I've not posted for a few days because we made a marathon (16 hour) drive back from New England on Saturday (amid fog, rain, a few minor accidents, and post-Christmas shopping traffic). The stretch from mid New Jersey through Fredericksburg, Virginia was, as usual, super practice for video game players.
After we got back to North Carolina we spent Sunday doing approximately nothing at all and then both Monday and Tuesday I was worked with real estate clients from out of state - appropriately, I guess, one couple from New Jersey and a family from Virginia. It's great to have buyers actively looking for new homes in Leland, where we live and where I work as an active residential Realtor helping people buy and sell homes.
I do have a few more photos to post of our trip to New England for the Christmas holiday. On Friday Marge and I spent a great afternoon visiting my sister Nancy Duetzmann and her husband Karl. Our niece Katie was working so we didn't see her, but we did get to hang out with our nephew Michael, our other nephew Stephen, who, along with his wife Jenna and son Evan introduced us to the newest edition to their family, 7-week old Jacob, and we also met Katie's boyfriend Eric.
That's Jacob in the photo below. As you can see, he wasn't overly caught up in the moment.
Nancy and Karl have two grandchildren now. Jacob's older brother Evan is in Nancy's lap in the photo below. Pastor Karl, who was doing the cooking, also stood still for just a second for this picture.
When we all sat down together (Jacob was chilling in his seat elsewhere), we had a great meal. As you can see in the background, there certainly was snow around. That white stuff you can see through the windows was NOT PhotoShop'd in.
After visiting the Duetzmann's in Ansonia we scooted back up to West Hartford to meet with our oldest friends, Irene and Ray Smith. Well, it's not really that they're old (actually Ray is pretty old), but we've been friends with them for 39 years. In the photo below Ray was leaning against Irene for balance and support after rapid ingestion of waay too much pizza.
Tonight we're going to a New Year's Eve party in Brunswick Forest and I'm looking forward to some serious dancing. Tomorrow, I believe, I'm meeting with another Brunswick Forest resident to interview him and his wife about their car (a 2006 Corvette) and to take some photos. The story will be in Forest View, the new community magazine for Brunswick Forest.
So, all in all, 2008 was another great year for us. I hope it was a good one for you, too. See you next year. Lots of plans and ideas.
