Greetings from Auckland in our retirement village lifestyle.

Even though we certainly have a more relaxed life now, we seem to be busier than ever attending different functions here, or going to various medical appointments ie skin ( from our sun tanning years in our teens and beyond) dental and other parts of the body that have deteriorated over the years!

We both attend Art classes here every Wednesday, which we thoroughly enjoy, as younger people attend from outside the village who are good artists and this helps tremendously, as does our teacher from the village. Jay is still on the Resident’s Social Committee here which keeps him occupied, apart from helping cancer patients needing treatment by driving them to Hospice here.

We have several good walks near beaches close by, plus many parks which Jay enjoys.

We have returned to Rotorua only twice this year, firstly to Judy O’Sullivan’s 80th birthday luncheon soiree in early Feb, where we met up with many good friends, then sadly to our dear friend Pat Casey’s funeral in May.

Jay had his 80th birthday on the 4th Aug, but to suit our family overseas with school holidays, we held his birthday luncheon at our Community Hall a month early in July, where most of our family arrived from overseas & Wellington.

It was great to have John & Marilyn here from Cairns with their 3 boys who are growing up fast.  In fact our lounge was full-up with all our 10 grandchildren here (our eldest Isabella makes 11)
Annemarie, Ron & Isabella were unable to come from the States, as unfortunately the timing didn’t suit due to commitments.  They were dearly missed, but we are hopeful for a visit later on.

We enjoyed having Alex & Thomas for the month of July during Jay’s celebrations. It really was wonderful enjoying their company here and we made the most of their stay by visiting places daily.  We are always sad to farewell our family at the airport…thank goodness for Skype.

We visited Wellington early October to see the Wearable Art Awards and were able to catch up with Clare, Marco & Josh, also Karl, Bonnie and the 3 girls.

End of November we flew to Melbourne to stay with Kevin, Teresa, Ella & Amelia and were thrilled to see Ella dressed up going to a Validictory Ball as she has now left College and hopes to do a Science Degree at Mebourne University.  We were delighted to witness Amelia dance the lead role in her Ballet School production of Cinderella, where she had the lead role.  She is a very good ballerina!
Last weekend we had my siblings here to celebrate my older brother Brian Lynch!s 84th birthday…Colleen turned 85yrs last July…we are so lucky to still be here as a family, also Jay with his siblings.

Happy Christmas, best wishes for a healthy New Year 2016.
Love,
Marie & Jay

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