Friends and family,
Yes ... the letter at Christmas carries on. A day later than last year, but not too late, we hope. I was thinking of not doing it, but tradition is what keeps us going.
The Guilfoyles of Fort Mill have had some ups and some downs this year, but I think the ups outnumber the downs.
On the downside, I am still missing my Dad. Particularly around the holidays, or any week with a “day” in it. He was the bright center of our family, always one with a joke.
It’s just that now I am at the point with Stephen Christopher where it would be really nice to bounce questions off Bud. How did he manage four kids? How did he balance it all? Is it really tougher these days? Or are we, as a society, just not as capable? Or am I not?
I try to imagine what he would say, but if I could, I wouldn’t need to ask.
Also still missing my best furry friend. Harry, my first dog, died a couple of months after Dad. Annie, our other dog, has become the most surprising gentle girl. She was hyper-competitive with Harry, it turns out, but now she just wants to be around us.
She was attacked by another dog and suffered about eight nasty bites. It was scary, but she has recovered. Except for one day when she steered clear of that house where it happened (we have to go by it every day for our walk), she shows no long-term issues with it.
Patricia and I also lost a dear friend this year: Rick Bacon, our former boss. We basically met because of him. Always generous, big-hearted and full of laughter, Rick died after a short battle with cancer. We miss him terribly, particularly when we need a laugh.
I remain a copy editor and page designer working in Hickory, N.C., designing newspaper pages (sports right now) since October of 2010. I work primarily for Florence, S.C., as well as for papers in North Carolina and Alabama.
The people I work with are terrific, but it’s a LONG commute with terrible hours. My car hit 250,000 miles last week.
Patricia remains ensconced in the Diocese of Charlotte, N.C.. where she is editor of the Catholic News Herald.
She and her paper hosted the national Catholic media conference in June. It was a BIG DEAL. Hundreds of reporters and newspaper professionals from all over the U.S., Canada and even from Rome came to Charlotte for the event.
I got to attend an Adobe workshop held at the event. Stephen came up with me and we swam in the hotel pool, and he played pool for the first time.
They had a bunch of priests, a bishop and an archbishop or two, and Pope Francis’ social media manager. Jim Caviezel was there promoting his football film. Prima donna.
Patricia isn’t like me and can’t instantly remember how many awards her paper won. “A lot” — 16, including best coverage of religious liberty issues, for her paper, and individually, Patricia placed in best multi-media package. Her staff has been doing a lot of web stuff. She also got an honorable mention for coverage of that terrible abortion clinic I mentioned in last year’s letter.
It has been a good year for our son, Stephen Christopher. He is now 8 and a second-grader.
He has been on a few adventures with Mommy, and he has embarked on new chapters. We have all started “geo-caching,” but it’s mostly Patricia and Stephen right now.
We have changed Cub Scout packs. We used to be at Pack 219 at St. Philip Neri Catholic Church in Fort Mill. We met for den meetings three Mondays a week and a pack meeting on the other Monday each month.
Stephen earned his Tiger rank in February at 219. I was his den leader. We went to summer day camp with 219. On top of his rank work, he also earned 18 “belt loops,” awards in specific skills. That’s a bunch.
With help from Uncle Johnny, he built a Pinewood Derby race car that was the fastest among the Tigers. He got to go the district level race, but it was a different kind of track and the wedge-shaped cars all won. Still, he got a trophy from the pack.
In the fall, we moved to Pack 9 at St. Patrick Cathedral Parish in Charlotte. That’s where we go to church. This pack has den meetings once a month, followed by the pack meeting, on a Sunday afternoon.
I am Pack 9’s assistant cubmaster, God help the children.
Like last year, Stephen went on an overnight camping trip with Patricia and the other Scouts. I had to work and missed it, but we went on a family camping trip in November to Kings Mountain. I am still shivering.
Stephen is now working on a new Pinewood Derby car AND his Wolf rank. He convinced at least one friend to join and thus earned a “recruiter” badge. The pack went caroling at a nursing home last week.
We know we haven’t been around as much as we could. We are doing well, but our life is just non-stop hectic most days, so that when we get some free time together, we just generally want to do something quick and easy and together. But never doubt our affection.
Have a merry Christmas. (Email is still the best way to reach me. I check it every day.)
“We love you anyway.”
Stephen, Patricia, Stephen Christopher, and Annie
sguilfoyle@comporium.net
Dec. 22, 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment