Jim Dickens 1/16/2025
The 2024 holiday season was a forcing function to make sure we moved into our new home properly. We had visitors coming and a series of parties to host. It required an intensive effort and dusting off some old project management and handyman skills. We are past that now and have even had a little recharge time.
Between Thanksgiving and the mid December, new furniture installation, tile work, carpentry, paint, new electrical, fixture installation, and decorating. All had to be optimized coordinated and prepped. As usual things that looked easy were harder. For example, the simple task of changing a light bulb also required changing the light switch to accommodate going from incandescent to LED. Long days but the satisfaction of visible creation and improvement made it worthwhile.
We had visitors from December 21st to January 1st and hosted Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve. My wife, Lori, did something I would recommend. She surveyed our visitors, our kids for the most part, about things they would most like to do. Then she stack ranked them, made reservations, and publicly posted the itinerary around the home. Fun increased, boredom decreased, and chaos was mitigated. If you don’t already, do a day of family volunteer work. We made meals for Feed My Starving Children and really enjoyed ourselves.
2025 started, everyone left, undecorating began, and we slept as much as we wanted, January 3 we flew to below 0 weather in Grand Rapids, MN. We attended the service for Lori’s uncle who married us in 1988 and spent some time with her Minnesota cousins. I was sitting in the church basement after the service having lunch listening the banter and felt like I was in an episode of Prairie Home Companion. It was peaceful, comfortable, and interesting with that distinctive northern Minnesota accent.
Upon return, we finished undecorating and slept some more. The Duluth trip brought back some nice memories. We have our new place and are well rested. We are recharged and ready for a great 2025.
R1T Tour 