Christmas 2022

 Greetings!

As our year winds down, it’s good to take a moment to reflect and relish the good in 2022. Firstly, our dishwasher made it a whole 4 years before dying due to our extremely hard well water (this is about average for us- we’ve purchased 3 dishwashers in the 11 years we’ve lived in this house). Secondly, we are completely done with braces. For everyone. (Oh glorious day!!) And lastly, I was ahead of the game and when Ryan lost half of the sole of his shoe at work, we already had a new pair of exactly the same type of Keen shoe waiting to replace the dead pair. Go me!

We had this fabulous idea to remodel the downstairs bathroom in February when the plumbing in the wall behind the shower broke, requiring a hole to be sawed into the fiberglass wall of the shower to cap the pipe so we could turn on the water to the whole house again. To replace the shower, the vanity and toilet needed to be removed… so why not just rid ourselves of the vintage 1990s golden oak vanity and the cracked toilet? Easy peasy- we could do it over Spring Break. We had all of the major pieces purchased and delivered by the end of March. Demolition Saturday came and we removed the toilet, vanity, shower (in pieces) and warped Pergo flooring. But that was as far as we got for many weeks. Ryan did something to his back during that process, and spent the whole week of Spring Break moaning on our bedroom floor. By Friday of Spring Break, he was well enough that I drove him to the chiropractor and he was on enough medicine that he did not remember visiting our chiropractor friend. When our chiropractor friend and his family came to check in with our family that evening, Ryan was surprised to learn he and I had already seen George that day. We went about 2.5 months without a toilet downstairs, but that bathroom is done and working now, and looks good! And even better, Ryan got to the point he can put on his own socks in the morning. That was a long process.

Emma (19) decided college wasn’t what she wanted at this point in her life and came home at the end of winter semester.  She got a job waiting tables for a couple of weeks before settling in to work at our local library. Once she had her car paid off, she decided she was ready for a big change and moved to Florida the day after Thanksgiving. We’ll see if she still likes it there after hurricane season.

Elizabeth (17) is a senior in high school. We bought a 2003 Jeep Liberty as the household teen car we found on Craigslist, and she can be found driving herself to early morning seminary and playing chauffeur to her younger sisters. She still loves her art classes, sometimes taking 2 at a time, she enjoyed her creative writing class, is plugging away through pre-calc, and survived her 3rd and final year of cross country running. I’m pretty sure she only ran cross country because the girl’s coach is a friend of her mom’s, it is familiar by now, and Elizabeth has friends on the team. She still makes a face when people ask if she likes running.

Annie and Maddie (14) are not at all the same despite being identical twins that most people have a hard time telling apart. Just ask them. In fact, they are offended that I grouped them together in this letter. It’s not like they are in the exact same 8th grade classes, or participate in the same after school activities, or have the same 4.0 GPA, or hang out with the same group of friends, or both are avid readers- getting into murder mysteries lately, or both got their braces off, or anything like that. Puh-leez. Annie plays the clarinet and Maddie plays the trombone in middle school band. Also, Annie always beats Maddie in cross country races, and refuses to finish the Harry Potter series. See? Completely different. They still share a cell phone and so no one is ever quite sure which twin is texting.

Ryan stays plenty busy being the principal at Pioneer Elementary School. Every day is an adventure there and he brings home stories of “Poo-casos” (think “Picaso” but in the bathroom), kid vomit the color of Pepto Bismol just inside the front doors of the school, recess duty, angry or indifferent parents, and other daily larks- like schedules, teacher evaluations, and endless meetings. At church he’s been put to good use as the Spanish Branch clerk (doing the computer stuff) and stake high council. But we still get to sit with him most weeks during Sacrament Meeting where I can give him the Stink Eye as much as I do the kids for being irreverent. 

I keep myself occupied. I get to teach Sunday School Old Testament lessons to 11-13 year old teens at church (hence my need for Old Testament podcasts- it takes a doctorate to make sense of some of that). I volunteer a few days a week in a first grade class to get my little kid fix, and started working in the Columbia River temple one day a week back in August. I am also the Reminder for Forgotten Things, Pep Talk Giver, Finder of Lost Things, Proofreader, Teacher of Basic Skills, and sometimes The Reality Check. (“Nice try. Putting your socks behind the couch pillow so I can’t see them anymore is NOT taking care of them.” Seriously, my youngest kids are 14. FOURTEEN, people. Why do we still need this conversation?!?!)

July was a busy month. Elizabeth, Annie and Maddie spent a week at church Girl’s Camp, a week at Grandpa Camp with their grandparents and cousins, and then a week at For Strength of Youth at U of I in Moscow, Idaho. The girls got to experience dorm life with no air conditioning during a week of high 90 and 100 degree temperatures. They were not a fan. Ryan and I managed to sneak off by ourselves to Kauai while the girls were at Girls Camp. Kauai is so incredibly beautiful and fun, and we decided we still like each other when the kids aren’t around. Even after hard, sweaty hikes when we smell less than good. In other words, we smelled like humid, adolescent armpits left unwashed for way too long at the end of our hikes. Snorkeling, a catamaran trip, good food, swimming, and sightseeing were all less odorous and all of it was an enjoyable way to spend a week away. 

We are so grateful for this time of year, to remember and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are grateful for all of you in our lives, and for the love and service you have given our family over the years.

With much love,

Ryan, Danae, Emma, Elizabeth, Annie, and Maddie Kannely