Wow! A lot has been happening with us. “Toto, we ‘ain’t’ is Kansas anymore.” Well, we never were. Did you know that the smack-dab geographic center of the lower 48 states is in Lebanon, KS? We’ve been there.

We moved from Zapata, TX to Ocean Shores, WA in October. We are two blocks from the Pacific Ocean and we can watch the huge waves roll in and break onto the shore, from our dining room. It is quite spectacular. We take drives on the beach quite often. It is beautiful. Scott lives 3 to 4 hours away, depending on the traffic. Billy lives 2 1/2 hours away, depending on the traffic.

We decided to move out this way for various reasons. George and I aren’t getting any younger and we, and the kids, felt it would be better to live a bit closer to them. Texas is quite a trip. We also decided we needed to be closer to good medical clinics. Texas has good doctors etc, but Zapata is kind of in the middle of nowhere.

George drove a U-haul, pulling our pontoon boat. I followed in our Ford Flex with Yellow Foot our cat. It was a very long trip. I will never ever drive through Salt Lake City again. Sorry Salt Lake, you are a beautiful city, but I’m not used to driving through cramped spaces during a hard downpour, while following a semi truck driver. By the third night, Yellow Foot got keen on what was up. We couldn’t find her the next morning. After searching the motel room thinking that she somehow got out and must be back in Texas by now, we found her hiding inside the box spring the last two nights. The poor little thing did not like the trip. She was in a cage in the back seat. Safe, but unhappy.

We made it out here and we’ve settled in. All our kids were here for Thanksgiving. We are driving over to Billy’s for Christmas. The last time we spent Christmas with our kids was in 2010.

The weather in Washington State–west of the Cascade Mountains, has a long rainy season. Some days are dry and sunny, but cool. Most days it’s raining. Today it rained all day. Nights are cool, but we have our bedroom window open; we love listening to the rain. Yellow Foot loves it too. She sleeps on the window sill by our bed. When she gets cold, she snuggles up between us on her favorite blanket.

I’ve bored you all long enough. I hope to write more now that we are settled. Oh, I should tell you. I have a book signing date coming up in February. Ocean Shores has a very nice library. They welcomed me and seem excited about my book, as it takes place in the Cascade Mountains.

Merry Christmas everyone. Let me know if you read this. I would appreciate it.

• I had a picture of our living room posted, but had to delete it. It didn’t fit on the page. So the above photo is from a long time ago.