As we celebrate the birth of Jesus and the start of another New Year, we also look back at the celebrations of 2014. Foremost for us was the joint celebration of our 25th wedding anniversary and Karen’s 70th birthday. It’s so hard to believe both of these numbers. Our 25 years of marriage (plus 5 dating years) have been so full of adventure, laughter, and love. But, just in case we don’t make the ages of 93 and 95 for our 50th, we thought we’d recognize the interim event. Having friends and family travel and stay with us for a few days really was special.
Jeanine (our sister) came from Rhode Island, Peg (Karen’s “best friend” from grade school) came from Chicago and Xibo and Mary, our friends from Shanghai were able to come from San Francisco where they now live 
most of the time. The party brought a nice combination of new Wisconsin friends and “old” ones 
from Minnesota. And Karen got a picture of herself, Peg and Kathy (her “best friend” from high school) who all turned 70 this summer. They look terrific and that 70 number is starting to be less scary. We are also celebrating John’s successful recovery from two surgeries this year. The report after his prostate surgery is that he is cancer free. Then, about the time he was feeling “almost” as energetic as usual, he needed hernia surgery. Now he’s back running in the Casa Grande Mountains.
We’ve settled into the snow bird routine well. It’s a bit schizophrenic to leave one set of activities and friends and walk right into a second set, but it definitely keeps life interesting. Karen misses her dulcimer buddies from WI, weekly coffee get-togethers and her Pilgrim church family. John misses his “library guys” fellowship which start most of his mornings and the “green and blue” of WI. But, when it’s time to return, Karen misses her Zumba/Curves group, our First 
Presbyterian friends and the mountains plus her new tradition of Lefse and Christmas Cookie baking days with Megan. New traditions combine with old as John continues to make an annual Jesuit retreat and Karen finds music and choirs wherever she is. John has been working hard at marketing his consulting business and teaching while in MN. Karen takes her work with her and does ICD-9 coding for Select Data and home health consulting with Alstar Consulting Group. Be sure to check out John’s weekly blog at http://www.agingcapriciously.com. He is very proud of his blog and puts about 4-6 hours per week in researching, writing, editing and publishing the blog with music and pictures to enhance his message.
In-between “commuting” we participated in a mission trip to Puerto Penasco, Mexico in March with a group who support an orphanage in Sonoyta and a thrift store/meals program in Puerto Penasco. The orphanage houses children who are unadoptable as their parents are still living, but 
often incarcerated. They are beautiful, happy children, but there is little funding available and they need so much. Karen did manage to put down the 2 year old boy who wanted to be held and snuggled for the whole time we were there. As we go to the dentist in Sonoyta, it gives us an opportunity to bring things at other times before our next trip in the spring. In June, we spent a week in Kentucky for music week. Karen played her dulcimer most of her waking hours and John toured the area more fully 
and 
checked out a few more Kentucky bourbon brands. During the fall commute to AZ, we spent 2 days in Colorado viewing the cliff dwellings at Casa Verde National Park. In November, we spent a weekend in Tucson with our MN/AZ friends Dar and Denny to watch the Day of the Dead parade.
Grandchildren keep getting older which is so much fun to watch. Juli’s Garrick (22) is a cast member now for the Renaissance Festival and Emily (14) is delightful. Susan’s Zach (18) is in his first year of college in Rochester MN—and playing year around baseball and Sam (15) is busy with sports and school in Northfield. Juli is co-leader of the Hastings Paranormal Society; Susan is still at HealthPartners as a pharmaceutical buyer; Kevin is in San Francisco at LinkedIn as a Systems Engineer and Megan has a new training position with Multiple Listings System.
Wishing you and your families a Blessed Holiday Season and the best for the New Year.
John and Karen
Aging Capriciously 