Happy Holidays to Family & Friends ,

After we recovered from 11 days without electricity due to the Tulsa ice storm in December of 2007, we had a pretty quiet 2008.

We took our yearly trek to Estes Park Colorado in July with Martha’s family. Her sister Beth, husband Ed and sons joined us again this year. Martha’s parents enjoy setting behind the cabin watching the river rush by and reading. We also did some hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park and enjoying the beautiful scenery and the cooler mountain air. It is fascinating to watch the active hummingbirds fight each other for food.

If you want to see the entire set of pics, click below:

Miller/Martin Colorado Vacation - July 2008

In September, over Dan’s birthday, we took a wonderful trip to Napa Valley with our good friends Bob & Lynn. It was harvest time so we were able to taste the grapes freshly pulled from the vine and observe the first steps in wine making.

We discovered a great new specialty market called Dean & Deluka’s. A couple of days we would buy lunch from there and then ate lunch looking out over the vineyards (after our private tastings). What a way to spend a lunch hour!

If you want to see the whole Napa adventure, click below:

Napa Valley - Sept 2008

After getting back to Tulsa, we went into high gear to redo the last untouched room in the house. We now have an exercise room with a sleeper sofa. That sleeper would get used right away!

For Thanksgiving we had a houseful of dinner guests. Martha’s cousins from Seattle and Salt Lake City and her Uncle Jene and Aunt Gloria joined the usual group of Martha’s parents, Dan’s parents, Dan’s sister and nephew and his wife. Our biggest Thanksgiving meal ever! We had a great visit and since the out of town group stayed in Tulsa overnight, we had a chance to visit, shop, and go for walks on Friday. We could not have been happier to have every one in our home.

Dan’s cousin Tim Blevins and his son Sterling visited here in Tulsa this fall. Tim is a historian in Colorado and has authored several books. It was very good to catch up with that side of the family.

On a different note, Dan’s dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, but had completed his radiation treatments by week of Thanksgiving. He’s doing fairly well, has lost some weight and is in the process of regaining his strength. Let’s kiss this problem goodbye with 2008.

We hope you have a happy holiday season and a very happy new year.