As we bring in the New Year, this is a week of anniversaries – 14 years of running every day and 6 years since retirement. With my son Adam’s mother and grandmother in town, along with a favorite Aunt, my wife and I waited to celebrate Christmas with the grandkids. We had dinner together and opened presents at our Islandwalk home. I’m waiting for a video of the Magic Mixies Cauldron that we didn’t have time to fully charge last night. It got the greatest reception of all the gifts, so I’m anxious to watch the reaction as it boils and bubbles to reveal the secret prize.  

All of these important occasions were melded together in one week, along with the neighborhood progressive New Year’s party. We’re hosting the second appetizer leg of the four-stop home tour on our street, followed by dessert and a champaign toast. If all goes well, we may make it to that rare midnight hour, but we have an escape route planned just in case.

This is my 72nd Christmas, having celebrated my 71st birthday in August, although I remember very little about the beginning years. I was adopted at two months and didn’t have to go through the hassle of buying gifts for many years. Those were the good old days! This year I had three grandkids, their parents, and a wife to buy for. We met my wife’s two girls and their spouses in Kauai just after Thanksgiving for that half of the holiday celebration and just the two of us spent Christmas day planning our next trip. It was our 23rd together, twenty-one as husband and wife. 

I’m copying this post from blog.johnstonwrites.com into Storyworth, a thoughtful Christmas gift from my son and his wife. I’ve written a daily article nearly every day since retirement, so much of my life’s story has already been captured. Retirement is not without Hassles is the primary focus of this Go Daddy site, but I also ramble on about sports, adoption, travel, running and pets, with a bunch of silly poems mixed in for variety. Since it is a public blog, I tend to avoid using any specific names so as not to embarrass anyone in my family. I’ve exposed just about everything about myself, but it’s likely only of interest to close friends. I will edit this page to make it a little more family friendly when I paste it into the Storyworth site. Hopefully, it’s WORTH reading but tends to be more personal therapy.