A year wrap up a month late

The Holidays are in the rear view mirror and you're feeling like you missed something. You check your calendar, the glove box, your present hide-e-hole place.....what was it? It's the Howe family Christmas card! Did they finally get prints and stamps and mail them out? Did I not make the list? Heavens no!! If you're seeing this you're my dear friend who deserves a belated Christmas/Holidays/ 2023 wrap up! Let's go. Bella and Sam both graduated from the University of Arizona last May. Bella in Conservation Biology and Sam in Finance. They now live in Louisiana, Sam working at Honeywell and Bella at LSU. They love the South, especially the people, and the proximity to beaches. We love a new place to vacation too! Olivia is a junior at the UofA with 2 degrees/4 majors and works 25+ hours/week. She is also a model for the Humanities department as shown by her magazine cover. Holman is in Thailand with less than a year left in his mission. He absolutely loves the Thai people, teaching English and sharing the message that God loves and knows each person. He has a "golden glow" about him. He's also the reason we didn't take family photos in 2023, just didn't feel right without him. We miss his crazy self. Parkin is a junior in high school. He swims, does musicals and loves AP calculous (just like his mom), and is an all-around happy and helpful son. I am mourning his quick approach to adulthood, I can't believe he's a senior next year. Adrian is in her last year of middle school. A typical day involves her skateboarding, playing volleyball and working on her bedroom mural, she's got skillz.  As for Benjamin and me, we just continue to keep hiking. We wade through the marshes, get to some beautiful vistas, and realize there are still many mountains to climb(if we are lucky!). If you're still reading this well done my true and faithful friend, it came your Howe Christmas card came!!

Cabin trip with the Pershing family!

 We had another great trip with the Pershing family to their cabin in Payson. This time their son Johnny was home from a mission and our son Holman was on a mission. Different dynamic but still a lot of fun! We hiked, put together puzzles ( not really me) and watched a lot of great movies! 

We wanted to prank Johnny with a fake tradition. So we all came up with giving the person who prayed a kiss on the cheek....it was super awkward and very funny. He didn't react much but the rest of us had a hard time keeping the joke in. Finally we all had had enough and asked Johnny to pray so he would be out last mark... If it was awkward kissing someone on the cheek who new about it what about for someone who had no clue?! Benjamin and I basically did an air kids hovered over his cheek. We all started laughing and explained we don't normally do this. I was shocked he never asked his family "what's up with the prayer kids" he just rolled with it....he never kissed anyone but he didn't complain either. It was so funny. The Pershings are a wacky bunch too 🤣

Holman goes to the Thai temple

Holman met this awesome family in his second transfer. They quickly bonded and treated him like family. He was super excited that they made plans to attend the newly dedicated Thai temple. Then he got transferred. This family then requested for him and some other influential missionaries to be there. He wasn't sure if the mission president would allow it to happen. They were so excited when they got approval!!

This is a copy of Holman's Facebook post:

เมื่อวานผมมีโอกาสเข้าร่วมพิธีผนึกครอบครัวนี้ผมดีใจที่ครอบครัวสามารถอยู่ด้วยกันตลอดไปได้โดยพระคริสต์😊

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the Sealing of this family! I am so glad that families can be together forever through Christ!😄

Thanks Apichat Thakham for letting me be your best man!

Olivia turns 21!!

 How do you beat the after Christmas blues? I had a baby 21 years ago and she has been jazzing up the day ever since!! Olivia Howe is so fun, smart, a Jane Austen afishionado, a financial wiz and an all-around joy to be around.....and I get to be her mom!!! I also consider her to be one of my best friends. Olivia thanks for livening up our family since day one. You are beyond good enough 💕💞

Olivia was one of my easiest births. I went to the hospital at like 8 am to be induced and called the family at like 10:30 am to tell them I had had her! She was ready!! 

Miracle and death, the circle of life

 Appa started to see again! He is not totally blind. We are not sure how much he does see but we know he can see. So his retinas have reattached somewhat. We are so grateful. And honestly he seems grateful too. His tail is wagging and he's running again. We are back to his wash walks again. It is a win that I am grateful for. We have spent a lot of money on our dogs lately but we are their stewards and they are our fur babies.

While we had a miracle, Bekah's sweet puppy had gotten into chocolate on Christmas Eve. He woke up with a stomach ache, had trouble walking and eventually had seizures. She took him to an emergency clinic and they did all they could but his brain received too much damage. It brought back all the feels of loosing Luke.

Lindsey and Ryan have been giving our dogs medicine while we've been out of town. What champions.

Christmas Day

 We had Grandma and Grandpa all to ourselves for Christmas. Most of Benjamin's siblings did Christmas Eve there so we had a cozy Christmas dinner. Barbara made a roast, sweet potatoes, jello salads, and a slew of desserts. We brought rolls, mashed potatoes and a pudding mandarin salad. It was a lovely meal. Later that night we got to talk with Holman! It was really the next day but we got to talk with him in large party because it was Olivia's birthday.  Grandma and Grandpa gave each of us fidget spinners and we described them to Holman and he said hold on a moment and showed us the exact fidget spinner that he bought! It really was a fun tender mercy of being connected.

Christmas Eve

 We had all our kids...except Holman who's in Thailand for his mission, Nana and Papa and the Smith crew. Everyone brought their favorite hors d'oeuvres. We had bree three ways, Bella's pretzel bites, Benjamins bacon wrapped smokies, mozzarella sticks, jalapeno poppers, glazed summer sausage, vegetable tray and more! Lindsey brought chimes and sheet music and we played some Christmas music. It was very entertaining, much better than choir! We played a Christmas memory game, Bella won. And opened up pajamas. We watched the nativity and our favorite Family Ties episode. I love our family!