December Letter 2020

 Greetings Family and Friends!

We send each of you our very best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a safe, healthy and Happy New Year.

This past 2020 year has been like none most of us have ever experienced. We all have made adjustments that sometimes have not been easy.

Our granddaughter, Janelle, moved in with us at the end of May and she lived with us until the beginning of November. Her cat Smidgen, came with her. That was an adjustment for us because we have never had a pet in our house. But, we have never been able to say "No" to Janelle for the past 20 years.

We enjoyed having her with us, but we also enjoyed having our nest empty again.

Janelle works full time at her church and serves on their praise team playing the keyboard and often  leading the singing.

She also has been doing some freelancing work shooting photos and filming weddings and other events. She filmed an instructional video in Philadelphia and was given steel toed shoes and a hardhat to wear.

As the pandemic drug on, we looked for ways to spend our time. One thing we did was to work jig saw puzzles. 

 

 Janelle had a 30" x 20" 1,014 piece puzzle custom made for Cordell. She selected 5 photos of him with other people, including our niece, Alyson, who was visiting for a few days and she helped us complete the puzzle.

As many of you know, we spend a large portion of our time engaging in geocaching where we use a GPSr to look for containers that people have hidden in various places. We have visited parks, preserves, old towns, cemeteries and other places--some of which we never would have know about if geocaching hadn't taken us there. It is an activity that get us outside in the sunshine and fresh air where we don't have to wear masks.

 

White container is the geocache!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, we don't allow a little rain to stop us!

 When we were caching at the University of Maryland, we came across a statue of Jim Hensen, the creator  of the Muppets. Jim was a graduate of UM as were our two sons.

 

We discovered Government Island which has a granite quarry where stones were taken and used in the construction of the Capitol building and the White House in Washington, DC.

 

 

 

In September, we found our 7,000th geocache. The owner made what is known as a "gadget cache". It looks like an old fashioned outhouse in every way. First, we had to figure out the numbers for the combination lock just to open the door. Once inside, there were many different attachments and "gadgets that we opened until we found the one that contained the paper log we had to sign.

 

 

We have hidden 43 geocaches ourselves. Some of them are homemade like this birdhouse that is placed in a nearby nature preserve. The bird is a fake. One must open the birdhouse to access the actual geocache with the paper log.

One of our favorite geocaches that we own is named "Bookworm" and we have placed it outside a library. The original cache went missing, so a friend made us a replacement using his 3D printer. Janelle painted it for us. 

There were times when Cordell was supposed to be working in the yard, but he fished in our lake instead. I understand that sometimes it is difficult to resist the urge to fish when the lake is at the edge of our property.

  

 

When we weren't geocaching, we relaxed in our yard and around our lake.

Our neighborhood organized two activities for the children, but many adults enjoyed them as well. Last winter, there was a bear hunt. Residents were asked to put stuffed bears in their front windows so people could look for them as they walked through the neighborhood.

 

More recently, there was an elf hunt. Forty-five elves were put on lawns and community property. Once again children and adults could find the elves as they were walking our streets.

For our most recent activity, we took wine and cheese to our community pier on the Patuxent River and waited for the sun to set so we could view the Christmas Star. We had scouted out the location a few nights before so we knew exactly where to look.

We think that Christmas is a good time to remember those who are close to us, helping to bring love and happiness to our lives. We remember you and are blessed to call you "Friend".

Sending you our love:

Cordell and Sue

Addendum:

Tim, Kelly and Lydia are doing fine. Lydia is going to be 16 years old on January 11th and she is learning to drive. Tim and Kelly are working from home. Tim has to go into his office one day a week or so. Lydia's school is done remotely. The schools were reopened briefly on a staggered schedule. She only went one day and then the schools were closed again. Tim and Kelly request that we do not share any pictures of them.