Mostly these letters bring up to dates on families. We read about family members who graduated from high school or college, who got married, who had their third grandchild and a bit about everyone’s health.
A few share their trips and vacations each year. The same people seem to enjoy traveling, and I really enjoy hearing about their journeys.
One of our traveling kin is a single woman who works from an insurance company in Minnesota.
A few share their trips and vacations each year. The same people seem to enjoy traveling, and I really enjoy hearing about their journeys.
One of our traveling kin is a single woman who works from an insurance company in Minnesota.
She has great insight on places to go and things to see. She’s not much on the usual vacations spots. She is apt to spend 10 days in Iceland, meeting people and seeing the countryside. She went to South America and hiked the Andes Mountains.
Her description of her trips are wonderful. One year she went where her family came from in Sweden looking for and finding relatives.
This year she surprised us all when she said she took several trips in America instead of one big one. She didn’t do the regular tourists places such as Yellowstone, Niagara Falls or the Everglades. She wanted to see places that she had heard about all her life, but had never seen. Places like the little towns that her great-great grandparents came to when they came to America.
She had some great mini vacations.
One of my nieces wrote that she and her husband spent early December in Germany taking a “Christmas shopping cruise” on the Danube River. They had a wonderful time as the boat docked at seven ports cities along the river and passengers got to visit the little stores and shops in town.
When they returned to the States, they had Christmas with their daughter and her family in Virginia before going home to Oklahoma.
Obviously, their Christmas card came in January as they waited to tell of their trip.
Other cards told of Alaskan cruises, weeks in Hawaii and other great and meaningful trips.
As I read these Christmas letters, I though how grateful I am to see people who are doing well financially. With money to spend on trips to sightsee or to visit with friends and family, they are living a good and meaningful life.
Our families have a history of being frugal and planning ahead. I believe that’s why they can enjoy the good things in life.
Hard times may come, but it does I hope my family will remember the teachings of their youth to be careful and frugal.
Just between, you and me, being penny wise really pays off.
(Kay Hively is a historian, author and former editor, reporter and columnist for the Neosho Daily News and Neosho Post.)
Her description of her trips are wonderful. One year she went where her family came from in Sweden looking for and finding relatives.
This year she surprised us all when she said she took several trips in America instead of one big one. She didn’t do the regular tourists places such as Yellowstone, Niagara Falls or the Everglades. She wanted to see places that she had heard about all her life, but had never seen. Places like the little towns that her great-great grandparents came to when they came to America.
She had some great mini vacations.
One of my nieces wrote that she and her husband spent early December in Germany taking a “Christmas shopping cruise” on the Danube River. They had a wonderful time as the boat docked at seven ports cities along the river and passengers got to visit the little stores and shops in town.
When they returned to the States, they had Christmas with their daughter and her family in Virginia before going home to Oklahoma.
Obviously, their Christmas card came in January as they waited to tell of their trip.
Other cards told of Alaskan cruises, weeks in Hawaii and other great and meaningful trips.
As I read these Christmas letters, I though how grateful I am to see people who are doing well financially. With money to spend on trips to sightsee or to visit with friends and family, they are living a good and meaningful life.
Our families have a history of being frugal and planning ahead. I believe that’s why they can enjoy the good things in life.
Hard times may come, but it does I hope my family will remember the teachings of their youth to be careful and frugal.
Just between, you and me, being penny wise really pays off.
(Kay Hively is a historian, author and former editor, reporter and columnist for the Neosho Daily News and Neosho Post.)
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