Christmas & Holiday Greetings (Read 1,679 times)

This year posting and sharing our Christmas letter with all my friends in our F-106 Forum.

Christmas Letter 2014

January & February was spent preparing for Belinda's knee surgery.

March 13th - 25th Belinda traveled through Israel with her friend Judy on a Christian tour. They visited most of Israel and Belinda was Baptized in the Jordan River.

After returning from Israel Belinda had her Knee replacement surgery that was very successful. She spent months in physical therapy. Her surgeon has said that knee surgery usually requires between 8 and 12 months before you feel like you are glad you had it done.

We put in a big garden with raised beds. It produced a very good crop that we were able to share with family and friends.

July we attended the Annual C-141 Maintenance Reunion and connected with many old military buddies. We also had our grandson Dominic for a week. Spent the weekend in the Cascade Mountains with a trip around Mount Rainer and a ride on the Mt. Rainer Steam Train. During the week Dominic attended Vacation Bible School.

August 16th we had a big back yard BBQ for Belinda's 60th Birthday with 30 family members and friends attending. Shortly after the BBQ I started watching the mission flight schedule out of McChord Air Force Base to Europe.

On September 2nd there were three C-17 jets leaving McChord Air Force Base (AFB), WA, going to Ramstein Air Base (AB), Germany, we caught a ride on one of them. We rented a BMW sports car and spent 3 weeks traveling around Germany and put over 3,700 Km's on the vehicle. First day we drove up to Sembach Air Base where I was assigned during 1978-82. The next day was spent visiting Frankenstein Castle then onto Heidelberg and its Castle. Next day we explored Stuttgart where Belinda was assigned as an Army Nurse during the 1970's. From there it was Neuschwanstein Castle, Garmish @ the Military's Edelweiss Resort, Berchtesgarden (Hitler's Eagles Nest), Dachau Consentration Camp, then a drive up the Fairytale Road all the way to Hanelin.
We spend several nights in Colmberg Castle, another two nights in a guesthouse semi-castle in Rothenberg, and one night in what is referred to as The Sleeping Beauty Castle. We drove all the way up to Hamelin then down the Rhine River Valley, back to Ramstein AB. We visited close to maybe 2 dozen castles.
Then it was time to find our way to Lakenheath Air Base, England to visit our Daughter's family. I watched the missions for 3 days out of Ramstein AB to England hoping to see a flight to Mildenhall or Lakenheath AB's, but none were scheduled, and none for the next 3 days were on the new schedule going to England.
Saturday I purchased train tickets for Monday to London. Wouldn't you know it - on Sunday afternoon I saw a mission to Mildenhall AB. All the senior discount train tickets were sold out so I had to purchase 1st Class train tickets that were nonrefundable. All in all the train trip was a nice experience. Caught the first train out of Kaiserslauthern, Germany to Paris, France where we had to go through British Customs and change to the Bullet Train going to London through the tunnel under the English Channel. The train traveled at 183MPH. Once in London we had to change to a local train to Cambridge then change again to Thetford. At times it was a chore with our bags.
After we boarded the train in Cambridge for Thetford, a commuter train across the platform was there. All of a sudden people started running off that train into ours and they said that their train had broke down. I got up and gave my seat to an elderly English woman, all that was left was standing room only. Then that train suddenly fixed itself and sped off leaving some very upset commuters. An elderly English couple also boarded our train car and our bags were taking up 3

seats. There was no luggage space like on the German trains. The old gentleman said, "Looks like luggage has priority seating on this train!" Then his wife said, "I hope you had to purchase tickets for those seats and luggage!" I wanted to say, "Thank-you for that nice welcome to England." But I just kept quiet as I don't think they knew who the bags belonged to. At the next stop enough people got off so there were seats for everyone. Two very friendly English ladies were sitting with us and started telling us about nice places to visit in the area.
While in England we rented another vehicle and traveled to the town of Bath, Stonehenge and then to the big War Museum in Duxford. The following weekend I rented a van and we all (daughters family, Belinda & I) went to Windsor Castle and London for 3 days. Our son-in-law Christopher did the driving on that trip. While in London we toured the Tower Of London Castle, attended a Church Service, traveled on the Underground, took a Double-decker Bus Tour. On October 9th we were able to get a flight on a C-17 to Travis Air Force Base, CA. On the next day we caught a C-5 up to McChord AFB where our car was.
The best part of our trip to England was spending time with our daughter and family. Our three granddaughters and growing so fast and becoming very sweet young girls.

We had been thinking about a roof over our deck for quite a few years. We started taking estimates end of September, in November we chose one, and a contractor started construction 2nd week in November. The deck roof was completed on November 21st.

Most of the month of November I was in pain from an old military injury (1983), and a vehicle accident where I was rear-ended in 2001 by a king-cab GMC truck at 50MPH. This whiplash injury has bothered me for many years on and off. But this is the worse it has been. Belinda's ankle and knee replacement's have also bothered her.

November 23rd I (Gary) was baptized likely for the 2nd time. I think the 1st time was September 1978 at the Sembach Mission Church in Germany. Quite a few things were going on then, new base & squadron, new aircraft, renting a German house, and the Red Cross call me back home for a death in the family. This had been bothering me for a few years now, so I decided to do it again.

Thanksgiving we spent with our Son's Family. There was a very full house with many of our Daughter-in-Law's family members. Great food, great people, and yes, some football.

December 12th 1982 we met for the first time and will celebrate that day. We will also be spending a few days with our good friends Scott & Jane Weiss. Scott & I served together at Sembach Air Base, Germany (1978-82), he was with us on June 17, 1983 as my best-man when Belinda and I got married, and again in 2008 when we renewed our wedding vows.
Once again we Belinda is hosting an open-house on December 20th. These have been lots of fun the past years and it's wonderful to have family & friends drop in.
We may be getting a puppy or a 2 yr old chow/mix dog around the end of December of first part of January.

January is my birth month and a trip is scheduled with our Son's Family to travel to Leaveworth, WA, a Bavarian Village in the Cascade Mountains. Horse drawn sleigh rides, snowmobile trips, dogsled rides, lots of Christmas lights, and that great German food and music.

We Wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a great new year. God Bless to all.

Gary & Belinda Price