Christmas Letter 2024
Greetings!
We have had a pretty good year!
Here are some highlights:
Marion handed over her duties at ESL (English as a Second
Language) to a couple who are teachers.
This closes a 26-year service at church.
But she didn’t stay idle for long:
she is now in co-charge of Missions.
Because of that she was invited to a gathering for one of the mission
agencies in the Czech Republic, which started two days after the Czech English
camps ended. (well, OK!) Then went on to Estonia visiting one of the
missionaries, meeting his colleagues and learning about his work there. One of the other women who went, Trish, mentioned
she had a scheduled a 19-hour layover in Reykjavik. Marion opined that is not enough time to see
a volcano, and the result is that she and Trish spent 4 days in Iceland.
Marion discovered 1) you can have conversations everywhere, even
at a laundromat in Brno, where we met a Ukrainian man living in Romania, who
needed the same help we had just been given in operating the machines 2) It is
indeed possible to supply candy for 2 weeks of camp and pack for summer
(Czech), fall (Estonian summer) and winter (Icelandic summer) in a half size
suitcase (hence the laundromat). 3) Eastern
Europe is a very inexpensive place to stay (hotels around $100/night) while
Iceland is not (hotels around $400/night), 4) Iceland, the nation with the most
concentrated number of volcanoes) looks like Eastern Washington, but with
greenery. (Sparse, though. Do you know
what to do if you are lost in an Icelandic Forest? Stand up.)
While
Marion spent a month gallivanting about Europe I (Jack) spent that time moving
the garage into the living room, taking pictures of the organ to sell it, then
moving it all back again. That needs a bit of explanation. I bought 1000 pounds
of glass, a small kiln and other miscellany from a glass shop going out of
business. But no room to do glass unless I got the organ out. But, needed
pictures to sell it; and could not: too much stuff in the way. Moved garage
into living room, got the photos, then put the stuff back into the garage, just
before (amazingly enough) Marion returned.
Sold the organ through an auction house and got it out a couple weeks
later. Kiln has since been fired up and a few small test runs made. Now the rest
of the garage needs to be “beat into shape” for messing around with glass. I even made glass Christmas ornaments for the
grandsons…hope they survive. The
ornaments, that is.
Along
the way I uncovered an entertainment center we bought 25 years ago, and finally
[at Marions insistence] put it together.
That included staining, which could now be done in the garage as the
organ (the primary reason for the 25-year delay) was gone. We also remodeled
the kitchen [aka paid someone else to actually do the work]. The whole story is here: Marion's Miscellaneous Musings:
Kitchen Shenanigans
And
there are always the grandkids…
Love,
Jack and Marion
posted by Marion @ 10:42 PM
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