Merry Christmas 2018 from the Holwicks

Dear friends,

Celeste and I send you Christmas greetings from balmy Maine. We have already had a white Thanksgiving and the temperature this week [first week in December] will drop to 19 degrees. After retiring to Boothbay in July we have only begun to explore this beautiful area. Settling is almost completed after seven trips to move everything up here (and having to leave our red van here for a month since it could not get up the icy road out of our property) and putting everything in its proper place. A large basement was not enough, so we invested in a nice 16-foot shed to hold the overflow. David cut down two large trees with his new chainsaw and the help of our 82-year-old neighbor, Art. The people here have all been very friendly. We have also had many friends drop in from New Jersey and Ohio, and relatives as well. It is a good house for bringing people together and was filled with Triehys for Thanksgiving. Daniel added fancy bookshelves and flooring to the basement study and David painted it so it is almost complete.

The beginning of our year was filled with many "last time" events. Celeste conducted her last ski retreat with the kids while at the same time recovering from her abdominal surgery; she is almost back to normal in December and is excited that she can once again eat salads and fruit. David kept busy with a "Rise Against Hunger" food packing party in the church gym, and many baptisms and weddings. His final duty as a pastor was the wedding of Meghan Ansberry and Eric Schenk. The church gave us a beautiful going-away picnic and a book of remembrances from the members. We will miss them but we hope to keep close ties with Ledgewood. One of our ties will be with our cat Carol, whom we left in the good hands of Jason & Courtney Freund. Carol would not have liked our long RV trips and finds Jason’s barn much more conducive to her style.

Our clan continues to grow. Kinsley was born to Daniel and Kara on April 30. She has huge eyes and an infectious laugh. Weston is a very proud big brother. Matt and Sarah are due to have their first baby right after Christmas and she is already hugely pregnant; no clue yet on what it will be, though Grandma Holwick is convinced he will be a boy. Becca has moved into a house in the mountain community of Incline Village, Nevada, after several years of innovative lodgings. She loves her work with little kids and even got to give some lessons to Weston this autumn.

Josiah and Julia had a gorgeous wedding near Santa Cruz, California, in November. It was a very intimate affair in a chapel in a redwood grove. After the wedding we had a gourmet meal at the Savory Kitchen with a rigged competition to create our own desserts. Everyone had a wonderful time and will never forget the bus ride on the winding mountain roads. Celeste and I took the longest route to the wedding by driving our truck and RV down the entire Blue Ridge Parkway and over to Interstate 10. We had to stay in the far South so the RV wouldn’t freeze up. We enjoyed visiting Sara and Alison in Texas and spent extra days in Big Bend National Park in Texas and Organ Pipe National Monument in Arizona. David always wanted to see a desert with the iconic armed cactus and that wish has been fulfilled. His night out in the desert with his telescope was one of his most fulfilling ever.  It was interesting, too, because the Border Patrol picked up two illegal aliens nearby while I was there.

Back in Maine we have enjoyed walking on the scenic Popham Beach and paddling our kayaks in the Cross River and the Ovens Mouth waterway. Our kayaks kept tipping over on the mud embankment near our home so David built a fancy dock tailor-made for old people to get into small boats. He poured a fortune into it but it works like a charm and is now hauled up to save it from the winter ice. We have been attending Boothbay Baptist Church and find it is a homey church just like Ledgewood. A few other churches have asked me to do some pulpit supply in the new year.

We hope God is good to you this year. We have decorated our home with a tree loaded with ornaments and pine garlands entwining the columns in the living room but the best decoration is the baby Jesus scene we put out on the front porch. He is the reason we can have a fulfilling life now and into eternity!