Hey, It’s Christmas Again! For those of you who have been following along at home, I’m going to pick up where we left off earlier this year. Yes, *this* year. You’ll recall that the Kenlon Family Letter was delayed by a month or so due to Marilee falling down stairs in our house and breaking her hip. And like the old joke goes, it wasn’t the fall that hurt her, it was the sudden stop at the bottom.
Not to worry. With God’s blessing, modern medicine, and a smart young surgeon who performed an emergency total hip replacement Marilee was up using a walker in a mere 24 hours after the incident.
The happy ending to this bit of calamity is seeing her back with guide dog Ryder, working full-time, and trotting about the arena on horseback during her riding lessons.
My favorite nonagenarian, Marilee’s mother, found her “new normal” this year. She had just moved into a beautiful assisted living facility when she suffered a low impact fall. In an abundance of caution, the staff hustled her off to the hospital where she spent a few days for observation and rehydration. Sadly, over the course of several months, that cycle of events repeated itself three more times until mom no longer met the threshold of performance for that particular facility. Just like baseball, it’s three strikes and you’re out. While in a local nursing home recovering from her last fall, she had a small stroke but is benefiting from speech therapy and will transfer to a skilled nursing facility soon.
Tabitha, in June 2017, will have fulfilled her three-year contract as an English professor at the American University in Dubai. She will be zealously job-hunting over the next few months. Although she is ready to leave Dubai, she has enjoyed the travel opportunities the location has afforded. Her journeys this year included Muscat, Kathmandu, and Zanzibar.
The trip we found most entertaining was her brief stay at a yoga retreat in the mountains outside Kathmandu; the email we received was titled “retreat from the retreat.”
It turns out there was “no heat, and hot water on request only.” Happily, the place *did* have wifi and she quickly transferred to a hotel in the city center that had a spa and access to historic sites, as well as plenty of yoga studios to choose from.
Seth & Jess received from the country of New Zealand approval to become permanent residents. This is a great relief for them because prior to this approval, their remaining in that country was dependent upon Seth’s job status. If his contract was not renewed, they would be deported. Period. No amnesty, no sanctuary cities, just immediate deportation. On the subject of jobs, Seth has changed jobs. Leaving Weta and the film industry on good terms, he now works for Red Hat (NYSE: RHT).
In the new job, he will be performing technical writing tasks related to computer operating system training. While the home office is in Raleigh, North Carolina, his physical office will be remain in New Zealand. This is very convenient since Jess continues her “MakerBox” workshops, conducts community events, and works with the local schools on robotic and computer related science projects.
Joanna & Doug welcomed a new little member into their family in early 2016, a boy to be exact. A boy cat to be even more exact. Butterscotch was rescued as a stray at the local community theater where Doug and Jo are active thespians. Butterscotch joins big sister Spice making a comfortable family of four.
Doug and Joanna are pictured here side by side with the counter-height planter constructed by Doug and filled with plants by Joanna.
They presented this “box garden” on Father’s Day. Doug thought of everything including the leg tiles to keep the wood legs off of the dirt. The stand-up planter yielded fine summertime salads through September.
William is currently living in Washington, DC, and will be finishing his doctoral degree in music composition this coming May, which will make him the second “Dr. Kenlon,” following Tabitha by three years. He is currently in the process of applying to jobs at universities all over the country, with the aim of securing employment as a professor of music theory and composition and continuing to freelance as a writer of contemporary classical music. (You can hear some of that, by the way, at www.williamkenlon.com.)
The first graphic that you’ll encounter looks much like what is shown here. After clicking the link, the listener will hear a skillfully stitched together sample of several compositions by William and performed by a variety of artists. Since I mention the portrait here, you can guess that I’m quite fond of it.
In conclusion, I’ll share this thought for the coming year. This is from the Holy Bible, book of Romans, chapter 15, verse 5: “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus.”
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
The Kenlon Family.
