Christmas 2008

We are now in the first week of December and something unusual has happened. We already have our home decorated for the upcoming Christmas Season thanks to help from our Thanksgiving week guests. Margaret’s sister Carol visited us from Kingston, Ontario, for the week and their mother Betty was also here from Sebring, FL. On Friday and Saturday we took down all the Christmas decorations and the girls went on a major decorating spree. Of course I helped by trimming the hedge then setting up the lighted reindeer and hanging the icicle lights along the front of the house. All in all it looks pretty good.

We ended last year by spending the Christmas Holiday in Sedona. The Red Rock Country of Sedona is a natural draw for a peaceful get away. We did some hiking at Red Rock State Park and also spent part of each day in the outdoor hot tub. It was colder than normal during that week so we had to bundle up more than usual but really enjoyed the exhilaration of warm water and cool temperatures. On Christmas Day we went to the Grand Canyon and ate our Christmas dinner at the famous El Tovar Hotel.

As usual the past year has witnessed its share of changes in our lives. Margaret has changed course within her career as an educator. She has left the classroom to take on the challenge of training her peers to better manage student intervention programs using Galileo, Assessment Technology, Incorporated (ATI’s) computer program. She was actually offered the job in February and took it on a part time basis. She was under contract till the end of the school year with the Marana Unified School District and did not want to break her contract. Her new job requires a certain amount of travel. She has traveled to California, Massachusetts, Oregon, North Dakota and to several locations within Arizona. Margaret has also been able to take advantage of her business travel commitments to visit friends and family in different parts of the country. While she was in Portland she had dinner with my cousins Arnold and Joe Keller and their spouses and while she was in Bismarck she got together with my Aunt Myrna and my cousins Eldo and Archie Johnson and our friends the Wolf’s and Schmidt’s from Center and Beulah. She was even able to visit the farm and see the improvements there.

We have also done some other traveling during this past year. Margaret went to Boston during her spring break to visit family and friends. Carol flew down from Canada and they had a mini-Fairfield/Newcomb reunion. It was great to visit with her cousins and spend time revisiting favorite New England landmarks. Margaret also took a trip to Florida after school was out and before she assumed her full time duties with ATI. While in Florida she was able to help out with a painting and remodeling project of her uncle’s home. Her brother Leonard was also there so she had an opportunity to see him as well as visit with her 96 year old grandmother. She also attended the high school graduation of her nephew, Jordan. When Carol arrived in Arizona for her Thanksgiving visit she and Margaret went to Williams west of Flagstaff and rode the train to the Grand Canyon. They had a wonderful time and Margaret now thinks that it is the best way to visit the canyon.

I went to South Carolina in May to visit my sister Ardys and her family in Rock Hill and also some Peace Corps friends in the Charleston area. Unfortunately visiting Dave and Nancy Canavera was bittersweet as Dave was fighting pancreatic cancer. A week after I left South Carolina he died. I was certainly glad that I was able to see him one more time as they have been friends since we met in PC training in Bisbee, AZ in the fall of 1969. The past year also witnessed the end of an era as far as my mother’s family is concerned. My mother’s sister Lydia, her last surviving sibling, who was a nurse-missionary in Tanzania for 18 years died on March 3rd, one day short of her 90th birthday. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend her memorial service but I did see to it that an obituary was posted in the Bismarck Tribune so that those who remembered her in North Dakota were aware of her passing.

I continue to work with H&R Block and again worked in the year around office during the summer and this fall. During the coming tax season I will continue to be a tax preparer in the Sears at Park Place Mall office but will not have the added duties of office coordinator. I spent most of June and July in North Dakota during my eight week break with H&R Block. I arrived there in time to attend the Oliver County Old Settlers Day in Center, the first time I have been able to do so since leaving there 20 years ago. It was nice to see and visit many friends and acquaintances I don’t usually see when I go back to ND. I also saw the start of the 7th Annual KFYR Tractor Trek from the Buckstop Junction in Bismarck. The trek featured 129 units in 11 divisions.

My main reason for going back to North Dakota this year was to oversee the painting of the barn on the farm. That project started the week after July 4th. Two years ago I had the roof replaced and this year was Phase II in the restoration process. I contracted with Bass’s Painting Plus from Wilton to do the painting. They scraped the building, replaced rotten boards, repaired doors and then applied a coat of primer and two coats of paint to the structure. The result was a grand presentation of the 60 year old structure which was magnificently portrayed by Margaret in a book she titled Johnson Barn Restoration which she produced with the help of the Heritage Maker program on the internet.

While I was in ND I stayed at my cousin Archie’s house in Bismarck. However during the week while the painting crew was working I camped out in the house at the farm. It was the first time in over 20 years that I had actually slept in the old house and it brought back many memories. Also being in ND at that time of the year I was reminded of the incredibly long days what with DST. Sunset was after 10 PM and the northeastern sky would start to lighten up before 5 AM.

For more than a year we have witnessed a drawn out presidential campaign which winnowed out a large field of potential aspirants. As we begin the New Year and the inauguration of President–Elect Obama, it is time to support him and the new Congress as they face many economic challenges and other problems that beset our country. May you and yours be surrounded by the love of family and friends in our challenging global world. In the Spirit of the Season we want to extend our best wishes to each and everyone for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.