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Sunday, January 6, 2019

It WAS a Very Good Year

To paraphrase the song title composed by Ervin Drake and popularized by Frank Sinatra, we had a TERRIFIC year in 2018. (Spoiler alert, this is another photo-laden post with many previously posted images.) 

(It Was a Very Good Year was first recorded by a member of the Kingston Trio and featured on a 1961 album. This recording reportedly influenced Sinatra to want to record one. It's been recorded by other artists including Ray Charles, The Turtles, Chad and Jeremy, Lou Rawls, Della Reese, Shirley Bassey, Herb Alpert, Wes Montgomery. Drake's inspiration in writing the song was said to be his then future wife, Edith Vincent Bermaine, a showgirl, whom he had dated, and then married 20 years after the song was written.)

NOW, back to our very good 2018 — it was filled with family, friends and experiences.

It was the year we became home-less (in a good way) and finally sold our VA Eastern Shore home after a few years and several realtors. We had already relocated to our current mill apt in Nashua, NH, so no longer having long-distance home ownership concerns was a huge relief. Yes, it was a beautiful home which we lovingly updated and modernized, but 12 years of living in a town of 500 residents left us wanting more to do and see.

The wedding of our youngest niece, Jamie, took place in early June in our home state of NJ. It would be followed a short 4 months later by the wedding of her sister, Julie. My brother was very relieved that there's no more daughters to be wed.

In between these family weddings. The summer of 2018 (mid July to the end of August) was taken up with cross-country travel. We drove from Nashua, NH to Springfield, Oregon. The goal was to visit friends who suggested we come for a glass of wine. (It seemed like a good great idea at the time.)


The trip was filled with a lot of sights: largest boot, a cowboy museum and a mustard museum NV and OH), a Thai Temple (WI), world's largest 6-pack of beer (MN), 2 prisons (IN and WY), 2 auto museums IN and NV). We drove through 20 states, visited 5 state capitals and took 2 boat trips on the mighty Mississippi River. We also found sought out as many ice cream places as we could in each state — our defense excuse was that our travel was all during the hot summer months. (We can highly recommend Culver's in the Midwestern states and always stopped at one.) And we "discovered" cheese curds in WI.


We spent time with family members on both sides of our family. And, unlike some occasions when families gather, all these times were for celebrations and/or holidays. The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays included seeing nearly all of our immediate family members who live in CT, NJ, PA, RI and sharing good times together.
Thankfully, we were able to spend time with friends in several states, including CO, NJ, MN, OR, and PA.

As much as last year was a very good wonderful year in so many other ways too. We're looking forward to see what 2019 will bring and hope that it will be as good or better (if that's possible). 

This is the year we will both reach milestone birthdays (winter & summer). In mid-April, we celebrate the 22nd anniversary of our first date and in early fall, it's our 20th wedding anniversary. (Readers of this blog know from past posts that we celebrate both dates.) A couple of trips are in the talking-about stages.
Cheers to Everyone for your very good New Year in 2019.

14 comments:

MadSnapper said...

your movie title from last year could also be "its a wonderful life" because it was and still is... 2 weddings in that short time period is cause for celebration by your brother in no more girls.. lol

Anvilcloud said...

Yes, I'd say that it was a very good year for you. Here's to another.

Brenda said...

Great trip!!
Culvers is down the street, and my grand girls and I love it! I enjoy their fries and grilled cheese! Have lived here a year but enjoyed it when visiting also!
Love your blog!!!

coffeeontheporchwithme said...

Oh my goodness, you did indeed have a very good year! You two are great examples of "living your life"! -Jenn

Emma Springfield said...

I was happy to be able to share all those events with you. Culvers is a favorite of mine too. I like the fish dinners.

Connie said...

You did indeed have a very good year. I'm so happy for you that you were able to get your house sold. I know what a worry that can be. Wishing you all good things in the new year!

Bill said...

You two had a fantastic and fun 2018. Wishing you another great adventurous year for 2019.
Re the filled recycling bins, they get filled up like that because it was a long holiday break. The people who pick it up were off work too. So this usually happens at the end of the year.

Christina said...

Yours sure looks like a fantastic year!I enjoyed reading your blog all year, in particular I loved your road trip. Thanks for sharing your adventures. Wishing you a happy and fun/adventure filled year. x

DUTA said...

Superb Sum Up of your 2018 year! It takes great writing and photography talent to do so, and you successfully did it.
Wishing you a happy and blessed 2019!

My name is Erika. said...

You did have quite an exciting year. And it looks like a good one to me! It will be fun to see where 2019 takes you and what excitement is in your life. And hopefully at some point we can meet up too. Hugs-Erika

Nil @ The Little House by the Lake said...

You did have a wonderful year. Here's to another year full of excitement and happiness.

Linda said...

Cheers!!!
Love getting to know y'all through your blog!!
Onward to 2019 and all the adventures yet to be!

William Kendall said...

You certainly had a busy year!

Jeanie said...

Well, first of all, thanks for stopping over at my blog! I have loads more posts on England coming up so I hope you'll be back.

It's fun to visit a new blogger here on a year-end post because we really get to see things that are important and make a difference, a good part of your life. And it does look like it was quite a wonderful year! Happy New Year, Beatrice!