holiday newsletter 2025

Well, here we are again…another year has come and gone with the time flying by faster each year.  

We decided to celebrate our Family Christmas 2024 in January 2025 by renting an Airbnb on Whidbey Island, to share with the kids and grandkids. We had a great time.

In February, we went to Jazz Alley to see the Stylistics. It was a great show and we always enjoy going there, especially when performers from our era are in town. 

In March, we flew to Arizona to visit with Terry, Dale’s stepmother. While we were there, we managed to watch a Mariners Spring Training game. Little did we know they would have such a great season in 2025.

As we both love camping, something we had been talking about for years is to upgrade our popup tent camper to a Class B camper van. The Phoenix RV Show was in town, while we were visiting Terry, so we went to the show and met with the CEO of the company Glenn had been researching. In the end, we placed an order to have one shipped to Arizona, from Ontario, Canada where they’re built.

This meant, we found ourselves back in Arizona, a month later, to visit with Terry again and pick up our new van. From there, we made a slow (our decision to not rush) journey with our new toy, through California, up the Oregon coast and back home. We had a wonderful time and camped at some great wineries along the way. We’re looking forward to many more adventures in the future.

May was the annual Yamane family dinner, in Tacoma. Kelsey and Ben were traveling but Jason, Cari and the grandkids joined us. It was great seeing the Yamane side of Glenn’s family again, since we missed the dinner last year.  After the dinner, when everybody headed home, we had already decided to do some camping with our new van. So, we headed to the coast and had a very relaxing two nights at a state park in Ocean Shores.

June was a very busy travel month for us. In our continuing quest to visit all the Major League Baseball stadiums, our plan was to cover most of the Midwest states this year. On June 20th we flew to Chicago and met up with our tour group. In addition to touring Wrigley Field, we watched a game between the Mariners and the Cubs, as well as taking in the Chicago River Architectural Boat Tour.

The day after the Mariners game, we took a bus to Milwaukee and watched the Pirates play the Brewers at American Family Field, before returning back to Chicago. Then, on our last day in Chicago we watched the Diamondbacks play the White Sox at Rate Field.

From Chicago it was a five hour bus trip to St. Louis, where we checked into our next hotel and caught a game between the Cubs and Cardinals at Busch Stadium. We’d been to St Louis before, so we knew where the good BBQ places were.

We were on the road again the next day with a four hour bus ride to Kansas City, our final stop. We watched a game between the Guardians and Royals at Kauffman Stadium, before checking into our KC hotel and having a last “goodbye meet up” with the new friends we made on our trip.

Our plan was to stay an extra night in KC, after the tour group broke up. So, we spent the next day visiting the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. We really enjoyed exploring that part of baseball history. And, we finished the day off with some excellent BBQ at Arthur Bryant’s (any Ted Lasso fans?).

We checked out of our hotel early on June 28 and headed for our flight home. It was a whirlwind trip (and very hot), but we really enjoyed the trip and the people we met.

In July, the family made a road trip to the Minidoka Historic Site in Idaho. There is an annual pilgrimage to honor and remember the Japanese-Americans who were incarcerated during World War II at this location. It is a sobering experience but well worth it and it is a part of Glenn’s family history, as his father was interned there. Once again, we took the van on this road trip and spent some extra time camping on the way back home.

Also in July, we were sad to learn that Glenn’s cousin had passed away in Japan. She was an internationally known world peace advisor and former vice-director of the Kyoto Peace Museum. Kazuyo’s father was a survivor of the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bomb, so she spent her entire life advocating peace and education. The last time we were in Japan, she was our personal tour guide as we visited the town where Glenn’s dad grew up, before he emigrated to the US. She was a wonderful person and will be missed.

In August, we went to a Mariner’s home game, which was celebrating Japanese Heritage and honoring Ichiro’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. While we have been to many M’s home games in the past, we took this opportunity to officially mark Seattle off our stadium passport book. We have now visited 20 of the 30 MLB stadiums...10 more to go. When we started this “bucket list” six years ago, we weren’t sure we would finish it. But, the end is now in sight.

We also took the van out in August and spent four nights at Manchester State Park in Port Orchard. Another wonderful and relaxing time. And in September, Dale wanted to check out the Bainbridge Island Quilt Festival so we took the van and spent a couple of nights camping out on the peninsula.  

October was much quieter as far as the van was concerned.  Glenn was doing some remodeling in the kitchen and we were too busy cheering the Mariners on in their quest to make it to the World Series.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be this year but they still had a great season.

In November, we went to see the TSO Ghosts of Christmas show at Climate Pledge Arena. We had seen them several years ago in Portland and always talked about going again. So, this was the year since they were in town. It was a spectacular show.

We hosted the family Thanksgiving dinner this year. Glenn fired up the rotisserie and roasted the turkey while all the family members chipped in with sides and desserts. It was a wonderful time with the family.

The grand kids are growing rapidly…the twins are now 13½ – Tristan is almost the same height as Dale with Mikah right behind him, and Hana just turned 11. They all love to build with Lego and the twins love to cook while Hana enjoys helping in the garden…she loves flowers.

Our grandsons played baseball and flag football, while Hana played basketball. We loved making the trips to the Kitsap Peninsula to watch their games. Hana has also discovered a love of horses and began taking riding lessons.

Glenn’s hobby of working on the house continues, not only with construction but also with some electronic projects to upgrade our smart home functions.

Dale continues to make quilt tops, including two comforters for the van. She has also branched out to sewing table runners, which she is able to use some of her fat quarter fabric stash for.

Our adult kids are doing well...Jason and Cari, as noted, have three very active and wonderful children and two dogs – Uma and Natto.  

Kelsey and Ben's careers create long hours and crazy schedules for both of them, and Ben is traveling a lot for work. But, when they get some free time they also enjoy traveling.

We still enjoy getting together for family dinners, when schedules allow. One of the craziest family dinners we had this year was in May when we brought home a dozen hamburgers from Dick’s Drive-In and proceeded to crisp them in multiple waffle irons. It was very memorable dinner...and actually very tasty.

Well that pretty much covers our lives this year. Please know that each of you is important to us and we love and miss all of you. We hope your holidays are merry and safe and that your New Year is filled with health and happiness…

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Happy Holidays

Dale & Glenn