2023 years ago there was a whirlwind of chaotic activity around a manger in Bethlehem. There was difficult travel for a young couple, the birth of a baby, unexpected visits from dirty shepherds with stories of angels difficult to understand, abundant blessings of gifts from unexpected sources, and many things for Mary to ponder in her heart. In the center of it all was the unbounded grace of God manifested as a baby.

Our year has been not unlike that first Christmas - chaotic, full of surprises, and abundantly blessed. In March, Richard wanted to give Rachel a trip to the keys for her birthday, so we made a family road trip out of it. We stayed right on the water, and it was fun just to watch all the activity and sea life at the back of our hotel. We rented a boat and went on some adventures including a dive site with a bull shark, Toilet Seat Cut, and a sand bar party. We enjoyed some really good food while watching the sunset. Don got bit by a pelican and slapped by a tarpon.

Likewise, in August, Rachel wanted to give Richard a trip to Sanibel, so we rented an Airbnb on Fort Meyers Beach (just weeks before Ian destroyed it). We rented another boat and toured Sanibel, Pine Island, both North and South Captiva, and the Caloosawatchie River. We enjoyed some beach time, good food, and being lazy.

On June 26, everything changed! Don and Barbara became grandparents as Rachel gave birth to her daughter Maisley Rain Simons. Needless to say, that little baby has changed the atmosphere in our household. Maisley is healthy, happy, easy going, and has the corner on cuteness. She definitely lights up the room when she is present. She brought joy to thousands as baby Jesus in the Coral Ridge Christmas Spectacular (as Rachel did 19 years ago).

In addition to adjusting to parenthood, Rachel started a job at Bahama Breeze. She was blessed with two nice baby showers and lots of support from our network of friends.

Sarah continues working on her Equine degree at Central Florida. Rather than living on campus, she does most classes remotely and commutes to Ocala on days when she needs to be present in person. Sarah also makes money by pet sitting through Rover.com. Sarah and Don went on a Star Trek cruise and got to meet many of the cast, including George Takai (Sulu) and Walter Koenig (Checkov).

Sarah and Don made a few road trips, including a barrel racing event in Okeechobee and the Tampa Bay Comicon convention.

Richard has had a major advancement in his career, going from a marine store attendant to a primary contributor in a young fast-growing marine service company, specializing in fabrication and sailboat rigging. He is learning a lot of skills and has earned the trust and respect of the owner.

Don continues software development at Magic Leap, which released the second version of its mixed reality device this year. ML2 has won some impressive awards, including the Time Best Inventions of 2022 list. Don has decided to work on a Captain's License, and bought a boat to help meet the requirements. It is the smallest sailboat you can get, a Sunfish.

Barbara is the glue that holds it all together, faithfully getting everybody where they need to go, keeping everyone (including Maisley) well fed, washing, cleaning, cooking, booking trips, getting discounts, singing on the worship team, managing budgets, researching genealogy, (gotta cut this list short before I run out of disk space), and keeping track of the characters on the Hallmark channel. She went over to Fort Meyers with our church for hurricane relief work. She also gets together with other moms of now-grown children for prayer and game night.

Barbara and Don had a night out to take swing dance lessons. They have both gone back to occasionally singing or playing in the contemporary worship service at CRPC.

We made another road trip in November to attend the wedding of Don's nephew's daughter, Alyssa Heinze (now Alyssa Pinkozs). It was a welcome break to get away and stay in a North Carolina Airbnb. It was so much fun that we are going to do it again between Christmas and New Year's!