With the New Year bringing us us very “un-New Year-like” weather (60 degrees tomorrow!), I’m compelled to bid a fond farewell to an amazing Christmas season for all of us in the Paul, O’Connell, and Jacyna (Penticton, B.C.) families.

The fam was together for the first time since Bill’s funeral (almost two years ago) this past week, and the holiday reunion was enormously gratifying and satisfying. In addition, we got all four boys back until Christmas Day, when Tyler had to fly to Maine to be with his fiancée, Molly. Spenser has been able to stay with us longer, but will leave tomorrow morning to return to Ann Arbor.

Matty begins a J-term with a lit class today(!), and then has one more semester of classes before his student teaching experience. And Jeffrey returned to work this morning at Wendt Communications after an exciting ski hiatus at Showdown and Neihart.

All of those times are so fleeting, so it’s time to replace them with big plans for the New Year. Our college semester starts on the 11th, Molly’s confirmation is on Easter Vigil (April 7th), the Legion baseball season starts soon after, Tyler graduates with his MBA from Michigan at the end of April, Matty graduates with his B.A. in Education in the middle of May, and Tyler and Molly will be married on July 7th in Bangor.

All of Ty’s brothers are attendants in the wedding, and will be flying out sometime around July 4th. We’ll be leaving at the end of June so that we can stay for a few days in northern Michigan with Chuck and Janet, who will also attend the wedding. After the nuptials, Carol will visit her friend Katherine in Maine for a few weeks while I fly back to get ready for the ‘A’ and ‘AA’ baseball tournaments in Great Falls and Whitefish.

Now, if only it would snow!