Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We hope all of you reading this are enjoying a great Advent this year as you celebrate with the ones you love most. There are many around all of us who struggle to do that. All my kids are under one roof. I understand this more fully now that I know the day they will be making homes of their own is not as far off as it used to be.

Jenna has completed her degree with Trevecca and moved home. (Her graduation will be this spring.) She will begin a 15 month accelerated nursing program in about four weeks and commute to Hendersonville for classes. Upon getting home Jenna has torn into making peanut butter balls and pies like a mad woman. She has all of her customers hooked on her holiday sweets and they continue to place orders even though she is not trying to raise money for a mission trip this time.

Ben is home from Tech where he had a great first semester of college. He was much better prepared for college than I was which shows given that his first semester GPA is double what mine was. (I wound up almost doubling my cumulative GPA by the time I graduated.) Ben will have a new roommate when he returns to school as his original roommate decided to move to a private dorm room.

Nate and I finished our classes late last week. The kids and I celebrated these milestones with lunch at Thomas Drugs last Thursday. Vicki wasn't able to join us since she still has a few days to put in before the end of the year.

I think this has been a less stressful pre-Christmas season this year. Vicki got all of her shopping done yesterday ahead of Kenny and Lori's party and commented that for once she won't be rushing from Walmart to get to the Christmas Eve service at church. We've also had time to work in a couple of movies on our movie list—A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker were both really good.

Speaking of Kenny and Lori's party, Kenny had a great time last night with the fact that Jenna brought a boyfriend and he tried to get some mileage out of that by putting Nolan in the spotlight in front of everyone. I think Nolan got one up on Kenny, though, when Kenny couldn't remember Nolan's name.

We have a new addition to our family. Nate and I came home from school the other day and I heard this strange chirping noise in the front yard. As I walked that way to investigate the cutest little orange and white kitten ran out from the bushes at the end of the walk to meet me and climbed right up my pants and shirt to my shoulders. We are trying to decide on a name and Merit seems to be sticking. Fluffy, our other cat, is not happy (yet).

Mom is doing well. We have certainly seen a number of changes in the last year. We can't get her out like we used to, though we will make sure she gets to Christmas Brunch. One big change this year is that this event is moving from Mrs. Connie's house to her granddaughter Morgan's house. The location may be different but the love and the food will be the same.

So that's the snapshot of the Swann Family as we roll into Christmas 2019 tomorrow. Life is good and I am very thankful for gift of family and friends. Merry Christmas!

Joe

A Lot To Be Thankful For

I think I've said before that I enjoy looking at the landscape this time of year as I drive around. Just about all the soybeans have been harvested so most of the fields have the clean look as they rest up over the coming months for the next spring. The trees are bare now and I think I can put away the mower until next season now.

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Like last year, we traveled to Virginia to share the holiday with the Jones family and we had a great time together. This visit was typical of most visits in that we enjoyed family fun and food. In fact, we had such a bountiful table that we truly lived up to Pauline's name for our family: the Eatinest Bunch. What made this year special, and more fun, were the additional people. The Jones house was rockin' with 16 of us there.

First of all, Darice's mom and stepdad, Earline and Joe, joined for Thanksgiving. We hadn't seen them in some time and it was good to reconnect with them. In addition to them were the Camano family, Cameron's soon to be in-laws.

I reported back in July that Cameron had proposed to his girlfriend, Jessica. So, we had a wonderful time getting to know her, her parents, and her younger brother. Jessica is a beautiful young woman with a sparkling personality and a great match for Cameron. She is, at 4' 11", the envy of tall girls everywhere given that Cameron is 6' 7".

There was a small bit of name confusion over the visit. Jessica's dad is nicknamed Jojo which is Filipino for "Junior." So with me, Darice's stepdad, and Jojo all having similar names there were times when three heads would turn when someone called our names.

Circling back around to the food, we had more to eat than I can mention here, but I want to note that Jessica and her mom, Ping, made the most delicious meal of Filipino food on Friday after Thanksgiving. They made so much that we got to take leftovers home with us and enjoy it all a bit longer.

Of course, with all these people there was a ping pong tournament. Ben was the winner this time, but he truly earned the title in a hard fought match against Jojo. And an honorable mention goes to Will who was a force to be reckoned with even after hip replacement surgery a few weeks ago.

All too soon our time was over and we headed home. What was different for us this time was that we dropped Ben off at Cookeville, left Jenna at her apartment in Nashville, and it was just the three of us here at home. Of course, it won't be long before Jenna and Ben are back home for the holidays and our house is full again.

I must say that this year I am so thankful to see the children starting to settle in as young adults. Cameron is in the middle of Police Academy and will soon be on the beat with the Chesterfield County Sheriff's Department in Virginia. Zachary is looking to complete his studies at Full Sail university in a few months and is beginning to think about job prospects as a video game developer. Jenna will complete her bachelor's degree with Trevecca this semester (her graduation is this spring) and will begin a 15 month accelerated nursing program at Union University in Hendersonville next month. Ben is off to a good start at Tennessee Tech and plans to change his major to Electrical Engineering. Nate and Emily are both doing well in their high school studies. For all this, I am humbly grateful.

Joe