Merry Christmas and on to a Happy New Year! We're all excited to put 2020 behind us, for sure, but we must remember that even in times of great turmoil and distress our great God has everything in His control!
How my holiday season played out was not exactly as planned but it was pleasant and joyful so nothing to complain about. We all missed Mom and Dad but felt their spirits with us. In fact, as Christmas got closer I started seeing Mom's birthday on random digital clocks, even to yesterday as we checked out at the chiropractor office. We also missed my Florida kids who couldn't come because of Covid mess. They had originally planned to come and even bring his parents and brother. Alas, it wasn't meant to be, but we're all looking forward to trying to get together at some point during the coming year.
We've never been a large family but we were a pared down group of seven this year. It seems so weird that our family has diminished so much after the loss of parents (my brother's and mine, my sister-in-law's, and Danny's step-mom) over the last few years.
But with joy I can say that our family increased by one new son-in-law on December 21 when my youngest daughter, Lindsey married her best friend, Lucas. Always one to live to the beat of her own drum, they were married as she wanted - at the Court House followed by a grand family party at a local Mexican restaurant. As she put it, without spending thousands of dollars on a wedding she had accomplished the same desired result without all the fuss and muss. The only family members not there were her sister and her dad's sister and her new husband's brother. Otherwise everyone was there and it was delightful! We actually had her sister on Facebook messenger so she got to "be there" for the cake cutting.
For me, Christmas is about going to church and celebrating the birth of Jesus. I was lucky enough to be able to sing at our Christmas Eve service. Our church is so beautiful, especially when decorated for Christmas.
Now with a new year starting soon my next agenda item is to clean out my email program as I do every year. Anything that is worth saving is put into a document and all the old crapola is deleted and I start fresh. It's a good way to find all the things that slipped through the cracks during the year.
We actually went into a thrift store a few days ago - the first time since the original lock-downs occurred. We didn't look at everything or even go throughout the building. I just wanted some books to read. Luckily they are at the front of the store. After a quick perusal I grabbed four and headed out. I have missed reading this year. Nothing like a good little Victorian romance to take you away from it all for a while!
I'm going to focus on getting my genealogy files updated this year. I've struggled with that ever since discovering that a
bad merge ruined thousands of reference source notes. In fact, at the time of discovery, it took me a year before I even looked at it again! So this year I am really going to tackle it and hopefully at least make a dent in it. Last year I worked on several client family genealogies. It's always fun for me to have a new line to work on. It's like putting a giant puzzle together
without all the pieces being in front of you. It's been my goal to get all the paperwork that was generated back in the 1960s to early 2000s scanned into my computer. I love that technology has changed so much and so many more options are available. Back then there was a lot of field work involved, visiting courthouses, libraries, and cemeteries.
But right now it will be all I can do just to get that tree in my living room taken down and put away again! Why do things never fit back in the boxes the way they came out?!
