Dear Family and Friends,

The defining concept of this year for the Canfields was “practice retirement” – Dick became a part-timer. However, he discovered that it’s not possible to work part-time unless you leave town part-time. To solve that problem, we bought a 2003 Roadtrek 200 on e-Bay in June, and flew to New Orleans in August to pick it up. It is a comfortable and drivable campervan that fits very well our idea of outdoor recreation. For six weeks in September and October we drove, hiked, and biked through the northern tier of states, along the shores of the Great Lakes (new beaches for Deb!) through Canada to Ottawa and Montreal, then down the East coast. We found many really great state and provincial parks, and enjoyed the chance to visit parents, aunts & uncles, siblings, cousins, kids, and grandkids from Michigan through Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maryland and Ohio. What a great trip!

Deb’s year was less about tennis, and more about travel, grandkids, and quilts. Early in the year we both enjoyed a great trip to Hawaii to visit Rob, Kimi, and their girls (Rob finished his Masters degree, as a family nurse practitioner). In May, Deb helped Karin and the boys move to Townsend, Mass. John got a new job with the Federal Technology Service in Boston, so they are located just a few hours from Paige, Tim, and Esther in Vermont, and even closer to Uncle Jim in New Hampshire. In between trips, Deb made a quilt for just about every one of her sisters, neices, and nephews in Southern California.

Chelsea earned lots of money waiting tables at a local restaurant over the summer, and was able to pay off her car loan ahead of schedule. She has now finished the first semester of the two-year clinical part of the MSU nursing program, and her favorite part was the sessions in the OR. She spends five days a week in Billings, but invariably returns for the weekend, to make sure her friends aren’t lonely in the night spots of the Bozone.

There is never enough space in this Christmas letter for all the good pictures – the rest are on Dick’s family web site: http://solar.physics.montana.edu/canfield/family/. We hope to have a chance to see you and yours in the coming year.

Dick and Deb