Merry Christmas (I hope better late than never)

Merry Christmas from Cyprus!

It has been almost two years since we decided to try this adventure and it truly has been all and more than we could have imagined. 2008 was a good year to have welcomed our immediate family over to this historic place. Joel had a great visit last spring followed by Adam and Natalie, and finally in the fall Laurel's folks made the big expedition to see us on the other side of the planet. The folks not only made the trek in one continuous day but we sent them packing off to Cairo for a special day trip only 30 hours after they had arrived. Surprisingly, they held up very well – running on adrenalin and soaking up the sites.

Our lives in Kouklia have been very rewarding with plenty of new friends, lots of activities, and of course the food! It has been a fun and memorable time.

Work for Dale has been rewarding as well. The destinations, crew, client, and aircraft have all contributed to a very exciting experience.

We do miss home in Comox and thoroughly enjoyed our visit in the fall. The challenging effort to see everyone was mostly accomplished and re-affirming our roots is always important.

We can't thank Skype enough. With this tool, we can keep daily or weekly contact with kids and parents. Even phoning to Berwick to catch Dale's Mom in her room is possible ( she likes to spend much of her time in the retirement home theatre perfecting her Wii video game bowling skills).

Next year we look forward to travelling to the Bahamas and visit George and Johanne on their new live aboard sailboat. We also look forward to a longer visit from Adam and Natalie and of course a trip to Comox will be in the plans again for several weeks mid summer.

We wish you all the peace and love the season can bring and that 2009 meets all of your goals and dreams. Our goal will be to try to keep the blog a bit more up to date.

Much love,

Dale and Laurel