What a wonderful, varied and full month December 2019 turned
out to be! Mark and Hilde had no “Christmas
parties” or visitors, but were able to get out and visit others, so all was
good. In addition to celebrating Mark’s
birthday, December is crammed full of birthdays: Rhiannon’s, John’s, Hilde’s brother, and those of two
nephews, two nieces and several extended family, so lots of greetings and
happiness.
The month started with snow on the 1st and Mark
ended up plowing four times during the month, a new record for December. Hilde baked up the usual storm of stollen,
cookies and other goodies and shared them with family, friends and neighbors. There were several gifts to finish, since she
made four sweaters, four duffle bags, two quilts and several cross stitch
items. She also organized the church fruit baskets
for the shut-ins, on a new schedule and in a great hurry, before heading to
Chicago.
Mark and Hilde went to Chicago before Christmas to help out
John with child care as Evie was doing interviews, and the youngsters not happy
with Momma gone. The cuddling and
feeding of grandchildren (and John) was sheer pleasure! Rosemary at 4 months is very alert and
cheerful---while being held. Hazel is
much more verbal and definitely observant
and assertive at 2 years.
The December taekwondo testing was special as Dr. Stevens
was able to attend and join his senior black belts for lunch afterward. The whole group has many happy memories of helping
with past testings, so getting together again was a high point of the month for
all. The bo dan and first dan candidates
did very well, and the white belts well quite good too, all making their
instructors very proud.
The Christmas gathering at Jim’s house was a wonderful time
(even though Hilde forgot some gifts and they had to turn around halfway to
grab them before continuing!). Jim had
just finished his stunning heritage table, using great initiative to design and
produce it from wood saved from the Lomira farm. It is big and beautiful---with enough room
for 11 Henkels to feast at! Kayme filled it with a wonderful Christmas feast for all eleven, too. It was a joy
to have all five grandchildren in one happy, noisy place, and Great-Grandma
Arlene was brought over for some time to cuddle and enjoy it all.
Before heading down to John’s for a day, Mark and Jim
tackled replacing one sump pump and resealing it…Mark is not happy without
doing some kind of fix-up job. The day
at John’s was very relaxing…a nice endcap for the holidays before heading north
to Rudolph.
Besides the holiday activities, the Henkels had interesting
events in other areas. They were
contacted by a woman who is very likely a cousin (hurray for more family!),
Mark did his recertification in first aid for the YMCA, and the mouse saga of
2019 now includes a mouse in a bottle.
Unfortunately, it was located long after dying there…nasty! Mark also finally persuaded the new printer
to accept commands from his laptop, making the office at home work a bit more
smoothly.as he continues to be “Mark the Unretired”.
As predicted, the year turned out to be the wettest on
record for this area. Everyone is hoping
for some return to average, as there are STILL some unharvested fields around
Rudolph. However, the milder temps
around the holidays allowed for easy, safe travel, although there was fog and
eerie conditions at the end of the month.
As the year ended, Mark and Hilde were happily at home, counting many
blessings and wishing a happy and healthy new year to all.
