Christmas 2022 and Year-End Review

 

Back Row L to R: Noah, Nathan
Middle Row:  Rebecca, Joseph, Susan, Terry, Caleb, Meredith
Front Row:  grandkids, Piper

Once again there is no Christmas letter.  Maybe I will just dispense with the apologies and say this is life!  We were blessed to have all our kids and grandkids with us for several days at Christmas!

2022 was a great year for us.  We are both just plugging along at our jobs.  Terry is doing house flipping and rental property development, and lately he has been working on (1) getting our downstairs ready to rent as a 2BR apartment and (2) converting a Sprinter van camper, perhaps one of many as houses are getting a little harder to come by.  I am still doing reading therapy with dyslexic kids (I'm currently working with nine who all come to our house several times a week).  

Being self-employed definitely has its advantages.  We love being able to just drop everything and go when we want to.  This year we went to March Madness, made an awesome three-week camping trip out west (see the highlights here and here), made visits to see our kids in Richmond and Tampa, and I even got to go on a last-minute mission trip to Prague in September.  

The highlight of the year for me was a week-long family reunion with my sisters!  

Ann made all our t-shirts.  We are organized by families.  Carol and I have some catching up to do.

This would have been our Christmas photo if I had managed to get out a letter

The kids are doing great.  Starting with the youngest first, Noah is finishing up college at Lee University.  Caleb is finishing up an accounting degree from the University of Arkansas (online), and Meredith has been doing travel nursing in Florida.  Nathan is still at UT Med Center working in the trauma ICU, though lately he has been on medical leave to recover from shoulder surgery.  Both Nathan and Caleb & Meredith bought houses this year in the same Knoxville neighborhood!  We are excited to have at least half of our kids close by.  Rebecca and Joseph are still in Richmond.  It's hard having our grandkids so far away, but we communicate often, and I have started doing a regular FaceTime story-time with them.  Rebecca and Joseph plan to come back to our area eventually, so there is hope!

I'll close with some more photos from Christmas (Knoxville)/New Year's (in Arkansas).

Seaman extended family get-together on Christmas Day

So I'm the hat-making Gran!

New Year's Eve hike with my sisters

Piper

 After the death of Jingle last year, we weren't even sure that we would get another dog. Terry said it was just a matter of time.  He was pretty sure he would always want a dog.  

I loved Jingle so much, but I hated the shedding!  We thought about something like a mini golden doodle, but Terry thought they were a little too "poodly," and neither of us wanted to pay so much for a dog when there are plenty of good dogs that need rescued.  

We had said that we would not even consider another dog until after our trip out west and the family reunion.  So this summer, I started looking online at dogs in our local pound and on the Knoxville Animal Rehoming FB page.  That's when we saw a little dog show up for rehoming that sort of looked like a mash-up (or so we thought) of all our old dogs.  We arranged to see the dog but initially walked away because Terry had gotten his heart set on a puppy.  I was still uncertain about the whole dog thing.  I decided to just forget about a dog, and Terry decided to pray about it. 

This next morning, he told me "Let's do it.  Let's get that dog."

One of the best decisions ever!  Piper (originally named Harper, but we re-named her) is just the sweetest dog and she's almost maintenance-free.  She came already housebroken, leash trained and crate trained.  Rarely barks and is super chill.  Totally non-aggressive but not scared of things either.  Fun to run and walk with.  Just a great personality!  We have plenty of people who will watch her when we're out of town because she's SUCH A GREAT DOG!  

The kids love her.  My students love her.  Everybody loves her.  I got her DNA checked as a Christmas present to myself - expecting to see some sort of terrier or pinscher mix.  I did not expect this!

Terry and I have both always hated chihuahuas!  Not crazy about pit bulls either!  A friend told me that Piper must embrace her inner supermutt.  It's also interested that the DNA testing revealed that Piper has a brother in Florida (where she was originally adopted).  By the way, we sort of have an "open adoption" with Piper as I still have contact with her original owner through FB messenger.  

Guided Tour to Epcot

Terry and I have not been at Epcot since before we had kids.  While visiting Caleb and Meredith in Florida, they took us to Epcot.  As season ticket holders, they knew all the tricks!  It was a great day!

Guardians of the Galaxy Ride!  Probably the best ride ever!I loved that it was set to music - Conga!

Vols Football is Back!

This was a great year to enjoy Vols football!  In retrospect, it was NOT the year to give up our season tickets.  However since we didn't have those tickets, we opted to attend an "away" game.  LSU seemed like the logical choice, and Meredith's parents joined us for a fun weekend.  Not only was the game awesome, but we had some of the best Cajun food!

We watched the historic Alabama win with Allie and her Alabama friends out at the lake house.

But the next weekend, we went to the stadium to bargain for tickets to the KY game!

We watched the Georgia game while visiting Caleb and Meredith in Florida.  There are no pictures of that watch party - with good reason.  

3/3 - Goodbye to Prague

We will miss Prague. Here is sunset from our "neighborhood." We could walk anywhere and navigate back by those church spires. Also literally had a metro stop right outside our door.

This building belongs to the Catholic church across the street.  Used to be a dorm for novices.  Also used to have a restaurant on the bottom floor, which is where we met with children.  We stayed on the fourth floor.  

Front door - reason for "KDM" name

2/3: The Prague Team

I have had such a wonderful time with these ladies. We knew coming in that our assignments were going to be sort of unpredictable, and these gals could flex with the best of them. Everyone came to serve and just do whatever the task required. This even included two of our crew (a nurse and a vet) stepping up to help as “medics” at the train station til midnight - literally cleaning and bandaging the blistered and infected feet of the Syrian men and boys.

And we also had a little fun!

1/3: Last updates from Pragu

We came here to spend time with refugees (particularly children) who are living in several accommodations provided by Dignity - a ministry here in Prague that our church (CSPC in Knoxville) supports. Basically we played games almost every morning and afternoon. All these refugees are Ukrainian (not Syrian). They are required to be in school here, but some have not found a spot in school here yet, and some are too young. Homeschooling is not allowed!

We had such a fun time with the children. So much laughter, which is great to see after all they have been through. The kids are surprisingly well-behaved. When I played with the Syrian and Afghan children in Greece, it was just controlled chaos as those cultures have different philosophies on child discipline, and it really shows!

We chose games that could be communicated without language for the most part. I’m partly putting the photos here so that I will remember the names and faces of these kids. For all of our team, this experience has really put a face to the Ukrainian situation that we hear about on the news.

Our other “job” was serving tea and coffee to Syrian refugees at the train station. Even though it’s the train station, many arrive on foot, having walked most of the way from Turkey. They come to the train station to find the smugglers who will take them close to the German border where they can find a way to get in. They are free to walk in, but they just can’t go by train or through a border check point. Once they get in, German law says they must be taken care of. So there is a lot of incentive to get there. It’s not a good situation for the Germans. I don’t know the political solutions (except Putin, go home!), but the love of Jesus compels me to care.