New Year Birthdays, January 7, 2012

Until the 12th of Never,
I'll still be loving you.
~sung by Johnny Mathis

Hello Family and Friends,

Greetings to all of you from cold but sunny Flagstaff, Arizona, near the Grand Canyon, where Cindy and I are spending the week with friends George and Diane Andrews of Tucson, Arizona.

Happy Birthday to my wife Cindy who celebrates her happy day today, January 7!

The first birthday gift I ever gave Cindy was on her 18th birthday, as her friends gathered at the Harris home on Burgundy Street in San Diego. Most of her friends were youth from her family's church, the Allied Gardens Church of Christ. I was her new friend from a church across town, having met her just a few weeks earlier, and was something of an outsider.

My gift to her at that party was a couple of LPs by the popular singers "Peter, Paul and Mary", and Johnny Mathis. If you even recognize those names, you can guess at how long ago that was! "Peter, Paul and Mary" were the singing social conscience of the 1960s, and Johnny Mathis was a young crooner whose love songs we all adored. "LPs", by the way, were "Long Playing" records, known these days simply as "vinyl", and were the media of choice for recording music, back in the days before iPods, CDs, or even cassette tapes.

Cindy and I are not sure whatever became of those LPs I gave her 46 years ago today. They may still be in a dusty box somewhere in granny Harris's house which is still on Burgundy Street. Or they may have simply gone the way of most LPs - into the trash bin. After all, besides a few die-hard lovers of vinyl (like our son Nathan), who even has a record player these days? One thing I do know is that even though the particular media is not popular, the music itself endures. And thankfully so. Hence my gift to Cindy this year of an iTunes gift card for the music of those same singers, that she can play on her new tablet computer.

Cindy spends her time these days enjoying the retired life in San Diego where we live (not far from Burgundy Street). And traveling to wherever we can find time to travel, including far off, exotic places like Flagstaff, Arizona (okay, maybe not so exotic). She also makes time for the loves of her life, her two grandchildren Preslea and Logan, children of Nathan and Chenda Shepard.

The first picture shows Cindy with our grandson Logan. The second picture shows our granddaughter Preslea with her father Nathan riding the Carousel at Belmont Park in San Diego. Happy Birthday to Cindy!

Happy Birthday Mary! Birthday wishes also go to Mary Medina Shepard this coming Tuesday, January 10. Mary and her husband Darrell live in Kirkland, Washington not far from their kids Christopher, Rachel and Patrick (and soon to be daughter-in-law Nicole). The third picture I am including shows Mary with her husband Darrell. Also sneaking into the corner of the picture is our brother Gary Shepard. This picture was taken last summer at the Shepard family reunion in Anacortes, Washington.

In addition to birthday greetings, congratulations to Darrell and Mary on their 29th wedding anniversary which they celebrated just last Saturday on New Year's Eve.

More New Babies! In my last post I mentioned some babies that would be born in 2012 in our family. I also asked if anyone knew of other expectant mothers. Jerry Clark wrote to tell me that his daughter and business partner Susan Clark Cox will also give birth this coming June to a new baby (Jerry's 6th grandchild!). Congratulations to Susan and Andrew Cox of Lubbock, Texas on this happy news.
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Steve