2022 – December part 1

hey there,

In the first part of this month, Grams was still visiting. This whole event unraveled a lot differently than I thought it would. For better or for worse, it took place. I believe in some ways we (the wife and I) realized that this relationship that we have with Grams will not reach the levels or closeness that we have with other parts of the family. It is a bittersweet realization. I am glad that the kids were able to have some time to spend with her. The whole trip was pretty altered by the fact that she couldn’t walk much and limited us to mainly staying at home for much of her stay.

Above you see a night when the kids were watching Stranger Things with her. The next photo is of Grams and the kids doing a Christmas fair at a local church we have been going to (Rise). We wouldn’t normally of had her go, but this was the last day that she was with us. In fact- after this event, we stopped at home only to get her things and she was whisked off to the airport.

We got out of the car at the airport (as much as we could due to not being allowed to stop in the drop-off zones for a very long). I got her things out of the car and had the kids get out to say their goodbyes. I’m assuming she was feeling flustered, she said a quick goodbye to Arabella and started walking away before saying goodbye to Elijah. The wife tracked her down with Elijah, he got to say a quick goodbye. Seeing that she was overwhelmed, Maryia took her inside the airport and had someone help her get to her terminal.

A few days before she left, it was super cold outside (temps in the 20s) and it started to flurry outside. I was up putting the Christmas lights on the house and noticed that they had the typical form that you see on drawings. Okay, so I hadn’t ever seen with my own eyes a snowflake so perfectly formed. They fell on the roof and didn’t melt (since it was so chilly outside). It allowed me to grab a photo. Pretty cool.

The day after her flight took off, we got a dusting of snow too. Good thing her flight was when it was, generally mention snow and things start to shut down in this city. The snow lasted for a couple of days. It allowed us to get some photos while the white stuff was on the ground (see below).

It was at this same time that we gave Einstein away to the wife’s Aunt. The photo below is when we dropped him off. Overall, the dog will have a better life with someone who can spend more time with him and give the attention needed to a puppy. Our kiddos were not up for the task, and adding a puppy to the kids made things a little crazier and took away our ability to travel. Add also the complaints from the neighbors and our HOA starting to ask questions.. it seemed to be the best outcome.

We have had a lot of changes during this time. People visiting, people leaving, dogs leaving. Time to return to church as a compass to point north. Rise? Yeah. Not so sure about this place. We have started to think that maybe we will go to multiple churches until we feel sure about where we should be.

After Church, we returned home and prepared the home for my parents to come live with us for a little. They have sold their house in Southern California and are moving to Sacramento to be about 7 or 8 hours closer to the kids and us. They weren’t able to get a place (because the place fell through) so they would stay with us until the first of the year. At which point they should have a place lined up.

Lots of changes!

just Pray