This is the 15th End-of-Year newsletter we have composed using the technology of the day, including links. Strictly speaking, once again, this is not a "letter." Those are missives in a pleasant type face, on fancy holiday "paper", carefully folded and sent through snail-mail with something attached called a "postage stamp!"(49 cents, but going to 50 cents, I think). If you want an historical look back, last year's letter is here.

Our daily activities are all listed in our 2017 Journal. The year's milestones and highlights, however, are summarized below. Distribution is accomplished by sending the link in an email and modifications occur in response to questions/suggestions from friends and family. Click here to send me a note.
Health
Issues 		At our ages, I suppose annual letters start with health updates. At 71, my prostate cancer isn't going to go away; it's just not very important. Lydia has no health issues and will certainly outlive me. After all, Margaret, her mother, at 106, is in excellent health for her age.
Travel We started the year with a week at Disney World in March, with our good friend Pat Cascone. In April, we were supposed to take a cruise with ACL on the Gold Coast, but it didn't happen. Later in the month, I was invited back to the Commissioner's Academic Challenge, which was a lot of fun. June took the family back to WDW for a week. In July, we were joined by SKDL for another weekend in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. In August, through Fresh Tracks Canada, we spent a week on the train in Western Canada. October took us back to Ocean City and a family wedding. We were back at Disney World in November. Finally, we did complete the ACL Cruise from Jacksonville to Charleston in early December.
Theater Community Players of Salisbury (CPOS) still doesn't have a lot of roles for my demographic and some of the shows interfere with our travels, or vice-versa, so this year our participation was just as patrons, though I do maintain the organization's website. I did two radio productions; The Portrait (July) and The Church (November).
Family
Visits 		We drove the four hours north to see Sal, Kate, Dominic and Leo (SKDL) in April and September. They came to see us in February,  September, November, and December, for Christmas.
Other
Stuff 		In February, Victor H. Laws, Lew's uncle, died. We attended the wedding of Rachael and Joseph King in June. Bill and Vicky Payne came for a visit. Buddy had a benign tumor removed from his tongue.
2018 In 2018, SKDL will visit us in February, May, August, November and at Christmas. We'll go up to Wyomissing for Easter and again in September for the birthday weekend. Pat Cascone will join us for a weekend in NYC and a trio of Broadway shows. This year, we're meeting SKDL in Washington for a family weekend. Lew and I will go to WDW in March and, again, in November. We've also booked a cruise on the Ohio River with ACL.
Merry Christmas, 2017 and Happy New Year, 2018

Tom and Lydia (& Buddy)