The kids are playing happily with new Christmas toys in our cozy space, shielded from darkness and cold. The house's volume spikes intermittently as seemingly small spats pop-up and fizzle out almost as quickly as they started. Emotions are running high--gratitude, disappointment, fear, excitement, jealousy, sadness, love. A day of getting and giving is stressful. and beautiful. A day when family gathers without the patriarch is painful. and comforting. That God became a baby is confusing. And awesome.
2022 was a WONDERFUL year.
aaaaand I'm sobbing again.
because that's Gramps's word. and Gramps isn't here.
We started off the year with an incredible trip to Guatemala. Hearing my babies start to use some Spanish was musica para mis oidos. We saw amazing things and met amazing people.
Other adventures of the year included:
- attending a parenting conference together
- a 1st attempt at camping (temperatures dipping just below 32)
- visiting the National Zoo and National Mall
- tours of our friends' family apple orchard in Spring and Fall
- weekly visits to Honey Gramps's
- a ride in Uncle Rodney's airplane
- a 2nd attempt at camping (temperatures near 100)
- family picnics
- weekly dinners with Jolly
- A TRIP TO SOUTH AFRICA (yes, our kids now think it is normal to leave the country multiple times a year and are already asking where we're going next).
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| a goofball and his decaf coffee which he ordered himself on our long flight 😂 |
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| cutie fam mostly dressed up for wedding #1 (the girls' luggage got lost forever, leaving them in their traveling clothes until we got to a store!) |
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| iconic "Table Mountain" |
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| beach fun in winter |
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| we liked our little 8 seater rental car |
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| all dressed up for wedding #2 but several of the kids were so sick |
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| just stunning views. we got to see the Milky Way at night! |
The second half of the year was hard.
While I was so proud of the way Grammy and Gramps made the transition to personal care on a memory care floor, working together as a family to make that happen brought up issues and opened old wounds we didn't know we still had. Seeing the weekly decline in G&G's quality of life was heavy. But I continued to enjoy them and soak up the goodness that seeps out of them. I want to always remember Gramps' words on the way home from one of several unnecessary hospital trips: "you can ruin a good thing by complaining about it."
Amidst losing my favorite person in December, we celebrated a family wedding which brought all the Millers to the area for Christmas. And on Christmas Eve, the gift of the house of our dreams was dropped in our laps unknowingly by friends at church but of course with great intention by the Giver of All Good Gifts.
May you see His good gifts and know His great love for you. And may you have people in your life as good to you as my Gramps was to me.
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