Today we have exactly 13 hours of dark, but the days will start gradually growing longer even before Christmas arrives. The house is warm and inviting with two lit trees and two warm dogs. It’s kind of nice to cocoon for a couple of months and it is a good time to think back on the past year and share.

Even though I am writing this before Christmas Day, it will likely be after Christmas before you receive it. This is so that you have quiet time to savor this and read this over and over.

A highlight for Michelle and me was our trip to South Africa, near Richards Bay on the east coast. We joined a group of hospice nurses that deliver medical supplies and visit Zululand patients with TB and HIV. We each had two 50lb checked bags filled with medical supplies and quilts and we lived for two weeks out of our carry-on luggage. We were part of a team that worked at an orphanage in Zululand, converting a chicken coup into an enclosed building with a kitchen and dining area. The orphanage had stopped raising chickens, but neighbor chickens would still visit every day. Each morning we drove 30 min into the bush and through sugarcane fields into the tribal area, worked nine hours, and returned to the city. We would see Zulus walking on the dirt road to the bus stop to go to work in the city. They lived in huts with no indoor plumbing, but always had bright white shirts and bright colorful dresses. We stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast with elaborate landscape surrounded by concrete walls topped with an electric fence to keep out the “have-nots.” We ate like kings every evening and morning. At the orphanage there was a Zulu handyman working alongside us and his young helper with a SpongeBob shirt. The young helper translated for us. He was a sharp kid and by now should

be halfway through his freshman year at university. On the last work day I tried asking questions myself in Zulu. The handyman got a big kick out of that. The orphanage children were very polite and helpful. Every weekday they would come home from school in their sharp uniforms. When we left, the place was pretty much ready for cabinets to be installed. The chickens were very confused. We ended our trip with a swamp boat tour, an amazing safari in Hluhluwe game reserve, and a half day in Johannesburg. Scratch that off the bucket list.

The kids at the orphanage with their new quilts

We found some Buckeyes in the St. Lucia Wetland

An adolescent male elephant eating branches

A rhino roadblock and our tour guide in the mirror

We had a week in Myrtle Beach at Michelle’s parent’s place. Corey, Matthew, and Tonia joined us. It is always relaxing at the beach. I, however, tend to get antsy after four or five hours and would go for a run and then back to shower and play guitar. On the night of July Fourth there was an amateur fireworks free-for-all on the beach, which was fun to watch. On another quiet night we had wine and cigars in the surf. I quickly added that to the bucket list and then scratched it off.

This year Michelle and I won THE OSU football lottery and were able to purchase tickets to the Michigan game. It was good football weather and a fun game to watch. The campus and

High Street look very different every time we visit. This year Michelle’s dorm was gone. We stumbled across the scrapped Blackburn Hall sign and briefly considered climbing a fence and taking it. If only that was on our bucket list… The OSU-Michigan game was indeed on our bucket list, but we had already scratched it off of our list so many times the paper is wearing through. We hope to scratch it off again.

We are blessed to have frequent visits of Corey, Drew, and Matthew, our daughter by marriage Keri, Matthew’s girlfriend Tonia, and two grand-dogs, often all at once after church. It does get a bit rambunctious with three puppies and one mature dog in our house. Now Corey just got a lab mix puppy, so the fun will increase. Our black lab, Cindy is a year and a half old and pretty much done growing at 88lbs. We had always adopted rescue puppies, but Michelle wanted to try a pure-bred lab. That is now scratched off the bucket list. LouWho thinks she is in charge and is holding steady at 16lbs. Michelle and I are holding steady, too.

Our Cindy and LouWho, before Cindy hit 88lbs

Matthew’s puppy Zoey

Drew and Keri’s puppy Theo

Corey’s puppy Gracie

Michelle’s company moved this month to a new campus-like setting of shops serving local

college RIT. Matthew was in charge of managing the build out and move. Now Michelle will have a wall of glass looking outside. They will be nestled between a great pizza place and a greater Mediterranean restaurant with the best hummus in town. I hope Matthew and Michelle can continue to hold their weight steady. I always wanted to own my own business. Now I live it vicariously, so that is scratched off the bucket list, too…in pencil.

Gary’s work is starting to get interest from large chemical companies wanting nanometer-scale metal and metal oxide materials for catalysts. The work is interesting and low pressure. The work hours allow him to jog, write, struggle learning the guitar, email the mayor, write letters to the editor, putter, and do other things that you don’t do when you are young.

Corey and Drew continue to grow in their jobs at Harris RF and Getinge. (Google these companies to learn more)! Corey, Drew, and Matthew are in the process of buying their fourth rental property, which is within walking distance of the other properties. They hope to have a fifth one by year end. Watch a boy become a fine young man; scratch that off the list three times.

Things still on the bucket list: drive a motorcycle on the Great Wall of China; complete the theory of Prokian physics resolving general relativity and quantum mechanics; eat a chocolate-covered ant; sky dive; kiss the most beautiful girl in the world…wait! I scratched that off my list that on my wedding day; experience low-earth orbit; be a grandparent, and….

See peace on earth.

A pause on a Keuka Lake wine tour: Gary, Gary’s sister Laura, Corey, Gary’s sister Sue, Michelle, Sue’s boyfriend Steve, Matthew, Drew, nephew Cody, Tonia, Keri

Upstate New York has much to offer. If you want to visit and sample the area or the area wines, we would love to have you visit us. There is a lot of room in our house nowadays.

Michelle and I wish you to have a blessed Christmas Season.