Annual Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas

Happy New Year

From the traveling Halls

We have had a wonderful year in 2007. It has been so exciting, as you know if you've read our previous posts.

We spent the summer in Alaska - a trip of a lifetime. But we hope not the last time we get to visit. Sally is even tempted to make Alaska home one day (but Tom adds that she says that about every place we visit!)

We visited with many of our friends and relatives - all the way from Tacoma WA to Seaford DE to Florida to New Orleans and Alabama.

Stephen finished his year of clerking with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, passed the bar in Louisiana and started work with a law firm in New Orleans. He and Katie bought a home in Uptown New Orleans. It's a beautiful modified shotgun - a very "New Orleans" type of home.

Tom turned 50 in Alaska - a big milestone celebrated with our friends Glenn & Karin (and Cooper).

We hope that all of you have had a great year, too, and that we all have a wonderful 2008!

Now to catch up with our posts for the past two months.....

You may have noticed that we haven't posted much. No excuses, we just could not keep up the pace of earlier in the year. We are sorry and will try to do better in the future. However, we currently only have a dial up connection, so the pictures will be few and far between.

Last you heard of us (on the blog), we were back in the US and headed for home, via I-90 (Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois).

We did make it; we did lots of sightseeing and have visited lots of family since then. We are settled in back at the Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge. Some things have changed here (one ranger has moved on to a job in the Smokies and the assistant manager is in Iraq for a year, the goats are gone). Other things are the same (lots of work for us to do, lots of birds, a great place to stay).

Places we saw and stayed:

• The Black Hills of SD, Wall Drug
• The Mitchell Corn Palace (SD)
• DeSmet, SD where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived as a girl and teenager and where most of her books were set
• The Wisconsin Dells where we visited with Tom's brother Roy and family (including 6 month old Peyten - a sweet little girl)
• The Jolly Green Giant - in Minnesota
• Peoria - to visit with Sally's sister Suzi and see her fancy new sheep barn

Pictures will be posted some day soon when we have faster internet access. Dial up just isn't fast enough!