December 1 - 31, 2001

Christine and I spent the month of December visiting with both of our families.  There was much less traveling than normal, and even less misadventure.  Instead of giving a day-by-day account of these events, I am going to break form here and just summarize.

After getting our internal clocks re-adjusted to the Central Time Zone, we spent a weekend of nice weather working individually at projects and preparing for our trip to Florida.

Tuesday, December 4, 2001                                                                    Aventura, FL

Christine’s mother drove us down to Milwaukee and we caught a flight to Fort Lauderdale to join my parents.  They recently bought a condominium in Sunny Isles Beach that needed to be fixed up.  So Christine and I arrived in our work clothes and immediately set at the task of painting, cleaning and finishing the condo.  The weather was unseasonably warm for south Florida in December, which made it ideal.  We worked hard each day and ended early with cocktails on the patio

Tuesday, December 11, 2001                                         Sunny Isles Beach, FL

After a week of hard work in the sunshine, Christine caught a flight back to Wisconsin to help her mother prepare for the holidays.  I stayed on for a second week in effort to finish the work we started.  It was all beginning to take shape.

This is the view from the deck of the condo.  Somehow the work didn't seem quite so hard when you could see the ocean from the window and walk down to enjoy it with a drink after a days work.

Wednesday, December 12, 2001                                        Sunny Isles Beach, FL

My sister, Martha flew down from Cincinnati for a few days of relaxation and to pitch in on the work.  It was a pleasant visit with her as work began to wind down.  She flew back on Saturday after absorbing an adequate dose of sunshine.

Monday, December 17, 2001                                                    Milwaukee, WI

After two weeks of very enjoyable work with my parents, they dropped me at the Ft. Lauderdale airport for my return to Wisconsin.  Christine met me at the Milwaukee airport and we spent the night with her cousins Aaron and Karen, there in Milwaukee.  We had a great visit there that really helped put me into the Christmas spirit … since two weeks of warm Florida weather did not fit with the season.

Tuesday, December 18, 2001                                                    Francis Creek, WI

Christine and I spent the morning finishing up some Christmas shopping before returning to her parents’ home.  I learned that Christine had been very busy over the past week helping to butcher deer, bake cookies, and send out Christmas letters.  The condition of Christine’s grandmother and grandfather had reached the point that necessitated a change in living arrangements.  This has added a new stress to hectic holiday plans.

Friday, December 21, 2001                                                             Francis Creek, WI

Today was a fun day as I got to participate in some traditional Graff holiday activities.  John put three large fish (salmon and trout) in the smoker and then we began bottling wine.  The Graff grape harvest resulted in eight gallons of wine ready for final bottling, three gallons of white and five gallons of red.  We took time tasting the results before adjusting the sweetness to preference.  It was a very enjoyable experience.

Saturday, December 22, 2001                                                    Francis Creek, WI

Christine’s brother flew in from Anchorage, Alaska for Christmas and our friends; Teresa and Doug drove up from Madison to spend the day with us.

By Christine:  Today was a very comfortable family day.  Teresa and Doug are official family members and we really had a lovely day of catching up, frosting cookies, and listening to Craig's stories of Alaska.

Sunday, December 23, 2001                                                         Francis Creek, WI

Christine made up for a deficit in entertaining and hosting today.  One of the things she most misses about not having a house is that she can’t easily throw parties in the RV, or entertain crowds of people.  Today we filled the house and garage with 56 relatives from both sides of the family.  It was a festive day of pre-Christmas joy with a light snow covering the ground.

Tuesday, December 25, 2001                                                    Francis Creek, WI

Christmas day was celebrated with a quiet morning of mass and then exchanging gifts with the immediate family.  Grandpa took a turn for the worse, having a stroke while already in the hospital.  We stayed flexible with our plans, working out visits to the hospital and getting Craig back to the airport for his flight back to Alaska.  We all managed to get back together at Carol’s sister’s house for Christmas dinner. 

1) The Graff family on Christmas morning.  2) Isn't that just about the nicest Christmas tree you've seen?!!?

Friday, December 28, 2001                                                                  Toronto, ON

Christine and I were packed and ready to leave for a wedding in Toronto.  Christine visited her grandfather one last time at the hospital before leaving town.  She was there with her parents and two aunts.  He died peacefully in their presence.  The immediate family consisting of seven children and Grandma quickly came together.  We joined the family in a prayer and then reluctantly had to leave so Carol could drive us down to Milwaukee to catch our flight.

We arrived late in Toronto because of a flight delay.  This caused us to miss the reservation window for our Dollar rental car, so our car was given away.  All the other agencies were out of cars, so we took a taxi to out hotel.  We caught up with the wedding party at a post-rehearsal reception in the hotel.  Our friend Heather was getting married to a very nice man, Gary, from Toledo.

By Christine:  Today was a hard day.

Saturday, December 29, 2001                                                                Toronto, ON

We decided to sleep in since we didn’t have a rental car.  We walked around the area near our hotel before dressing for an evening wedding.  The wedding took place in a historic Pioneer Village.  We walked through the village to an historic church for the candlelight ceremony.  We then enjoyed a lovely reception of dinner and dancing, and meeting some of Heather and Gary’s friends and family.

Heather and Gary, the happy couple.

Sunday, December 30, 2001                                                              Bradford, KY

We caught an early flight to Cincinnati and picked up a rental car for our nine-day stay in the area.  We settled in at my parents’ house, home base for our visit with friends and family.

By Christine: A fun note.  We got in a cab at 9:30 AM to go to the airport for our 12:30 flight from Toronto to Cincinnati.  When we got to the counter at the airport the guy said there was an earlier flight and asked if we wanted to catch it.  We asked if he thought we could as we had to go through Customs and Security.  He said no problem as it wasn't a busy time.  We were on the plane about 10:30 AM.  One hour after leaving the hotel.  And that was with Joe leaving his new hat at security and having to go back for the hat.  It was great, but you sure can't count on that sort of timeline.

We got into Cincinnati in time to keep up on the score of the Packer game all afternoon.  It is harsh not being able to see the game!  You can bet wherever we end up, we will have the type of TV service that provides the complete football package.

Monday, December 31, 2001                                                    Lawrenceburg, IN

We had made arrangements to spend New Year’s Eve with our friends Tracy and Chris at their new house in Lawrenceburg.  They also invite the Pines over (Matt, Nancy, Ed and the kids).  Add in two neighbors and we had a real party.  It was a great evening of telling stories and catching up on people’s lives.  We stayed up until 1:30 before putting 2001 to bed.

By Christine:  One cannot ask for more than spending New Years Eve with great friends.  Tracy and Chris made it down to Charlotte for New Years last year and it was our pleasure to meet them for  the second annual New Years.

1) Chris, Tracy, Christine, and Joe enjoying New Years Eve.  2) Meghan, Joe and Abby.  Meghan and Abby are Chris and Tracy's two girls.  They are great girls and we were privileged to spend New Years with them.