What with my Thanksgiving travels and providing post-op care to my now mobility-impaired daughter, I find myself at least a week behind where I’d like to be with all my holiday preparations. So it is that now, just a week before Christmas, I’ve finally gotten around to writing our annual letter to be tucked into the cards, summing up our year for those with whom we keep in touch primarily by this means. Honestly, even with all my excellent excuses, I’ve procrastinated a bit on this chore, as I usually do. I love getting newsy letters from others, but writing my own isn’t so appealing.

Once I finally sat down at the computer, though, I found the going this year to be quite easy and enjoyable. I reviewed the year in a series of mental snapshots of all the places we traveled the past twelve months. From a wintry trip to Chicago in January (luckily, just a week before the big blizzard hit) to a hot and sunny summer trip to Lake Chelan in Washington state, from a quick Oregon coast weekend getaway to a weeks-long trip-of-a-lifetime excursion to the Mediterranean, our trips spanned the seasons and destinations near and far.

I enjoyed recounting our many journeys in my letter and, in the process, reliving them. In looking back, I found myself also looking forward to trips already planned and those we have so far only considered for the coming year. With my husband now retired, we can enjoy more flexibility and a bit more spontaneity in choosing where and when we go. If we do this right, come next year at this time I’ll again have a pleasurable experience in writing my annual missive and reliving my travels.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor