Christmas 2024

Family

As has been our family custom for many years, we had our full family together at Pinebrook in the Poconos in the summer. We had thought that 2023 would be the last year to have all 7 grandchildren, but Aryon got a summer job working there so we were blessed to have them all together this past summer as well. Below is a picture of all of them.

For a few months all of them were 1x years old – Asher turned 10 in July and Aryon did not turn 20 until October. Aryon is now in his second year of college, Tiernan is a senior in high school (he once again took a missions trip to Japan to help take care of a group of younger students while their parents, who are missionaries, had a week of meetings), and Ilyanna is in 9^th grade. In PA, the four boys are in grades 9, 7, 7, and 5 this year. We’ve enrolled Ethan in a dual-enrollment program at Liberty University Online Academy where he will graduate in 2028 with a high school diploma as well as a full associates’ degree. We’re planning on doing the same with all the younger boys as well.

Ethan is led in his coursework by Kim, and I handle the three younger boys – with the exception of Isaiah and Caleb taking Spanish (led by Kim as she knows that language and I do not) and Asher’s literature class where Donna has a chance to get involved. All of them are straight A students. It keeps me busy every day as I sit in my recliner and there is a constant stream of boys coming through my room.

 

Medical

While I’ve been dealing with various medical issues over the years, 2024 was a memorable one. I’ve had a diabetic ulcer on the bottom of my right foot for several years. Over the Christmas holidays last year, I developed a case of COVID. It was not a bad case, but the extra level of infection got into my foot. I went into the hospital on January 2^nd and didn’t come home for an entire month. And when I did come home it was after a partial foot amputation. The surgeon did an excellent job of closing the wound back up, but having only a partial foot has been a definite challenge (see picture below).

          I can get around pretty well, but only with the use of a cane. People see me as pretty normal as I have a “toe-filler” prosthesis and wear a regular shoe. But navigating stairs is difficult and I am constantly in danger of falling. I have other medical issues, but this one overshadows all of them. At home I spend most of my time in a recliner as I want to avoid any further injury to that foot. Getting old is not for the faint of heart.

          I’ve had to give up all outdoor activities. It’s good to have several growing grandsons around to pick up tasks like grass mowing, taking the trash cans up to the corner each week, and even smaller things like walking up to get the mail each day.

          On the plus side, I can now relate easily to other older member of the church who have canes or who have issues like Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons, or any of the other infirmities that come with getting older.

 

Genealogy

          While a large portion of my day is consumed by overseeing the schooling of our grandsons, I’m still quite involved in genealogy – mostly for others. As an example, just this week I was able to introduce two men in our church to each other as being third cousins (i.e. sharing a great-great-grandfather) that they had not been aware of.

          A lot of my investigation is for people in our church (where I am related to about 2/3 of them) or to some of our new neighbors, I’m also enjoying my relationships with others in the Pierpont/Russell lines with whom I have established relationships in the past. I am now the official historian of the Pierpont Family Association due to the passing of Bob Kraft, but with my driving being restricted due to my foot, I may not be able to go to our annual meetings. While many of these relatives are not like me and they have different views on life (including their political persuasion during the past election season), I enjoy the challenge of not being in a political “echo chamber” and having my views be challenged.

 

Putting Christ in Christmas

          This time of year is one where I focus on sharing my Christian values with those around me. For those reading this who share those values, may the joy of Christ encourage you. Any of those who may not share those values, know that we love you anyway. Christ is the basis for our family’s outlook and we will always encourage others to see His love through us.

 

Merry Christmas!

Alan & Donna

 

 

Term Party

I spent my college career at Michigan State – 5 years (3 undergrad and 2 years of grad school). I was in an off-campus housing unit the entire time. Like other such housing units (fraternities and sororities), we had a number of social activities. One of the major ones was our annual term party held in early June. We held this at a camp in the small town of Wolverine that was owned by a former member of the housing unit. Renting the camp would typically have been way in excess of what we could have afforded, so we had a unique way of paying for it. In the early part of the quarter (MSU had not yet made the conversion to semesters), several of us made the trek north (about 200 miles – a little less than a 3 hour drive) and spent a weekend opening up the camp for the summer season – cleaning the rooms, sweeping all the floors, making all the beds, clearing all the walkways of winter debris, etc. This would have taken the owner and his wife several weeks or he would have had to pay someone, so it was a good trade of our hours of work in return for a weekend rental about two weeks later.

On term party weekend, we carpooled north to Wolverine. Carpooling was necessary because not many in college owned or had access to cars. After the evening meal, we could gather around the campfire or meet in small groups in the main open room. On Saturday many of us went canoeing on the nearby Sturgeon River or hiked on trails around the campground.

Saturday supper was an award ceremony with a number of interesting awards. In 1970, the first time I went with a date – the girl who I had recently begun dating and to whom I would get engaged that fall and married the following summer – I got the MO cup. The MO was marked on the glass cup as standing for “Most Outstanding” and was passed on from the person who had won the award the prior year. But privately, we guys know that it stood for “Make Out” and was given in recognition of that dubious award.

In the evening, the camp owner brought his hay wagon – pulled by horses and loaded with bales of hay fit sitting on. The hill behind the camp – with the darkness of being away from the “civilization” that we were used to in East Lansing – offered a nice view of the stars and was a great view for couples.

On Sunday many of made the trek to the nearby town of Petoskey (about 25-30 miles away) and attended church there. After lunch we regathered in our carpools and made the journey back to East Lansing – giving us enough time for any class assignments which were due the following day.

Our ride back was a pretty interesting one. There were six in the car – 3 guys and 3 girls – as this was a time when cars still came with bench seats. To pass the time we told a “story” which could have as many as 26 lines. The first person said one line which was “I went to the store and I saw a ____” where the blank was an adjective-noun pair each starting with the letter “A”. Everyone else listened. Then the next person repeated that line and added “and _____” where the blank was an adjective-noun pair each starting with the letter “B”. This continued around the six of us with the “story” growing with each repetition. So your mind was consumed with having to remember an increasing number of word pairs as well as having to compose the next alphabetized pair when it was your turn. And with the silly pairs that were being said, the amount of laughter was also growing.

It’s now over 54 years since that event, and I can still remember all 26 of the eventual word pairs. In fact, I can also repeat them in reverse alphabetical order. For those who care, here they are (with a few editorial comments):

·       Adorable aardvark

·       Brown bear

·       Kooky cat – not a “C”, but sounds like it

·       Delinquent dog

·       Enormous elephant

·       Fastidious fish

·       Gouted goat

·       Huge heffalump – from Winnie the Pooh

·       Inquisitive ibex

·       Jumbo jet – the first non-animal, but we were pretty forgiving given the amount of laughter in the car

·       Klean kitchen – not a “K” here, but this will balance out the “C” above

·       Lamentable llama – starting to make pairs with long words to make them harder to remember

·       Morose moose

·       Nefarious nodule

·       Opulent owl

·       Petoskey’s pavement – we had been here earlier that day

·       Queer quirk

·       Redundant racoon

·       Sterile stegosaurus

·       Tintinnabulating tutor

·       Unforgettable umbrella – sounds like a good idea

·       Voluptuous vacuum cleaner

·       Wonderful Wolverine – another town we had been in

·       Exuberant xylophone – hard to come up with “X” words

·       Yellow yak

·       Xenophobic zebra – ah, here’s the missing “X”

 

Ah yes, such wonderful memories of those earlier years – but of course the best part was my date for the weekend – the girl who I’m still married to!