Holy Cow, this is actually going to happen...

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It is pretty amazing that after thinking and talking about going down under, we are actually only a week and a half from getting on a plane/time machine and being whisked off from the familiar confines of Colorado. It has been quite the Christmas Season, what with the parties (Sandra's and Ann's, my surprise retirement party at our house orchestrated by Nahid and her trusty aides as well as the CPMG party at Strings Restaurant. Wow. The best part is that I have gotten this far without putting on any added weight...quite the accomplishment. So much good eating to be done and so little time...

I am new at this blogging stuff. I ran one five years ago for my son's cross country team, but the setup for that was very different, and you will be witnessing my stumbling attempts at getting it right...initially, I anticipate I will just be trying to get something on the site...it will be interesting to compare my first with my last.

We are really looking forward to this...at least I think we are...it will be lots better once we are there and what we forgot is left, what we didn't do will get done somehow, and things will work out. It is hard to pack for six months...at least we are going to a spot where we will be able to buy what we forget. We are going to miss all of our friends and family here in the USA, but anticipate making more there. We will really miss our three sons and our medical students. In NZ we will have to travel a couple hours to find the latter, and we will be starting from scratch.

I have added some pictures from the retirement parties and from our family for those of you that are interested can peruse. By the way, all three sons are single, eligible, and we are accepting and screening applications to become daughters-in-law.

I wanted to include the blogs of a couple of our fellow Americans displaced to Timaru who have outstanding blogs, probably better than that which I will publish. They are doing some great stuff, I hope Nahid and I can duplicate at least some of it. First Robin, an ER physician from New Jersey:
http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Dr-Robin/
Next, the Shivers family from Virginia:
http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Shivers-Timbers/
If you are interested, you can subscribe to any (or all) of the blogs to get notifications by e-mail when we update.

My e-mail will remain the same for now at: [e-mail]

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Photos

Three generations of Hotchkiss men.
Jack, John IV, Opa (John II), Matthew and Mark

The Setup
The pre party arrangements...

The Perps...
Nahid and three of her co-conspirators in the prosecution of the suprizing party...

Trio
Glenda, Jack and Nahid share a light moment...notice who has the full plate...

Jack's Surprize Party
Greg speaking, Nahid and Jack listening, surrounded by a few of our closest friends.

Happy Revelers
Jack flanked by Scott and Teresa, my ever accomodating scheduler.

The Doctor Quintet
Jack surrounded by four of his FAVORITE doctors (L to R) Sandra, Christine, his girlfriend of 31.5 years Nahid and Ann.

Congratulations...
Jack accepts Bruce's congratulations as Nahid and Mark look on...

Our new home...
This is a photo that our neighbor Robin sent us of our new home in Timaru.