Click to expand image
(If you aren't familiar with the movies, you may need to Google 'How To Train Your Dragon' to understand this year's card.)
All of the linked photos, by the way, you can see on the Google Photos album if you'd like to view them.
2023 was one of the most difficult and rewarding years we’ve ever had. There a number of very difficult stretches but we emerged on the other side with a host of accomplishments and blessings.
2023 was one of the most difficult and rewarding years we’ve ever had. Dianna finished her 18th year with the Boy Scouts, and 8th with the Michigan Crossroads Council. Following an all-hands-on-deck summer, Dianna was promoted to Director of Camping Services overseeing all Scout camping programs for lower Michigan. She also spent time staffing the National Scouting Jamboree at Summit Bechtel Reserve, WV and presented at the National Outdoor Conference at Philmont Scout Ranch, NM. In the midst of all the travel and work, Dianna still stayed disciplined enough in her taekwondo training to ace her testing in June and be appointed the rank of Black Belt!
Geoff has continued his role with Kettering University, including currently overseeing the monumental project of moving their ERP, it’s periphery software, and all integrations from on-premise to a cloud-hosted environment. He finished his final stretch of grad school at Kettering, getting hooded for his MBA after 18 months of non-stop back-to-back courses taking up every night and weekend, finishing with his highest GPA of any previous level of schooling. The family and Geoff’s parents were able to join for commencement and even got VIP field seats due to Geoff getting the honor of singing the National Anthem to open the ceremony! Shortly after, the ‘interim’ was dropped from his title and Geoff was officially appointed Vice President of Administrative, Instructional, and Information Technology for the university.
This spring also brought the loss of Letzty, Geoff’s companion for the last 14 years. We were not cheated out of one moment with her and she stuck around long enough to see Geoff through to the end of grad school, like the good girl she was. She is now resting up on the hillside with Bean, Bun-bun, and Opie. The original four that starred in our very first Christmas card 12 years ago, despite multiple moves and homes and states, are reunited and resting together. It is the bittersweet closing on a major chapter of our lives as we prepare to begin the next.
The boys had a big year as well. Both were active in Scouting; Winchester (9) as a Webelos and Rutherford (7) as a Tiger. They had lots of adventures including camp at Cole Canoe base, the Pinewood Derby, and lots of den/pack outings. They also continued ranking up in taekwondo with Winchester earning his Red and Red-Recommended and Rutherford earning his Green and Purple belts. Geoff is still catching up, earning his Orange and Yellow belts in Krav Maga, but we became Lifetime Members of Victory Martial Arts Studio this year, so there is all the time in the world to keep advancing. In addition to scouting and taekwondo, Winchester has participating in school sports including Basketball this spring and he started wrestling this winter.
Especially in the second half of the year, we took advantage of the extra time to travel including a Caribbean cruise with the Parisi grandparents and O’Rourke cousins, a 4th of July reunion at Harvey's Lake, PA, Thanksgiving in North Carolina, visiting grandparents in Boston, a visit from Fake Aunt Melissa all the way from NZ, weekends up at North Campus with friends, and lots of Michigan exploring including multiple river trips on the Au Sable, Kruse Dog Beach in Muskegon, Sleeping Bear Dunes near Traverse City, Renaissance Festival in Holly, Motor City Comicon in Detroit, and lots of local parks and trails near home.
You may notice a couple of new faces on the front of the card! Our ‘Toothless’ is a new shop cat named JoseFeline Martin (another Doctor Who reference). We also fostered for the first time in a couple years this October, hosting two beautiful heterochromic Husky/Boxer/Pitbull mixes (now) named Namaari and Nira. After a month or so of spay recovery and training we made our first ever “foster fail” in 11 years and adopted Namaari into our home. She is sweet, intelligent, and trying her best to live up to the legacy of her siblings and predecessors.
So with the 2023 chapter closing and a new one on the horizon, just know that we are appreciative of all…this. If you reply, to quote Hiccup in How To Train Your Dragon, “You just gestured to all of me”, then you would be absolutely correct.
Merry Christmas and/or a Happy New Year!
