January: Where'd It Go?

I think for a 31 day month January must be the fastest month in the year. I'm always surprised how quickly the end of each January arrives. It's like the new year is no longer the infant we pictured it to be just a few weeks ago.

Nate had a fantastic time in New York and came home telling of several adventures he and his friends had on the trip. This is the class trip DA makes available for the juniors each year and it is the most popular class trip (well, maybe second to the sixth grade trip to Disney World). The teachers who chaperoned told me this was one of the best groups they had taken.

I can now say the Christmas break is over for all of us. Vicki and I were the first to go back to work after we returned from Florida. Nate and I are in our fourth week of classes already, Ben went back to school last week, and Jenna has begun her nursing studies this week. I'm glad for her that she had the longest time off. This allowed her to go back to Trevecca and visit most of her friends who are still there, many of whom have this last semester before they graduate. (By the way, Jenna's graduation ceremony is in May.) Still, I think she is more than ready to get on with it. She has already impressed me as being far more studious than I ever was. Hopefully I was better about that than I remember.

I recently ran across a bunch of cassette tapes, many of which came from Mom's house. Since we didn't have a home movie camera and camcorders were years from hitting the consumer market these tapes are my equivalent to the home movies we have of our kids. Most are labeled, but not all, so I am listening to them to find out what's on them. Some are of me, some of a Bible teacher (Venita Whittemore) whose class Mom used to attend, and some of church services.

I ran across one tape the other day of me and Brent Freeland as we were playing one day. I remember the details clearly, but to be brief, Brent and I were pretending to be co-captains (neither of us wanted to outrank the other) of a submersible that was diving deep for sunken treasure. We went on for 18 minutes telling this tale of our collecting treasure from the bottom of the ocean complete with sound effects. We had a fire onboard and had to do an emergency surfacing. Our imaginations from that day completely amazed me as I listened to the tape. All this was made up from playing with a little Cartesian diver toy (Sea Diver by Parker Bros.) I had. My kids had active imaginations growing up, but I don't recall them playing and making up tales quite like this, but as I recall, this was normal for us when we were kids.

To change the subject before bringing this to a close, yesterday was the tenth anniversary of Pauline's passing. So hard to believe it has been that long. We certainly miss her very much. Vicki's post on Facebook yesterday really spoke to my heart.

Mama’s been gone for 10 years now. It’s odd how time seems to fold over on itself...sometimes it feels like a long time and sometimes it feels like yesterday. Today I remember her and I’m glad to have had the privilege of being her daughter. I wish she could’ve been here longer so her grandkids would have had more time to know her. She was good and kind and enjoyed just being around everyone in her quiet way. She also had a knack for knowing how to love each person she knew the way they needed to be loved. She is missed and I shed just a few tears... per her instructions to cry for just a little while. Her life’s ripples continue. [Heart emoji]

Well said, Vicki. I miss you, Pauline.

Joe

Holiday Adventure

Happy New Year! Christmas has come and gone and all of our decorations are boxed away. Only the snowmen decorations remain to celebrate winter.

We have had a nice Christmas. As I mentioned last time, brunch was moved to Morgan's house and we had a wonderful time. Mom was able to go to that and we spent more time with her the next day. The boys got a Ring Fit Adventure game for their Nintendo Switch which is all about physical activity. Now when they play their new game the whole house shakes.

After celebrating Christmas our primary concern was packing for our Florida vacation! Eight days and 1770 miles later there are a few adventures to tell about.

Both of the last two Fridays (the 27th and the 3rd) were spent driving. Not much to say there except that traffic made our drive 2-3 hours longer than planned each way.

We spent the first half of our time in Florida staying with the Cotters and the remainder of our stay in a VRBO we rented down in Kissimmee (which, to our delight, Siri repeatedly mispronounced as "Kiss-a-me").

We enjoyed a lot of family time when staying at the Cotter's house—visiting, playing games, and eating. We went out to eat at Four Rivers Barbecue and Yellow Dog Eats in addition to enjoying Dianna's cooking. And to cap off our visit with them we watched Jim blow up a decorated gingerbread house with fireworks on New Year's Eve Eve, certainly a twist to the normal fireworks celebration. Several of us filmed it and the slo-mo is cool!

One of the things I enjoyed most was talking to Aunt Linda as she reminisced about my dad, Uncle George, and others in the family. Some of the memories she shared with me I had not heard before. There are so many people in the family who had passed away before I was born so I really appreciate knowing some of these tales. This makes their faces in the old pictures come alive as real people for me. Aunt Linda and I had three very nice visits which I will always treasure.

The most exciting adventure on our trip was spending New Year's Day at Universal. Chris, who works on Hogwart's Express, met us there before his shift and then rejoined us after his shift. Our tickets were good for both the Islands of Adventure and Studios theme parks so we got to ride the train between the parks and see Chris on the job. Given that we spent about half of our time in the Harry Potter areas of Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, it really felt more like we had visited Harry Potter World and made a couple of brief excursions into the Muggle areas for some additional entertainment.

The next day was beach day. We headed to Spessard Holland Park in Melbourne for an afternoon of fun in the sand and sun. The water was too cold to do more than wade in, but at least the weather was more cooperative than when we were in Destin this time last year.

So that's how we celebrated the new year and enjoyed the last half of our Christmas break. I've got in-service at school tomorrow and the second semester classes begin on Tuesday. Nate, however, gets to enjoy another adventure which will cause him to miss a couple of days of school. He leaves early tomorrow morning to go on a class trip to New York City! More on that next time.

Joe