Christmas Greetings 2019

Holiday Greetings!

I knew it was going to be fun living here.  2019 was the year of weddings and parties.  The kids and their friends are wonderful to include us in so many things.   

On June 7, Smitty and I celebrated our 67 year Wedding Anniversary. 

Our favorite waitress at Touchmark surprised us that morning with some celebratory pancakes!

Our granddaughter, Emily, was married June 8, the day after our anniversary.  Emily's wedding was big and beautiful.  

It was wonderful being escorted down the aisle by such handsome (tall!) grandsons.  

Andrew has his own law practice in Arizona and Sam is attending OU in Norman.

 The wedding was like a family reunion for us.  My sister Julie and Kate, her oldest, flew in from Ohio.  David and Sandy drove in from Tennessee & Danielle drove in from Kansas.

Emily is a pediatric nurse at Baptist Hospital and Brookes Wright, her husband, works for Senator Langford.  The families have all blended and Brookes is a catch.

The rest of their little family is our Grandpup, Daisy.  She is a Bernese Mountain dog and we love doggy sitting her and Mr. Goose when Joy & Dan are away traveling with Emily & Brookes.

Smitty is doing very well.  He will never be as strong as he was before he had the brain bleed, but it hasn't made him stop participating - just slows him down.  We meet with a group of six or eight around a table every morning for a big breakfast and solve the problems of the day for about two hours.

Then I go around and water the flowers on the dining room tables and in the halls.  Smitty goes down to the wellness center in the basement and uses the machines.  Life at Touchmark is all we hoped it would be.

My roses this summer were outstanding.  I have nine bushes and lots of bedding plants between. I have been supplying flowers out of our garden for the tables daily.  We just planted 488 Spring bulbs so we will have them for the tables in the Spring.  I was surprised at how much the residents enjoy the flowers.  They call me The Flower Lady and I love it!

We have new next door neighbors from Ohio, Babs and George.  We really like them and do a lot together.  Babs is helping me with the flowers and is a big help.  In October, we had an OctoberFest in the big gazebo behind our home with all of the neighbors.  We made it a pot luck and it was such a success they want to do another one.

One of the highlights of the year was the visit of Joan and Fred Carrigan, our close friends from Hideaway.  They were on their way to visit her sister and it was such fun.  We all went over to Joy and Dan's and had a lovely afternoon around their pool and a picnic on their porch.  Wanda and Hershel Sanders called the other day on their way to OSU for a grandson's football game.  We are hoping the next time they will allow time to stop over.

Sandy and David joined us for Thanksgiving and we were very excited.  Ever since Joy and Dan bought the house on Desert Mountain in Scottsdale their family has spent Thanksgiving there.  We aren't traveling anymore because of the clots in Smitty's legs.  He is doing so well that we are happy to stay put.  We also invited some of our friends from Touchmark, Karen & Eric.  We were staying at Joy's taking care of Mr. Goose, their Border Collie. Sandy, our master chef, organized the menu and I enjoyed spending time in the kitchen being her sous chef.

Suzie wasn't able to come for Thanksgiving but came a few days earlier to take us to get our new hearing aids.  Her life has been busy and she is spending more time on the road than ever. 

She is now working as an Ambassador for a big wine group - The Boisset Collection that has 29 wineries in France and Napa Valley. She was also asked by the LG Appliance company to style their booth at the International Builders Show, and their new Experience and Design Center in Napa.

Trish, Steve, and their family are as busy as ever. Christian is on a baseball team that has done really well and travels to tournaments. He is now almost taller than his Mom and Dad! Can you believe that Jenna will be 18 in a few weeks, and will be graduating high school this year! She continues to excel at school and now is taking after her Mom and has apart time job at Michaels.

Tim, Alison and their family have had a busy year as well. Where does the time go? All of the kids are now in school, and active in after school activities. They all have inherited their father's talent with computers.

We love our Sundays going to LifeChurch with Joy and Dan and the kids and to brunch after.  We have become involved in a new outreach program with them.  We will be occasionally cooking dinner for women in a "Hope is Alive" halfway house - one of the missions LifeChurch supports.  Dan and I enjoy cooking together so we provided the Beef Tenderloin, mashed potatoes, yeast rolls, and dessert for their Wednesday dinner meeting.  

Smitty stood up and gave the prayer and then surprised us all with a heartfelt testimony to the group of about 35 women about what it was like growing up with a father suffering from alcoholism.  He really left an impression.  After all these years he still surprises me!  

We are feeling blessed and loved and enjoying every minute of our life together.  Seasons greetings and a very Merry Christmas to all of you.  

                                                       Love,  Norma & Smitty