Season's Greetings            Christmas 2017 

As we come to the end of President Donald Trump's first year in office, I think that it is safe to say that we all got our wish from the purported Chinese proverb, “May you live in interesting times.” (Please try not to be too put off by the length of my Christmas Letters. I just enjoy having a record of my life in them going back to the year 1992. Read what you would like to read in them.)

My son, Johnathan, started the year by passing the Uniform CPA Exam. In July, Johnathan did a two week internship at Wade Stables, PLLC here in Hannibal and was able to stay and visit with me. During his time in Hannibal, Johnathan accepted a job as Senior Accountant at Critical Power Solutions Inc. in Everett, WA. He has since added Office Manager to his title. While Johnathan was here, many in my family got together at Golden Corral in Columbia and enjoyed visiting with Johnathan.  Johnathan's wife, Carissa, continues to work at Swedish Medical Center (near their home just outside of Seattle, Wash.) as the senior sonographer and one of the three leads in the imaging department. She was awarded the MVP award for Q4 of 2016, which is presented to a handful of Swedish employees. In November, she received the KATY award in her Imaging department. Carissa also passed her pediatric board. She trained two ultrasound students and also participated in a recruitment photoshoot for Swedish. Hunter, 6, spent the year playing baseball and soccer. He is also progressing in his swimming lessons. He spent half of the summer at the local Boy's and Girl's Club and loved his time there. Hunter has come to love Legos and video games. Kennedy, 3, just moved into Pre-K. She is currently taking swimming lessons. She loves My Little Ponies and "her Hunter". She's not a morning person, like her Dad. She's becoming less shy and is quite snuggly.

My daughter, Holly, and her husband, Dave, celebrated one year of marriage and living in New Jersey, just outside of New York City. Holly teaches in NYC at George Washington High School for her fourth year now and at two New Jersey dance studios in the evenings. She continues to dance with the MarDel dance troop who will be having a Christmas show this December. Dave is now working in a chef position at an American Nuvo restaurant called St. Eves, which Holly loves because it only takes 12 minutes to drive there (unlike the commute he took to his old job in NYC). It took some getting used to but they seem to enjoy the change. Holly and Dave did much travelling in August to see Dave's family in Cape Cod and other parts of Massachusetts, then on to Missouri to see both sides of Holly's family (and the total solar eclipse which Holly called a "huge event" in her notes to me). Then it was on to the Seattle area to see Johnathan and his family then on to see more of Dave's family in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, and San Diego.  

In March, I traveled down to southeast Missouri and I saw some truly great people who I hadn't seen in close to 20 years, including my "Surrogate Mother", Shirley Hutton, of Jackson who is 87 years young and still going strong. And during my visit to my home of 10 years (1979 - 1989), Doniphan, I saw my best friend (and former co-worker) there, Terry Cooper, and his wife, Evelyn, and while at Terry's home, I talked to former co-worker, Charlie Johnson, over the phone. (As the current mayor of Doniphan, Terry took me on a tour of some of the ongoing projects around town and after I inquired a few times about them, Terry exclaimed, "Is someone paying you to ask me these questions?!" I laughed and I told Terry, "They're paying me, but not near enough!" Just like old times.) Terry took me to see Jack Spencer, another former co-worker, who is 92 years old and going strong and I also ran into my former secretary's, Rachel's, husband, Ronnie Griffin. And when walking into the Doniphan's McDonald's, I was shocked to see my good friend, Sandra Kennon, who was sitting in her car in the drive-through and I enjoyed visiting with Sandra. I visited my first Doniphan home that is known as "the flood house" as my ex-wife Mernell and I suffered through three floods of the Current River while living there during the 1980s, the maximum flood being 4' 3" deep on the first floor. I discovered this home to have been jacked up off of the ground by about seven feet. And less than two months after my visit, on May 1st, the Current River saw a record breaking flood level that smashed the old record of 1904 by a full six feet of stage! And I learned that this monster flood still got about  4 feet deep in our old flood house---even after being raised up.  Very sadly, in June, my very good friend, Terry, experienced the deep heartbreak of losing his son, Rick.

Tom and Emily Bowden, the current owners of my maternal grandparents' home, were nice enough once again to allow us to use that home for a family reunion on my mother's 85th birthday on 8/19/2017, with my Aunt Jane and some of her family, her daughters, Rachel and Susan, and Susan's husband, Dave, and quite a few from my mother's family attending, for a total of 25 people being there, including Tom & Emily and Mike and Lisa Houston.   Unfortunately, Jane's son, Lance, couldn't attend the reunion as he had the misfortune of falling ill and spending time in a Columbia hospital. I was glad that Holly and her husband, Dave, also made it so that Dave could see some of the "conglomeration" that is called my family. A fun time was had by all. We all missed my Aunt Ferne again, who would have some serious health concerns in the Fall and we all pray that Ferne has a complete recovery. (While in Missouri, Jane and her family mentioned earlier, including Lance, witnessed the 8/21/2017 total solar eclipse from Mexico, Mo. with some of her late husband's, Will's, family.)

In July, my mother mis-stepped up onto the grocery store's sidewalk and fell backwards, hitting the back of her head hard against the paved parking lot, causing a bad gash on the back of her head, resulting in the loss of much blood. Fortunately, Mother was able to get up and get help from others who called her "adopted granddaughter," Emily, who arranged for an ambulance to take Mother to the Moberly hospital for sutures and Mother was then taken care of at Alicia's home. As a result, Mother has slowed up considerably and doesn't drive as much and my siblings Chris, Angela, and Alicia have helped Mother at her home quite a bit. Many of us enjoyed seeing my sister, Rochelle (from Nebraska), and her daughter, Jessica, when they came to the farm to see Mother in July. And also my sister, Diane (from Texas), and her daughter, Tricia, and her son, Eric, his fiancée, Kelly, and their two-year-old son, Kire, when they came to the family reunion in August.

In August, Dave, Holly, Holly's best friend in high school, Melissa, Brett, and I saw a winning Cardinals game in St. Louis against the San Diego Padres, 6-2.

My sister, Diane, and her husband, Mark, felt very fortunate when their home in Corpus Christi, Texas, suffered only minor damage when Hurricane Harvey brushed by them and went inland and caused all of that major flooding in Texas in August. Their year is ending on a great note when Diane's son, Eric, marries his fiancée, Kelly, in late December. In October, my brother, Chris, and his wife, Kay, were featured in a really nice article in the Jefferson City newspaper telling about their activities in local programs that show respect and appreciation for active soldiers and sailors overseas, veterans, and first responders.

In June, while visiting my favorite spot here in Hannibal, the Mark Twain statue in Riverview Park after sunset, I captured a beautiful photo of a barge going downstream on the Mississippi River with a gorgeous crimson northern horizon that was published in the publication, "The Waterways Journal" (which is devoted to the barge industry) and, later, in the local Hannibal newspaper.

Over the past two years, my leukemia (diagnosed in late 2009) has improved very dramatically, with the "bad" blood cells being nearly within normal limits (a 90% reduction in the absolute lymphocytes) which mystifies my cancer doctor who said that he has never personally seen such an improvement in a case of CLL and he told me, "Miracles are possible." Hopefully, God will prolong this miracle. And my heart seems to be behaving itself since my heart attack in 2006.

I continue to benefit very much by being "pen friends" with Carol Ann from Ohio, our correspondence beginning in March, 2015. (Ironically, my other two pen pals who I have also met through The Letter Exchange are also from Ohio, Peggy Ann and Irene.)

Forty years ago this year, we lost my only father-in-law, John R. King, who passed away on his 44th birthday. In many ways, large and small, our world hasn't been the same since.

Enclosed is a page (except for some of you whom I have already shared this with) describing my experiences when I viewed the celestial spectacular of 2017, the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. I already have motel reservations made in Doniphan, Mo. to see the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse from southeast Missouri. 

As I often try to do, I am ending this year's Christmas Letter on a high note by telling you of a friend request that I received on Facebook in December, 2016 from a woman who I thought would be just about the last person who I'd receive such a request from. Because she very much prizes her privacy, I cannot reveal her name or where she lives, but she is someone who I barely knew of many years ago, though I really did want to get to know her at the time. After I accepted her friend request, we messaged with each other nearly every day until September, when we slowed down some, and we both agree that each of us have filled a major void in the other's life.  I will always be very grateful that she entered my life last December and allowed me to share with her my perspective and my good intentions for her back in 1987, which she was totally unaware of at that time. She has turned out to be just as special as I had imagined that she would be from afar back then, and then some. I didn't expect her incredible sense of humor. This special woman has made a big difference in my life in 2017.

I hope that you and your family have a prosperous 2018!    

                                                                                                          Greg