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Merry Christmas 2025 and Happy New Year 2026
This was a year of changes for our extended family, but we are finding ourselves at the end of it with a lot to be thankful for. One big change that I might as well get out there first of all is that this will be the first Christmas letter I have written since December 1982 that isn’t from Greg as well as me. Am I bitter and angry and filled with hate? Yes, sometimes, but do I still love him? Yes, all ways, always. All I will say about his choice to move out without telling anyone while I was at our oldest son’s birthday party is that it came as only a bit of a surprise. He had already told me he still loved me but wasn’t in love with me anymore and that where he felt at home wasn’t my business. So the rest of his story isn’t mine anymore except that he still helps when I need it and still tries to be there for our sons and their families. And while he hurt me a lot, he gave me years of happiness too.
Everyone who knows me knows I was unhappy to see the return of Donald Trump to the White House and wasn’t cheerful heading into January anyway, and then having to deal with suddenly having a reason for the deep loneliness I was feeling made the first half of the year quickly become a time I’d rather die than repeat.
But then June 25, the 75th anniversary of Mimi and Harvey’s wedding, as well as also the 75th anniversary of Trisha’s grandparents wedding arrived with the first thing to celebrate in my year.
I got a Daughter-In-Law and saw my firstborn looking happier than I had ever seen him. And after their beautiful wedding life began to feel hopeful again
After the wedding Emerson and Daisy and I had several fun days at the Smith River and Daisy and I took a trip up the Oregon Coast to walk a labyrinth raked in the sand in Bandon. We visited Fern Canyon and Greg came along that day.
We also went to the county fair while Emerson was working at a booth, so Daisy and I took a couple of her friends along and checked out the ribbons we had won from our paintings and her beadwork. They rode the carnival rides while I snapped photos and talked to friends and ate corn on the cob.
Fall arrived faster than I could believe and with it, middle school for Daisy, and property ownership for Emerson. He coached soccer for her team again, and she joined Greg’s kids choir again. I am still painting and have sold a dozen of the hundreds of watercolors I have completed. I I also published a book using my watercolors to illustrate a cookbook of the favorite recipes I learned from and created with friends and family.
I am Healthier feeling this year than any of the last seven years although I still don’t have a definitive diagnosis, I have become friends with severl people including Dr.’s who are working on establishing diagnostic criteria for many of the same symptoms and there has been much help both with ways to cope with the symptoms but also with the emotional pain and isolation of having a cronic condition.
I can’t begin to foresee what will have come to pass in my life by this time next year, except that in one way or another, there will still be moments of beauty and happiness.
Merry Christmas and a hopeful New Year, my friends and family. I love you.
Dixie
