We’ve just returned from Las Vegas where we had a Talmas Family Reunion,. Uncle Jack is 92 now and we assume will probably not be able to travel any longer. We feel fortunate to see him one more time. Great to see David, Laurie and Rita again. It’s been awhile. As for Bernie, Diane and Keith, see you soon.

First off, Happy 50th Birthday to Kayleen and Karen. Old folk, gotta love ‘em!

We spent the past weekend in Big Bear. It actually snowed on us and the then about 2-3 inches overnight. We were planning on traveling down the back of the mountain to Karen’s surprise party, but no go. The roads were icy/snowy. We stayed in with the kids, Diane and Keith, and had a super evening playing poker instead. It was a wonderful weekend.

Now back to reality, we’re starting to gear up for our Carribean cruise coming in April. Looking forward to seeing all cruisees on Jan 28th!

I forgot to mention that we threw the happy couple a small, last minute engagement party. We thought this would give our family and friends a chance to meet Ashley. As it was last minute, there are tons of people we couldn’t invite, but we hope to catch you next time she comes out. It not then, then at the wedding.

Nick and Ashley are planning to job search this coming spring, so the wedding date will be set after finding jobs. This will let them know locating first. We’re hoping for a San Diego job, but so far schools that expressed an interest in Nick are in Iowa, IL, South Dakota, MN, WA, and WI. Yikes, can you get any colder than that? They will try to find Nick’s first and then Ashley’s job, so that at least they’ll have housing. But you never know, this could get reversed if Ashley is offered something wonderful. Needless to say, we’ll keep you all up the job search and wedding plans. We can’t wait to go to Macomb in May for graduation and to meet Ashley’s parents.

I hope to have the engagement party pictures posted within a few days.

We had a great end to 2005. Our Xmas holiday was wonderful, followed by a trip down to PV the next day. Even more exciting was the day after when Nick and Ashley arrived. Nick had planned it for a month. He had bought a ring while here over Thanksgiving. He had only to ask the question…We had dinner reservations and I purposely was not ready yet. Nick had only to convince Ashley to take a walk on the beach. The only problem is, she had just showered for dinner and didn’t want to go. Nick’s pouting finally convinced her.

Once on the beach, he wanted to walk on the sand. Once again Ashley balked. More pouting. He finally turned to her and asked the same question that Danny had posed to me almost 29 years ago: “What would you say if I asked you to marry me?” Ashley replied that he couldn’t ask because he didn’t have a ring. “What if I do?” More back and forth until she answered yes. That’s the short story. You can ask either one of them for the rest.

Our trip was highlighted by us renting a boat and going out whale watching. You can view all the pictures, but we had a wonderful time. The only damper was that it tired us out so much, our New Year’s Eve celebration was really nothing at all. But it was all worth it: the PV trip, the whale watching and most of all, we’ve gained a daughter-in-law to be – sometime in 2007!