Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We hope this finds you well at the end of Christmas Day and the close of 2018.

YEAR OF THE SOCKS
I had to laugh as we opened our gifts this year. Ben mentioned that he wanted a pair of basketball socks. Six of the sixteen pair of socks he got fit the bill. Jenna and Nate were abundantly blessed with fashionable footwear as well. On the lighter side, we also got the following games to spice up family game nights: Catch Phrase, Onitama, and Ya Blew It.

Our Christmas calendar followed the traditional schedule. We all went to church Sunday morning and then Kenny and Lori's Christmas Eve Eve party that night. Yesterday was much less busy with only the Christmas Eve service at church, followed by dinner at our house. Then, of course, we enjoyed brunch at Mrs. Connie's house this morning. With all the big meals we've had the last few days, I'm glad to have a quiet evening without too much to eat. It's been a good Christmas.

PAID IN FULL!
An extra special part of our church service yesterday morning was our note burning ceremony. We started exploring the possibility of building a new sanctuary a year or so before Jenna was born and were breaking ground in August 2000. Seventeen years ago Sunday, we held the first service in our current sanctuary. Now we've returned the mortgage! Bro. Bill and Cindy, our former pastor and his wife, came to celebrate the occasion. They sat by Mom which made her day.

THE BIG MOVE
We had targeted Thursday of last week to move Mom to Springfield, but the raincloud on the forecast just wasn't moving so we moved her last Wednesday. Getting her and her furnishings there went pretty well and her apartment looks pretty homey.

Unlike her stay there at Thanksgiving, her TV is mounted on the wall so it won't fall to the floor and break and it is connected to cable. She also has a landline phone that she can work. The cell phone she had before had her befuddled.

While it is a good thing that she can call people and watch her TV shows, what's even better is that she is meeting people and doing some of the activities they have available for the residents there. I've tried to call her a couple of times in the last week only to find that she wasn't in her room. Of course, this week has been a soft transition to apartment life because we have gotten her to all of the Christmas activities I mentioned above. Hopefully she can find a routine this coming week as we leave Christmas behind and before school resumes.

I must say that in all of this move, and I know it's big, Mom has been most gracious with us and very positive which Vicki and I really appreciate.

MARRIAGE TRIVIA
Vicki ran the calculation recently day and discovered that as of today she has been married to me exactly as many days as she was single before our marriage. I still have over three years to go before hitting that milestone.

Joe