De Young Christmas Letter 2024.

 Volume LI                                                                                                                       December 25, 2024                                                                

 Christmas Tidings

I’m sure some of you are getting tired of these letters. I mean fifty in a row. Give me a break! Or are you willing to take a chance on fifty-one, which starts with a declaration that I once believed in Santa Claus, then I didn’t believe in Santa Claus, then I could play Santa Claus, and now I look like Santa Claus.   

    We are now in our fourth year at Grand Living and more than ever convinced that we made the right choice. We still read stories to our daughter’s 1^st grade class every week and we share the keeping up of the Grand Living Library. I guess that goes to prove that when the chips are down books still power our lives.

 Have you noticed that the easiest way to find something lost is to buy a replacement?

OK, vote now. Is that better than Santa Claus? Worse!  Or keep trying!  

 I also keep busy as Secretary for the Grand Living Resident Council and trying to finish writing our family history. Our son David is helping with the formatting. On the medical side, I had a nosebleed go out of control in October and spent a night in the hospital. I’m now off blood thinners for the time being. Otherwise, I’m holding my own. Jan is still the champion reader and crossword puzzle solver. She schedules our community book club and helps with the creative writing group. She beats me regularly at Wordle and Mini Crossword. For Christmas, she has been knitting caps and mittens for a local mission. On the health front, she has had good luck with cortisone shots for arthritis in her hip and hand and continues to resist surgery.

Our daughter lives about ten minutes away and still teaches first grade in the Cedar Rapids Public Schools. She won a teaching award earlier in the year and recorded a demonstration lesson just last week that will be shown to teachers across the district. On the minus side, she took a spill in her classroom a while back and has had to wear a boot while it heals. Speaking of healing, husband Todd has had a new electronic implant device put into his back. It is supposed to give him more control over pain and it seems to work most of the time. When it stops, it means another trip to have it re-adjusted. Luckily, it hasn’t interfered with his slam-bang cooking. Thanksgiving dinner was a gorgeous feast. 

OK stop and take a breath and turn your mind to more important things. I opened my closet this morning and a lion was staring out at me. I said to him, "What are you doing in my closet?" He said "It's Narnia of your business."  How's that one?

All right, on to more important things. Grandson Mikel graduated from Upper Iowa University last May. He has started work on a Master’s degree there while working 30 hours a week on an Iowa DNR and University project to use goats rather than pesticides to control invasive plant species. Grandson TJ has had to restart his life after a short marriage and divorce.  He now has a new house and continues to work in Texas as a firefighter and paramedic. He fills his spare time with hunting and jobbing out work on home repairs. 

And finally, there is travel and one more joke. “If I ordered an axe from Finland and had it mailed to me in Cedar Rapids, would I now have a foreign axe sent? To check that out we traveled In June, to Finland to visit our son, his wife, and their family, who live in a suburb of Helsinki. Our daughter was our companion and caregiver. we could not have made the trip without her help. Here we all are after a great meal down by the harbor. Lotta took the photo so she and David get a close-up. David continues to work in IT for the Kone Elevator Company and Lotta has recently taken a new job in counseling.  Frida is already a young woman as you can see from the group photo. Selma is an all-around spitfire from an inventive artist to a goalie on her soccer team. And two-year-old Bruno is the happiest clam around with a smile that will melt even the coldest Finnish winter.  

So ends number fifty-one. We’d be liars if we didn’t mention our disappointment with the election results. We have great fears about what the country will look like in the future now that every fact is negotiable, every truth is relative, and his truth is the only one that matters. All is not lost, however. Many gifts have been bestowed on us; we will feel no guilt about that. While waiting for better times, we will continue to spread as much love, generosity, and humor into the world as possible. May you also bring some light to those you touch this holiday season. It is the least we can do.

 Yours, 

Jim and Jan De Young http://dramajim@gmail.com        janetwdeyoung@gmail.com