Bill and Wendy's ickcillint adventures

Santa on the Beach in Trincomalee Christmas 2011 was a hard time for Bill and I.  All our VSO buddies had gone home for a visit to the UK leaving us without exotic plans and without our pals.  In self consolation, we booked ourselves into Coconuts, a small beach place in Trincomallee.  Despite our elaborate dinner at Chaiy Blue Hotel on Christmas Eve in Trincomalee, we pined for home.  Christmas 2011, we were home for Christmas - but only in our dreams. Bill in Trincomalee at Christmas (lonesome us) This Christmas, we fly home on December 12.  We'll be on time to celebrate Carla and Rob's birthdays (December 19 and 21) and kiss and hug two of our new grandbabies right away.  Yes, this Christmas, we will be home for Christmas ... and not just in our dreams.

Forever? Today, is my last formal day of work, having made the decision to retire some months earlier. It feels a bit strange and somehow not real.  How do you just give up working?  How do you let go of opportunities that present themselves, like curriculum writing, like job postings you know you could do with your eyes closed, like job postings that provide you incredible challenge?  At work in Jaffna  Training Women Development Officers in Jaffna Time will tell. I plan to keep all my professional registrations current for at least one year to ensure I have some choice about my life.  In the meantime, my real work will be baby kissing.

  Our last 2012 grandchild was born!   Despite the fact that his mother, Shelley, promised to keep her legs crossed until we got home, Colten had other ideas about his birth date.   He decided November 28 th at 11:42 pm was the perfect time to make his entrance into the world.   Little sneaker!   He was three weeks early.   His birth weight good despite his eagerness to manifest himself;   6 lbs, 9 oz.   Mom and baby are doing great. Colten is Bill’s first biological grandchild and he is over the moon and weeping at every photo.   Colten is my first step grand and I wept alongside Bill.   Bill reported he had an epiphany with Colten’s birth.   “I have seven grandchildren!”   Although we are a blended family they are all ours from youngest to oldest: Colten, Penelope, Michael, Mickey, Gwendylen, Lainee and Jayden.   Carla says for the Linders and Campbells (a couple of prolific families of friends of ours) to move over as the Finley/Blairs are gaining ground on them in the gra