JanBeek

If I live to be 110 years old, I’ll never forget the other family, the wrestling team . Gathered around the hot sweaty and stinky wrestling room, our haven from the outside world, a room steeped in perspiration, an aroma I have greatly missed, and the dozens of brothers in sport, that shared their time and energy to be with the best coach a group of deserving teenagers could have ever have been fortunate to be with. Through days of driving rain, late night dual meets and tournaments, cold winters, and the beloved Christmas practices, I and many others reminisce about the wind sprints in the girls gym, after practice free swimming, singing Christmas Carols in the showers, and beating all the other Hillsdale varsity teams during the president’s physical fitness testing. To hear the track and field coach ask Rudy, Eden, Oparko and myself, why we hadn’t gone out for the track/field team, was a reward for our season’s workouts. I miss the guys there in the wrestling room , on the mat, in the chute ready to take on another opponent, on the bus rolling somewhere, knowing that no student would know what we had done because it wasn’t football, basketball or baseball. We did it, not to show off to the entire student body, but we did it for our coach and teammates.
Families come in many shapes and sizes, but what is important is that we stop, and remember those people as our extended family of lived ones, and that we thank God for them as much as our biological family. The coach didn’t talk much about God, perhaps because of school policy, but I think we all knew that God was with us each day as we suited up for practice or for a match. Thank you God for your love of all of us, and please keep us all safe as we go toward an uncertain future.

So grateful that you made it to your family safely….. we will be having Christmas dinner with just three in our home….Ron, Lynn F. and myself….love to you both🥰 have a lovely time❤️🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

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A delightful post – and with Burl Ives, too

There is nothing like family. Merry Christmas 🎄🎁

We are blessed this year to host Christmas with my mother, my brother and my mother in law. We will open it stockings, make pancakes and s biscuits and gravy. We will play games until the grandma’s (and uncle) arrive. Then we will read the story of Christ. Talk of the gifts Christ gave to us this year and what we will give him in the coming year. Then open the presents under the tree and spend the rest of the day eating, playing games, and enjoying the lights on the tree and the wassail on the stove… ❤️ Merry Christmas Mrs. B!

Jan, may the hope, peace, joy, and love we receive from our Savior’s birth guide all of us into another year. As for my Ohio family, we had to postpone our Christmas gathering. One granddaughter had possible exposure to Covid, but she is just fine. We will now gather on New Year’s Day.