Once again, we have arrived at the season of faith and hope. Faith, the concept of knowing the present without measuring; hope, the concept of knowing the future without worrying. However, this season both faith and hope do not come without challenges; perhaps more so than at any other time during the past six decades of our Christmas Letters summarizing the lives of our family. (Our first holiday letter was written from Corvallis, Oregon in 1963!)
Last year we were concerned about the war in Ukraine. This year has added the conflict in the Holy Land. Last year’s letter began with Karen’s hip replacement and recovery, which, BTW, has been fully accomplished. However, in August she did have an incident of a greater magnitude.
While eating dinner in the Eagle’s Trace Café, she choked on a piece of steak. Fortunately, our First Responders-Emergency Team was present within minutes and their CPR efforts brought her back to life! A few days in the local Methodist Hospital, with a follow-up in our own Health Care facility, completed her recovery. On the other hand, she still has daily pain from naturally fused vertebrae in her neck, a condition which may have contributed to her swallowing issues. Pat, however, has no major medical issues, other than natural aging with its accompanying slowing down of his actions.
As late octogenarians, we have given up extraneous travel, which is greatly missed, especially since our family has begun to move out of Texas. Chris and Kelly are now firmly established as retired teachers in Gadsden, Alabama. Kennedy has transferred her nursing career to Atlanta, where she has bought a house. Kirby, Stephen and Kipton have returned from a year in San Francisco to their home in Atlanta, where another offspring is expected to join them in May.
Although Ken and Tracey remain in Spring, Texas (some ten minutes from his work at HP Enterprises), Dillon, Carolyn, Brantley and Shiloh have moved to Atlanta, where Dillon manages a restaurant. Jordan, Samantha, Claire and Charlotte remain in College Station where he continues to be a plumber. Victoria and Ismael enjoyed working in Martha’s Vineyard over the summer and may move there. (We envy them!) Thomas and Michelle visited Thailand but will not be moving there! Damien has started his community college period while Joseph and Gabriel remain at home (with Zelda, a marvelous canine companion for Gabe.) Christina and Cristian, along with Elijah, Lila Rose and Liam moved to Magnolia, Texas and a new home which Pat, in his capacity as a Permanent Deacon (retired), blessed for them. Olivia married Sam Price in November and they have begun their new life together. On the other end of the matrimonial spectrum, Pat and Karen celebrated their sixty-fifth anniversary!
Deb claims she is retired but proceeds to find more to do with local libraries than she may have done when paid by one! Frank continues teaching mathematics at Palo Alto Community College in San Antonio, which is beyond the driving range Pat and Karen now allow themselves (it usually consists of the local parish and grocery store.) We do miss the ability to go farther afield. It is great that we have the memories and physical records, in the form of videos and photos, of all those journeys to Europe. Our only remaining activity is our participation in the ET memoir group, the results of which Pat confides to his blog: CameosAndCarousels.com. Because of the pain when she turns her head, Karen has had to give up performing with her ET chorus; she now limits herself to singing along with the music on TV and from a phenomenal memory of songs-of-long-ago.
Although this remains as the season for Faith, knowing without measuring, and Hope, knowing without worrying, it is also the season for the virtue of Patience: waiting with faith and hope for the return of Christ the Lord, who comes with Love and Joy. May all of these gifts, these graces, be yours!