Although I am still trying to get some cards mailed out (consider it a Epiphany card if you are on the list to receive one), it may or may not include this Christmas letter. So here is what we have been up to this year:

January was a lovely and quiet month. We celebrated D’s birthday and I got to spend some special time with my besties.

We are rarely home in February and this is the reason why. The snow banks were so high that D was throwing it way over his head. Sometimes we ask “Why do we live in this God-forsaken place”?

Here’s why. We are 10 minutes away from each of the kids and spend a lot of the time with the grandbabies in winter. We celebrated a Wee One’s birthday as well as the Frenchman’s in February.

By the end of February, we had had it with winter and travelled to our special place. Some people wonder why we go to the same place every year and these are the reasons why. Above is Hortencia and her four daughters. We have made so many dear friends on Isla Mujeres with both the islanders and fellow travelers.

We are staying for a month in 2023! We think Isla brings out the best in us. People that know us especially well, would agree. But all good things have to end.

The snow took eons to melt at the lake but our house was rented in the city, so we moved there in April.

We drove back and forth a lot in the spring, celebrating special get togethers like our niece’s wedding.

May is typically a whirlwind, celebrating the birthdays of our youngest daughter, a Wee One, my little bear, my DIL and lastly my own. To make things even more joyous, we will be celebrating a new day of birth in 2023!

By this time, the gang joins us for extended weekends at the lake and we are into the wonderful days of summer.

I was scheduled to have my second knee replaced in June. While I was recovering D accumulated a gang to expand our deck.

This is the after picture. Since the water was so high on the lake this year, there was no beach and as a result we spent almost every day luxuriating on the deck. It was the perfect year to do so.

There was more back and forth though, like celebrating our eldest daughter’s birthday on their rooftop and the eldest Wee One’s, also in July.

We also got away for our yearly sojourn to join dear friends at Willard lake.

With the expanded deck, we hosted countless Happy Hours and extended family suppers.

The other lovely modification, since there was no beach, was visiting the pool in the forest built by Sister #2’s gang of capable guys. J and J are seen enjoying it here.

We celebrated J’s birthday in September, but the pool was used even on Thanksgiving weekend! Here’s one of four tables where we enjoyed dinner.

We stayed deep into the fall and then it was off to a trip of a lifetime!

If you follow this space, you will know that the three sisters travelled to Prague, Malaga and Dublin this fall. It was memorable in so many ways.

In November we took all four grandkids to Disney on Ice, as well as hosting them all at the same time for a sleepover!

And here it is Christmas. It is bitterly cold and snows almost daily, so it will not be long before that snowbank from earlier this year will be just as high. It is supposed to warm up soon though, which will be lovely when we spend some time at the lake for New Year’s.

D and I have been blessed with good health (I have yet to get Covid) and much joy this year and hope that the same is true for you, your family and your loved ones.

Kath’s quote: “To prepare our hearts for Christmas, we must cultivate the spirit of expectancy.” As in “I can’t wait”!

Love never fails.

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