Lillian and I have cut back on our Christmas mailing this year, so we’re using our blogs to send out our 2023 short Christmas letter.

Dear Friends and Family,

2023 was a travel year for us. Including last December, when we were away from home the entire month, the states and provinces we’ve been to:

• Hawaii (2 new national parks).
• California.
• New Mexico.
• Arizona.
• Colorado.
• Minnesota (Voyageurs National Park — new).
• Ontario.
• Alberta (Calgary Folk Festival).
• Saskatchewan. 
• Montana (twice).
• South Dakota (Badlands National Park, Black Hills, (Dixie) Chicks).
• Vermont.
• New Hampshire.
• Maine (Lillian’s 49th state) (Acadia National Park — a new one for us).
• Rhode Island (Jim’s 50th state).
• Connecticut.
• New York (Sagamore Hill NHS).
• New York City (Broadway and Central Park — a week).
• And lots of travels around North Dakota, our home state forever. We took our little camper to parks around the state. (Lillian refuses long trips with it after one really long shakedown cruise.)

A landmark year for us. Jim’s now been to all 50 states and Lillian 49. Alaska next. And we’ve narrowed the list of national parks we’ve not visited to fewer than a dozen. There are 63, but eight of them are in Alaska, including four fly-ins. One on American Samoa. We’ll see.

Is this the shortest Christmas letter you’ve read this year?

Merry Christmas!

Jim and Lillian