Christmas Letter 2020

 Dear friends, family, and any gentle readers that remain here,

Welcome to our 2020 Christmas Letter.  I ended last year's Christmas letter this way:

So as we look ahead to 2020, what surprises are ahead?  I'm sure there will be challenges, but I know to the core of my being that there will be blessings to meet those challenges, and joy to surround them.  Our prayer for you, dear family, sweet friends, and Gentle Readers, is that you may know the abundance of our good God in the coming new year. May we all see his provision clearly.

That seems almost prophetic as we  look back on this past year.  Who would have thought?!

Challenges

We all have a LONG list of these this year.  In addition to the isolation, distance from family, and cancelled plans that we have all been experiencing this year, we have faced a few particular struggles.  

Dave has endeavored to be a faithful elder in our church and lead it through a tumultuous time full of government restraints, fear, and conflicts of vision. We would appreciate your prayers for our little church family as we struggle to be faithful amid change and disillusionment.

We have been kept away from Chris' parents due to the pandemic, and isolated with Dave's mom, Marilyn, as she has increasingly lost her memory.  We are unable to help either of them as we would like, and it is tough figuring out how to support them as they age.

And, of course, we age along with them.  Dave is remaining free of cancer and serious illness, but continues to deal with the imbalance, headaches, and jaw/teeth problems that former chemotherapy and radiation treatments have made a mostly daily part of life for him.  Here at the end of the year, after successfully going an entire year without infusions for her auto-immune disease and cutting down to very low doses of her immune-suppressant, Chris has had a flare-up of her disease and must start increasing her meds again.  We know these things are more irritants than serious health problems, but would covet your prayers all the same.

Blessings

As is often the case, the blessing far outweigh the challenges.  

In June, we spent a few days in Phoenix helping Ben and Elsa move to a new home and Ben to a new school.  How graciously God provided for Ben and his beautiful family! And we got to celebrate Carys' birthday, too.

Eliana, Everett, Carys, Ezra, Adeline, and Emma

We celebrated our 6th annual cousins camp with the four eldest grands with a trip to Brianhead, Utah in July, followed by a celebration of our 40th wedding anniversary with both our kids and all our grandkids.  There were blessings abounding!

Pampa and the the four Cousins Campers at 11,000 ft.

FinFam 40th celebration.  Here we are at Bryce Canyon National Park.

The grown-ups

In October, we got to spend a long weekend with the Tucson Finnegans at their house, followed by a camping trip to Southern Arizona with the Phoenix Finnegans. While our visits have been few, they have been most precious.

A different kind of family portrait on a sunset picnic in Tucson.

Hiking at Patagonia Lake in Southern Arizona with the PHX crew.

We are both grateful: we are both still loving retirement, both living cancer-free, and both trusting the God who has so abundantly blessed us to carry us into the future, whatever it brings in 2021. 

We pray you are able to count many blessings along with us, dear ones.  May we truly rejoice in the Savior born for us, and continuing to make a way for us where there doesn't seem to be a way.

With much love,

Chris and Dave

The Tucson Finnegans:  Ezra, Nikki, Emma, Eliana, and Tim at Cedar Breaks National Monument.  And they have a three-month-old foster baby, too!

The Phoenix Finnegans: Ben, Everett, Ada, Carys, and Elsa, at Bryce.

Dave and Chris at Brianhead Peak.

P.S.  Feel free to hunt here for more details, photos, quilting projects, books I've read, etc.!

Christmas Letter 2019

The whole clan:  Top: Tim, Nikki, Emma, Ada, Elsa, Ben. Bottom: Eliana, Ezra, Carys, Chris, Everett, Dave 
Thanksgiving, 2019

Greetings family, friends, and Gentle Readers!  2019 is quickly speeding by, and we would be remiss to let such a year go by without sharing the abundant blessings of God we have enjoyed this year.  So here are just a few aspects of 2019 for which we are very grateful:

Family:

We have been blessed with great family time, times of working together, and times of crisis that have caused us to grow and appreciate one another.  In the great family times category, we have enjoyed a winter break in the White Mountains with Ben and family,  several trips to Tucson, a couple visits to Los Alamos from the kids, meet-ups with Dave's sister and brother as they took Marilyn to their homes for visits, a 60th anniversary get-together for my parents with all the Hanson originals, a bike trip in the Gila Wilderness,

a fall cousin's camp at the Grand Canyon, and Thanksgiving all together in Los Alamos.  And Marilyn, Dave and I will head to Tucson for Christmas.  In the working and crisis category, we helped one of my sisters move, got through illness and injury and aging with all parents and watched as they returned to health, rejoiced when Ezra recovered from a particularly hard-hitting bike fall that resulted in a concussion, and when Tim was hit by a truck while bike riding and escaped with only a few bruises and a bent wheel.  How gracious God has been to rescue, save, and revive us over and over again!  Here are a few photos of our family time:

The PHX crew on the swing in our front yard

The Hanson originals in Albuquerque: Anne, Jeni, Chris, Mom, Matt, Dad, Gwen, Jeff

Cousin's Camp V at the Grand Canyon

Carys and Ada playing in the East Fork of the Jemez River

A big city adventure with the Tucson crew

Cheering on Daddy's excellent bike race in Silver City, NM

Cousins

Swinging was a different matter for the Tucson crew at Thanksgiving

Everett has the best belly-laugh

Happy Thanksgiving!

Provision:

As we continue into our second year of retirement, we continue to marvel at the provisions of God.  He has provided for us in every way. We have been able to do some amazing travel to places like Utah and Oklahoma, Germany, Austria, and Hungary, Arizona and Colorado.  According to Google, I have traveled a distance equivalent to going 1.3 times around the world this year (which is amazing and kind of frightening.) And in the ups and down of all these miles, we have been spared serious illness, accident, or castrophe.  And we have enjoyed the journies and God's amazingly beautiful world and people on top of it.  We have an abundance of friends along the road, both nearby and far away. Here are a few photos of some of the places we have been and the people we have seen:

Marilyn and Dave as we visited some petroglyphs outside Canyonlands National Park in Utah

Tim and Nikki in Silver City

Gila Wilderness, NM

Grand Canyon, Arizona

Cruising down the Danube with our friend Pamela

Nuremberg, Germany

Regensberg, Germany

Passau, Germany

Meeting up with Kris and Paula Lundgaard in Vienna

Budapest, Hungary

Health:

Though we have seen our share of struggles this year, we are at a very blessed place with our health.  While Dave still struggles with long-term consequences of his previous treatment, he is now 27 years in remission from stage 4 metastatic melanoma.  That is an amazingly abundant blessing!  He has found some help in dealing with some of the symptoms, for which we are very grateful.  And I found myself just last week explaining to someone that I was a two-time breast cancer survivor , who has been treating an auto-immune disease for the last 7 years, and am now able to at least try stopping some of my medicines because my disease is stable without any flare-ups.  We are awed at God's blessings to us!

So as we look ahead to 2020, what surprises are ahead?  I'm sure there will be challenges, but I know to the core of my being that there will be blessings to meet those challenges, and joy to surround them.  Our prayer for you, dear family, sweet friends, and Gentle Readers, is that you may know the abundance of our good God in the coming new year. May we all see his provision clearly.

Christmas Letter 2017

Well, Gentle Reader, here I am continuing my December 1st tradition of posting a yearly update for family and friends near and far.  I am addressing Christmas cards, finishing up sewing projects, and rejoicing with Handel's Messiah in the background.  With each passing year, despite being overwhelmed with blessings,  the longing for and anticipation of heaven grows stronger, and I wait with expectant hope for the coming of my Savior. I pray you do, too.

We have enjoyed a year of rich blessings. Perhaps one of the richest is our beautiful grandchildren: Emma, 7; Ada, almost 6; Ezra, 3.75; Carys 3.5; and Everett, the happiest, smiliest baby ever, just 6 months old.  We have enjoyed visits here in NM, and in AZ, another Cousin's Camp with the three girls, and lots of letters, hangouts video chats, and telephone calls and texting in-between. 

Ben and Elsa are now in the Glendale area of Phoenix, where Ben continues to wow his students as a Latin teacher extraordinaire, and Elsa continues to nurture and teach their growing brood.  Ada has learned to read, and both Ada and Carys are full of memorized poems and hymns, and are a delight to spend time with.  And Everett charms everyone whom he encounters. They are terrific parents and terrific people.

Tim and Nikki continue in Tucson, where Tim carries on his electrical/computer engineering job as well as serving as a deacon at church, and nurses a fledgling love of hunting and hiking in the AZ wilderness.  Nikki cares for them all with love and skill.  Emma is starting piano lessons, and Ezra is as rambunctious as ever. And they have recently opened their home to foster care, and are nurturing a tiny soul whom they will love as their own for as long as God gives them.  They are my heroes.

Marilyn, Dave's mom, continues to be stable and well, as do Chris' parents, Jack and Shirley.  What a joy it is for us to watch our parents get to know and interact with their great-grandchildren.

And Dave and I continue to float along.  I am teaching one delightful online class of 8th/9th grade boys in English composition this year. Dave is in his 34th year at LANL, and big changes are afoot as he looks to retire next spring.  We have enjoyed leading a parenting class in Sunday school, and Dave continues to serve as an elder at our little church, where we are all like family.  We have passed 37.5 of married life together, remain best friends, and are both looking forward to the new adventures ahead.

And we pray that you, too, Gentle Reader, family, and friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, may await the return of our Lord, longing for His peace and justice to reign. Merry Christmas!

Mayst thou live to know and fear Him,Trust and love Him all thy days;Then go dwell forever near Him,See His face, and sing His praise!

~Isaac Watts, Cradle Hymn

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

These two, married for 58 years.  Thank you,. Mom and Dad, for your love and perseverance, and your ever-present sense of humor!  We love you!

God's handiwork

Earlier this week, I gotphone call from  an excited  Emma. As soon as I answered the phone, in good form and obviously well-coached by mommy, she blurted out, "Grandma, I love you and I miss you. And guess what?  Ezra can crawl!"

Well, Ezra can crawl, and stand by himself, and is very close to walking.  That's a lot for someone just shy of 7 months old!  And that got me to pondering the passage of this thing called time.

My perspective has certainly changed as I have aged, and gotten old and tired.  The days, nay moths and whole years, seem to fly by.  Watching my grandchildren is almost like watching one of those time lapse films.  They grow up right before me, and leave me in wonder and awe at God's handiwork.

And I guess this would be no real grandparent post without a few photos of that handiwork...

Merry Christmas, 2013!

Well, the Christmas postcards are being addressed, which means it is time to update everyone here on all the Lord has done this year, and the ways He continues to go before us. So here is a snapshot of the Finnegans as 2013 comes to a close.

It is always special and fitting in this season of waiting to be waiting for a baby ourselves.  Tim and nikki and Emma, in Tucson, are awaiting the arrival of Baby Ezra, our first grandson!  Ezra is trying to make an early appearance, but Nikki and her doctors are working to keep him where he is until closer to his due date in April, and the rest of us are doing what we can to support that! The church family at Rincon Mountain are serving and supporting them well. Emma turned 3 in August, and is always bright and busy, and Pampa is her favorite.  She'll make a fabulous big sister. Tim continues to enjoy working as an electrical engineer for Raytheon.

Ben, Elsa, and Ada continue to reside in Peoria, AZ, north of Phoenix.  Ben continues to enjoy both teaching Latin and coaching flag football at the Basis school there, and Elsa cares well for him and Ada.  Ada keeps us laughing with her funny sayings and facial expressions.  And Pampa is her favorite.  Do we see a pattern here?

All the New Mexico extended family are also doing well here at the turning of the year.  Marilyn continues to volunteer at the nursing home, walk with a friend several times a week, and participate in a  Silver Sneakers exercise class at the YMCA, along with being our church librarian.   Chris' parents, Jack and Shirley Hanson, had a rough fall- illness, roof problems, and plumbing problems, are now settled down, and we hope the New year brings quiet and calm.  And we enjoy seeing Gwen, Chris' sister, and her family from Edgewood when we can work it out.  Hallie is getting ready to graduate from high school, and it's hard to believe Atalie will be heading into high school!  The years are flying by! Below, we met up with the whole contingent for a day in Los Alamos, playing putt-putt and hanging out.

This year has been a year of both struggle and blessing for us.  We have watched God go before us and prepare the way where we didn't think there was a way, and enjoyed rich blessings. To Him be all the honor and glory this season and always!  As this year closes, I continue to fight my eye disease and will begin anew medication later this week, and we both deal with aging and post-cancer-treatment problems.  But we still love each other, rejoice in our family and friends, and look forward to the adventures ahead.

May God be with you in all your new adventures in the coming year, Gentle Reader!  He continues to be with us in ours!