The End

 As you may have guessed from the title, this is the end of the Swann Family News, however, it is not the end of my writing. I plan to continue as I have, just not under this title. So, for those of you who would like to continue to keep up, I will discuss that in a moment. But first, Christmas…

We have had a wonderful Christmas at our house this year, if a bit lower key than those of years past. We were well aware that last year would be the last time the five of us celebrated Christmas morning together. It was a little strange to gather in the living room this Christmas and check our stockings sans Jenna. She and Nolan were starting Christmas traditions of their own this year, some of which included us, and this is as it should be.

We were all set to go to our usual Christmas Eve Eve party at Kenny and Lori's house when a last minute virus exposure nixed the festivities so the seven of us (this includes Jenna and Nolan and Mei Lin) gathered at our house for chili and exchanging a few gifts. We went to the Christmas Eve service at church the next evening and returned to our house for potato soup this time. Jenna joined us when her shift at the hospital was over.

As mentioned above, Vicki, the boys, and I woke up and shared our Christmas morning together before going to our traditional Christmas brunch. Fortunately all COVID related alarms had expired with no ill effect and we could enjoy this time together with the Swann and Raglin families. A new twist this year was that brunch was hosted by Kelly and Kathy in their new house, which is the house of my childhood. Kathy and Kelly have done a wonderful job of remodeling the place and making it their own, and it was the ideal location for all of us to gather. Additionally for me it was nice to go "home" again for Christmas.

Christmas Day turned out to be warm and pleasant and we enjoyed our meal with the windows and doors open and the kids free to go in and out to play as they pleased. After eating a big meal and enjoying a rousing game of Left, Center, Right we came home to nap and relax.

Monday found us on the road in a two car caravan to visit the Jones family. There we enjoyed visiting, hiking, target practice with Emily's bow, and games. It was this round of Telestrations where we learned just how well some of us can draw a French kiss (the rest is best left to your imagination). We came home Thursday.

The boys and I took down our Christmas tree and the outdoor decorations Friday while Vicki went in for her last day of work for the year. Actually, this was her last day as an employee of Silver Spring Capital. When she goes to work on Monday it will be as an employee of Woodmont Investment Counsel. Vicki's boss, Ralph, decided to retire at the end of the year and will merge his firm with Woodmont. The partners who own Woodmont offered Vicki the opportunity to continue working as she has done for Ralph for the last six and a half years. So, she will begin a somewhat new chapter in life working for them now with more hours and benefits.

One funny thing of note: before Christmas Nate put together a 1000 piece Star Wars jigsaw puzzle. He liked the picture so much he decided he wanted to frame it so Vicki got him a frame to fit and the adhesive backing to keep the puzzle pieces in place. Yesterday he asked me if I knew of any way to flip the puzzle over so that he could begin to frame it. I mentioned something about cardboard and headed upstairs. When I got to the table where the puzzle lay I quickly grabbed two corners and to Nate's amazement, or horror, I quickly picked it up and flipped it over. Fortunately for me the entire thing remained intact and I left Nate stammering as he looked at his flipped over puzzle, ready for the adhesive backing to go on.

So you may be wondering why this is the end of the Swann Family News. Well, now that Jenna is married and the boys are in college, writing it just isn’t the same. I’ve been feeling that for over a year now and have decided that this has run its course; that it is time to bring things to a close. The Swann Family News has accomplished what I set out for it to do.

At the risk of redundancy, I truly am amazed that I have kept this up for 627 editions since starting in September 2003. When I began writing I didn’t think the project would last a year. Back then I populated the address list with family and friends whom I thought might like keeping up with us. Many of you have been kind enough to tell me that you have enjoyed it over the years and I appreciate that. You’ve also played a role in holding my feet to the fire because if it hadn’t been for the thought that you cared enough to keep up with us I might have given this up long before now. The real blessing is that I have a written record of our family life going back almost 18 years (my software tells me I’ve written just shy of 512,000 words). Thank you for holding me accountable in this way.

All that said, I plan to continue writing, just under a different working title. In doing that I will continue to share what is going on in our family as those things happen, but I would also like to explore other family stories that are important to me. In short, I would like to expand my focus a bit. I am also going to take this opportunity to jump to a different means of distributing these emails to streamline and modernize the workflow.

I am going to be writing under a new title: Celebrating the Dash. If you would like to continue reading what I write then I would be honored if you subscribe. You are welcome to pass the subscription link on to anyone you feel might enjoy it. And if you feel this is a good time to duck out, thank you for sticking with us to the end of the Swann Family News.

To continue the journey please visit http://tinyletter.com/joeswann and submit your email address. (Don't worry, your email will not go past me.) Tiny Letter will send a confirmation email with a link you will have to click on. And you may be presented with one of those pictures where you have to click on all the traffic lights, bicycles, or crosswalks. If you have trouble just let me know and I'll fix it from my end.

Joe