. That went well until an inspector discovered that the newly relocated library had to be closed because the antique brick building was structurally unsound. She now has assumed the role of Bella Vista’s newest star tennis player.
Jerry still keeps very busy keeping busy. The homestead takes a lot of time, but he enjoys it. One of the biggest chores was a complete redo of the master bathroom in the summer. We hired someone to to remodel the kitchen for us. As it turned out we had nearly enough left over granite and other things to redo the bathroom as well. Big job that turned out well, but it took Jerry a couple of months. Beyond that, he helps out at the Bella Vista Recycle Center, as needed at the Animal Shelter, and monitors a couple of trails for the local Bluebird Society.
This year we enjoyed our annual ‘special trip” with sister Joyce and husband Kenn in New Zealand. We spent two weeks touring North and South Islands with a two-night stop in Fiji en route. It was part self-drive trip with lots of guided tours here and there. On the North Island we were able to stop and visit one of Sylvia’s cousins, a kiwi farmer. What a great trip and what a fantastic country. We've posted a few pictures in the ‘NewZealand2016’ album on our website (argets.com).
We also had a good trip back to England to visit Sylvia's family in May. Our visits with all four of Jerry’s sisters were equally enjoyable,
A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You!