Christmas 2005

Sharon traveled to Wisconsin a few days before Christmas, visited her dad briefly in Madison before driving up to Appleton to stay with Beth and Steve. Sharon and Steve drove to Milwaukee Friday afternoon and visited with brother Richard, Ann and their youngest daughter Catherine. On Saturday morning, Steve, Beth and Sharon headed for breakfast at sister Kathy's home in Green Bay. We enjoyed our visit with Kathy, Tom and three of their sons, Michael, Nathan and Timothy. That evening, Christmas Eve, Steve led the early service at his church in Appleton, then Sharon enjoyed dinner and games at the Johnsons (Beth's sister and family). Steve preached the following morning (a creative and dramatic reading from the perspective of one of the shepherds in the Christmas story) and then he and Sharon and Beth drove down to Madison to spend Christmas afternoon and evening with Grandfather Gallagher. Steve and Beth's chocolate lab, Mello, joined us for the visit and also got to meet Grandfather.

Dwight preached at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant on Christmas morning (in Colorado), enjoyed an afternoon dinner with friends Bill & Pat Shaffer, then flew to Madison that evening. We stayed overnight in Madison, then visited Grandfather one more time before heading up for Appleton where we spent a couple more days with Beth and Steve. They were very sweet to put up with the parents for so long; their home is warm and hospitable and we appreciated the "free rent"!

Our flight home from Madison turned out to be quite a (miserable) adventure. We agreed to give up our seats on our original flight in order to earn two free United ticket vouchers, expecting to get home by around midnight. It meant flying through Chicago, which had been socked in by fog all day (unbeknownst to us) and, long story short, we crawled into bed about 4:00am Thursday morning, Dec 29, and didn't do much the rest of the day except sleep! Sharon hopes to use those free tickets to see her dad again this spring. He's slipping a bit and we're not sure he recognized who all was visiting him, so it's important that she not wait too long before the next trip.