Holiday letter 2021

 Dear Friends, Family, Followers and Other thing that start with F—

Well it’s hard to believe (anything that comes out of any capitol anywhere) that another holiday season has rolled around and therefore another holiday letter is being sent out over  the cyber web and on paper.  If you are reading this electronically  feel good about yourself because you have reduced your carbon footprint.  Quit eating so many beans reducing your emissions  and you stand a real good chance of becoming carbon neutral next year whatever that means.  Now before we review what has been a fairly meaningful  year it seems appropriate to acknowledge  what follows may irritate  the ACLU, the KKK, the NRA, and the PTA so WTH.  If that alphabet soup doesn’t make sense well  I guess  this whole  letter is a SNAFU and I’m SOL  PDQ —oh well LOL.

Now  here we go....

Early in 2021 we had a houseful of people under the roof and  a chicken.  As the year moved forward we have reduced the number of people yet we still have the chicken.  Breanna  has taken her job skills to T.j. Max and met a good guy named Cal.  They have  moved from the Port to Michigan’s capital city and thus the IQ there has risen slightly—but not quite enough to impact state government much.  Breanna turned 21 this spring and has learned to be a pretty good mixologist... (you know makes her own creative drinks)...

Jon met a very fine woman (I haven’t  asked for permission to mention her name so...) and survived Big Lots  just as long as he could before getting a full-time gig with a local produce company.  His adulting  is going well.  

The COVID thing  hasn’t landed in our house except for Amanda and her Hubby... but that was last year now.  We aren’t reporting our vaccination statuses because we don’t want the variants to know who to attack and how.  All types of authorities and others  seem to keep insist on us wearing masks and in my case they are saying “cover up as much of your face as possible as it makes people sick.”  I don’t know the science behind that claim but so far no twitter groups or facebook  pages are disputing it. 

We’ve done a bunch of traveling  to Iowa this year to see family and friends and Mel is most certainly welcome back at any time.  Our family in Iowa is hanging. In there and they all send you best wishes.  

Amanda and Caleb took a trip to  North Dakota to see  how. To drill a hole in ice and stare at it for hours...I guess some people call that ice fishing but the only time I want to see that much ice it better be surrounded by margarita mix and tequila.  Oh and Amanda made a “Vegas” and other sites nearby trip ....but the biggest trip of all this year was  not a train ride or an airplane. Flight.  It was a little walk in a barn yard....otherwise called the wedding of Caleb dean and Amanda Whalen.  The happy couple was married on September 25th.  A few brain cells died that weekend but otherwise both families and so many of their  fantastic friends gathered to celebrate.  Amanda and Caleb continue to be moving. Ahead in great careers however they will eventually put all that in their own holiday letters...they are grown ups now.  

Well I can see by the  “Word Count” I’ve written over 500 words  already and that’s about all the words I know so let’s wrap this up shall we?  We hope this letter and this whole year has provided a few. Bits of news and a smile or two.  We hope no one takes offense at anything we’ve said or done. With this letter or in real life, however it seems  that someone can find a way to take a offense or be a victim  for almost everything  so... here’s a little rhyme to end this... 

Be your life now  a boom or a bust

Though. A look. In the mirror bring a grin or disgust

May you dig deep inside and summon some trust

And forgiveness for others for that is a must

Find  love for your neighbor for things dismiss lust

Point out and change things that remain real unjust

Know that  hate, fear, and greed all turn ugly like rust

Work hard to share peace before returning to dust

Try to bring comfort to those  who are disturbed and when needed disturb those who have grown  far too comfortable—be blessed

The Whalens’

The annual review 2020 see you later

 HAPPY HOLIDAYS ALL!!!

Well it’s time for that good old year in review letter and who are we to deny you of the literary equivalent of a prostate exam... or mammogram depending upon your particular biology?  So here goes...

2020 sucked

What? Are you still looking for more?   Ok 

—ps—

Here’s a few details.....

All I remember about the first part of the year, is that it was going to be the roaring 20’s and we were all fired up about it....

We did  make a trip to Perry for the BRR  Ride and Amanda was the champ as she made the  whole distance.  Jim had an adrenaline imbalance and probably ended his cycling career....but maybe there will be future tandem efforts.  

Then Covid...but in other news for the first part of the year.  We moved.  I’m not providing the new address because the IRS and FBI are sneaky and some of you will cave under “questionable” interrogation attempts like “Rumor has it you’ve stopped beating your spouse...is that true?”  Or Do you think I look fat in this?   Well we moved into a small but functional house with a large and what will be a nice functional outdoor space in a year or two.  Let’s just say the place has potential.  When exactly did we move?  Well the day our Governor declared that no one who wasn’t an essential worker going to work wasn’t supposed to be out in public.  So that created a bit of a headache as we weren’t sure the U-Haul guy was going to  let us drive the truck off the lot after spending an hour going through the no-contact rental process which included taking pictures of the vehicle and a license and sending in a stool sample from a three-legged elephant wearing a mask.  Anyway we took all of our stuff on a cross-town outing and piled it all in here.... Someday we will get it sorted out and if not we have a fire pit now just saying...

Amazingly  the only thing that sustained damage in the move was our dryer and as it turned out our dryer wouldn’t fit in the utility room space anyway.  Now we have  an economy size dryer which we bought from the same people who brought you the fun-sized candy bar... but life goes on.

 On the “livelihood” front Mel continues to provide smiling customer service at Meijer which is Michigan’s version of  a store like Wal-Mart but far cleaner and with fewer YouTube videos.  Amanda is still the best emergency worker in her part of the state and her soon to be Hubby, Caleb is out there keeping the streets/roads/and homes safe for all citizens.  They weathered a bout of the “rona”  and are two of the front-line folks you keep hearing deserve your thanks.... So give them thanks and a little more  pay which is the thanks that keeps on thanking.  

Jon started a retail job at a national retailer that we won’t mention except  that a clue would be  you will have no problem parking because all the stores have B?G L?t?....

Breanna is still doing her  design and costuming small businesses and has switched from  a fabric store side job to Amazon.  Working in the world’s largest shipping  company has given her body a workout and don’t tell anyone but she is starting to have a few muscles  appear here and there.  If she sticks with it—and that’s a 50/50  deal—it will soon be called “Branazon”

In addition what am I doing these days, “as little as possible”?  Well writing a blog  and creating a couple of podcasts.  The blog is two years and 18,000 + reads old and the podcasts combined have topped  2000 downloads (including. The D-Dub Shoutout featuring Donny from the River City also known as my brother).. Check us out on nearly every podcast provider including Pandora, Spotify , ITunes and if you adjust your aluminum hat just right you can get it  there too.  

In travel and tragedy ...

Breanna made a good trip to Cali and made it back before the rona shut that down.  Amanda and Caleb went out to the coast camping with friends and had a great time.  They didn’t see bigfoot and has anyone seen bigfoot lately or have all those mysterious creatures been under quarantine for a few years... as soon as we solve the mystery /curse of Oak Island we’ll let you know on the bigfoot thing unless we get abducted by some of those ancient aliens.  

Mel and Jim have made a couple trips to Iowa and that about wraps up the big travel  stuff unless you count  walking.  Oh and on the walking front...Just last week Jim made his annual walking goal and that isn’t remarkable except for the fact that in June he was the recipient of a kiss from a Chrysler SUV that is.  Actually it was a Yukon and luckily while the vehicle was going 25 mph my guardian angels were flying 30 and so what happened was...

Well what happens when you get hit  buy a car...you make sure you find your hat get up and walk ten blocks home ) so what if you end up in the ER later—they don’t x-ray down far enough so you wind up walking on a broken leg for the summer etc..etc...). 

in short I have some damage to my shoulder ending my pro basketball prospects but all in all life goes on in that regard too.

Since other people like to feature their  pets...it wouldn’t  seem right to finish up without a  word or two about ours... Isis —yes we have a pet named Isis...because  we named it before the terrorists became popular is our big black 10 year-old Lab puppy who needs to slow down and quit whining (which makes her just like 80% of the politicians we had to endure all year.  To round off the line up or should I say “oval?” We welcomed Breanna‘s latest pet chicken.  Before you get all strange....ask yourself...does my pet make breakfast every day?”   Rosalina  will hop up and fly just high enough to grab your food so if you stop by don’t hold  anything you are eating  too low.  

So that’s about all you can handle in a year that has been a little more than any of us wants to remember.  But if you want to remember anything from this year try this...We care about all of you.  We will keep moving forward and help you move forward into a better year next year.  We still know that life is not fair and that there will be no whining.  Mostly we know that going into 2021 there are a lot of questions life will bring and as always “Love is the Answer”.  And Love is (almost) All you Need

Peace and Joy Be With You

The Whalens 

Roaring into the 20s— But saluting 2019 first

 so here is our holiday letter for 2019 read and enjoy and look for more highlights coming soon

Welcome to a decade of highlights from our family. Some people keep track of things in a family Bible and Moses carved out some things on some tablets so we decided to keep track on this and you can view it on your tablet or your phones or your computers or probably in your implanted chip  before the decade is out we want to start over with a salute 2019 and a thank you to everyone who made our year what it was but it’s good bad and ugly we have learned and laughed and lived through those experiences

Happy Holidays Again!!!

Well here it is once again time to gather around an open fire and roast some chestnuts —I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, but I have no idea why we roast chestnuts, how they taste roasted or what smell they give off while roasting. Personally, I’d rather eat some good old Mr. Peanut offerings and sip on a cold brew while preparing for the inevitable task of writing this letter—but that’s just me...and whatever happens I’m going to finish this letter today.

What happened in 2019–The beginning of the year is a long time ago, but crawling into the “way back” machine I do remember that a good deal of January and the beginning of February was spent getting down to diagnosing my adrenaline imbalance. After some medications and meditations and general rethinking life, we’ve decided that I’ll never be quite right in the head or body again—and since that’s never concerned me much before, I’m over it now and moving forward in life.

As Spring rolled on through, Amanda finished giving Lake Superior State money and she got a piece of paper in return. This paper says she can drive a big truck with sirens fast and put your house out when it is on fire. She also has the medical training to treat you in nearly every emergency medical situation known to man as a fully qualified paramedic. Talk about job security... she has jobs in her future that will always depend on people doing dumb things while drinking, starting fires, driving, and saying things like “I wonder what happens if we push this button?” Anyway she earned her bachelor’s degree in saving idiots like me magna cum laude. Breanna took a trip West and worked for Jo Anne’s Fabric in California during the summer. While that experience might not have turned out exactly like it was planned, she made the most of the opportunity to learn and grow which wouldn’t hurt all of us from time to time. She continues to make amazing costume clothing, accessories, and multimedia products for fun and money. Her goals are to use her intelligence and creativity to create cool things and help other people get their voice out there through modern tech. She knows more than she thinks and will reach some great goals in the years to come, whereas my goal is to continue to be able to put one sock on each foot.

Mel continues to survive and sometimes excel in the world of megastore retail and on the days that don’t go well she has good friends to count on and drink with occasionally...

The RAGBRAI ride ended up in Southeast Iowa this summer and created an opportunity for an impromptu “Willem” Family reunion/get together. Rumor has it that that there were a few snickers, off-color remarks, and while no official count was taken we moved the recycling process of a substantial quantity of cans forward by doing our public duty to ensure that they were empty before being returned for processing. Don’t ever let it be said that we don’t care about the environment as several of the cyclists and others provided natural irrigation throughout the bike ride and our family celebration. It was great to see everyone who could make it and make some new memories we can argue about the next time we get together.

As fall fell and the year started to slide closer to the roaring 20’s-Amanda agreed to marry her great boyfriend, Caleb Dean. He’s a good young police officer so we are not so much gaining a son-in-law as enhancing our ability to provide our own security force. They have a date in 2021 and I won’t provide details because I’m not even sure I’m invited...but they also bought a great house in the Great White North of Michigan and you all can visit as they live in the country right near a nature preserve and have a nice tent you can rent from them... j.k. they expect to meet a lot of you and would enjoy visitors.

To summarize 2019... we had a good year...not a great year in all regards but as always we avoid our old mistakes by making new ones and learn how to live and love a little more. We make no promises about what will happen next year unless we win the lottery and then we’ll let you know what happened. All we can say is if you are reading this we think of you often and only cuss occasionally. We hope you have a healthy Holiday Season. The 20’s start in just a few days... let’s all get ready and when the time comes start roaring!!!

Peace and Joy to All,