'TIS THE SEASON

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After four months at sea circling the globe, we arrived in Ft Lauderdale on May 1 and spent the summer in Florida. We bought a car and rented a house on the Gulf Coast and watched all the snowbirds head north as the temperatures rose.

We had a wonderful LaGraff family reunion here with 35 brothers, sister, in-laws and out-laws and children and grandchildren. Lively dinner parties, beachcombing and boating excursions filled the agenda.

We flew home to Sausalito at the end of July and spent four months catching up with friends and family, boating around the Bay and enjoying San Francisco Giants baseball games.

In early November our sister Judy hosted an Atkins family reunion in San Luis Obispo. It was a great time for reminiscing, card playing and cooking favorite family dishes. We spent many hours relaxing and chatting in Judy’s pool. The highlight was a surprise birthday party for Susan on the last evening of the reunion.

After 14 consecutive world cruises we are wintering in Florida this year. Although given the record breaking warmth, it could hardly be called winter.
We are exploring the Florida west coast and swimming every day in the Gulf of Mexico and getting together with our East Coast friends and family. We plan on moving around the Sunshine State playing tourist for the next several months.

In March we will be flying out to Hong Kong where we will escort on two Silversea cruises round trip to Singapore. We both still love Asia and are excited about returning to some of our old stomping grounds in Vietnam and Thailand. After that…who knows where we’ll end up!

Merry Christmas and Season Greetings to you and wishes for a perfect New Year.

Kevin & Susan

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Photos

LAGRAFF FAMILY REUNION
A whole lotta shakin on the Gulf Coast.

NIECE CATHERINE AND MATTHEW
Californians enjoying the Florida beaches

GASPARILLA BEACH
White sandy beaches perfect for shell collecting.

OH, OH, SPAGHETTIOS
Bridget loves pasta

GOLDEN GATE
We left our hearts in San Francisco.

SHERRY and MIKE
Bon Voyage on the Regent Navigator.

DANA and JAMIE
Regent Cruise directors par excellence.

SF GIANTS BALL PARK
The site of 3 World Series championships!

LOBSTER ATTACK!
We celebrated Jean's birthday with fresh lobster John garnered in maine

BIG BIRD
John and Kevin in San Francisco

ANNETTE AND DOUG
World cruisers from Carmel

ATKINS FAMILY REUNION
The Seven Sisters

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Susan fashions her turquoise gift from Kevin

DOCKMATES GLEN AND CHRISTY
We had a six boat progressive dinner party to celebrate November birthdays

SUSAN, MICHAEL, SUSAN and KEVIN
Enjoying the beach on Thanksgiving Day

BRAD and JUDY
DeSales HS buddy and wife taking in the Rotonda Christmas Parade

ROTONDA WEST HOME
We love to swim and hot tub under the stars.

GEOFF, SUZANNE and JACKIE
Lunch on Longboat Key

CURT AND SUE
Former Krogenites and Florida friends

FT MYERS SUNSET
Over the Gulf of Mexico

Comments

[Dick Fowler]

Traveling
You guys are always full of surprises. Missed seeing you while you were here, but maybe next year. Enjoyed the reunion postures-looks like it WAS fun. Enjoy all-looking forward to the cruise blogs. Merry Christmas and you are obviously going to have a Happy New Year!! Dick

[Margery Yates]

Great to hear from you again!
Doing 2 Crystal cruises this coming yr. from SFO--one to Sydney, and the other to Hawaii and back. Wish Regent would sail into SFO:-) Have a very Merry Xmas!

[Pennie Hanlon]

Merry Christmas
Dear Susan and Kevin. My sister and I wish you both a fabulous holiday season. Hopefully we will see you on a cruise in the future.

[Carol Williams]

Ah the good life
Enjoyed your pictures and update on the life of Kevin and Susan. You two look great and obviously enjoying life. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Carol

[Kathy and Bob]

Merry Christmas
We will miss it all but continue to enjoy through you. Stay safe

[Judith Works]

Happy holidays and safe travels
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you both.

[Lee Quarnstrom]

Who are all these old people?
It looks like you two are having fun. We had a good trip up to Santa Cruz early this month, our first trip "home" in a decade, I think. I read to a huge crowd, a couple of hundred friends and acquaintances, at least, at Bookshop Santa Cruz -- from my memoir, "WHEN I WAS A DYNAMITER, or How a Nice Catholic Boy Became a Merry Prankster, a Pornographer and a Bridegroom Seven Times," (available now not only from amazon.com but also at Bookshop Santa Cruz!). Henry Mello would've enjoyed the whoopdeedoo! My dad would've been interested in your itinerary! But he would have had to learn about URLs, PDFs and other new-fangled stuff, so he died as his travel-writing era came to a close (mostly because of Internal Revenue laws, I suspect). Things in La Habra, the Athens of Orange County, are pretty dull. Health-wise we're OK today after a year that saw me almost die last November (2014) from sepsis and starting in January began to focus on Chris's lymphoma, which, thankfully, was stopped with a half-dozen chemo treatments. Stay healthy and don't get old! Aloha, Lee

[Kathy Atkins Page]

Masters of Life
I love how you live life !!!! Merry Christmas ! Bonne Annee - -2016 ! Our reunion in San Luis Obispo was a highlight for me in 2015 !! Enjoy every moment - love , Kathy

[BERNADETTE DIPIETRO]

Thanks
Thanks so much for the update and photo's. Finally getting around to some e-mails from awhile ago because of the studio move and the holidays. Please keep me posted and on your e-mail list-love hearing what you two are up to. I am finally in the new studio and looking forward to some new creations. You both are an inspiration to me! Love Bernadette DiPietro