But today, on this first day of winter, I am sitting on our front porch soaking up the sunshine, enjoying 70-degrees, and just reflecting a bit.  Now I understand why my little bride says ... "This is why we live here."   Now, are a few highlights from the past year.

In January, Joe's sister Judy came for a visit. We took her to the Arizona Opry for some great entertainment! We must remember to take more of our Arizona visitors to see that.

In March, Tracie came home to take yet another computer forensics certification class here. My goodness that girl has a bunch of letters behind her name now.   While she was studying most of the time, she and Joe got to spend a little time "playing" computers together.

In April, Patti flew to Alabama to spend some time with Tracie and Wes there.

In May, we hosted a Kentucky Derby party for some neighbors and friends. Then later in May, we flew to Branson, Missouri and saw some terrific entertainment including the Pierce Arrow, the Dixie Stampede, the Hughes Family Show, and Butterfly Palace.

In June, Patti and her sister Wanda took a little weekend trip together to Laughlin, Nevada.

In July, we enjoyed a nice weekend in Flagstaff, Arizona; and on the drive home, we stopped to see the Montezuma Castle.

In August, we took a Princess cruise to Alaska. Highlights included the Mendenhall Glacier, Alaska Wildlife Center, Juneau's Mount Roberts Tramway, Ketchikan, and Meridian Bay.

In September, we went to the San Diego Zoo and stopped along the way for a quick hop across the border to Los Algodones, Mexico to buy some really cheap meds. Would you believe 99-cents for a 3-month supply of some and $2.99 for a 3 month supply of another that is regularly $60.00 per month in the US?

A few days later, we flew to New York to visit one of Patti's "bucket-list" destinations -- "The Hamptons" -- plus a two-day tour of the Big Apple.   We stayed at the new Ink48 Hotel, enjoyed a New York Italian dinner, walked all over Times Square, took in a Broadway show at the Lincoln Center, and capped it off at "The top of the Rock" (Rockerfeller Center) where we marveled at spectacular views of Manhattan and Long Island. Highly recommend that City Bus Tour to see all of downtown and uptown New York City from tour bus upper decks. Warm sunshine and entertaining tour guide narrations.

In October, our son Greg, Cathy, and Madi blessed us with a visit to Arizona and we had a great time with them, especially with our little "high-energy" grand-daughter, three and a half. What fun!

In November, we flew to Hawaii for a super vacation, enjoyed some beach time at Hilton Hawaiian Village, a trolley tour around Wakiki, a traditional Luau, and a really fun catamaran ride. We started to head out on mopeds together, but Patti decided there was too much traffic for her, so she went shopping while Joe took a ride up to Diamond Head.

Later, Joe's cousin Mary and her husband Jim, daughter Debbie, and Debbie's two children came for a nice visit just before Thanksgiving.

Our son Jason also came home for a visit and it was especially fun taking him around to check out some of the "incredible deals" available in home values here now. We hope that perhaps he might consider taking advantage of one of these amazing deals before prices start going back up. How about a 4-bedroom, 3-car garage home with a gorgeous pool for only $95,000? Why wait?

In December, Tracie ("super-geek") set Joe up with some social networking for The AV7 Bible project on Facebook, and then she also set up his book "Rejoice! Clean Humor" on Amazon for e-book downloads. These are really exciting new avenues that set the stage for further pursuits in 2010. Thanks Tracie!