Blessed Christmas 2024!

First, let me break the suspense and ease your concern: Breathe easy because Cathy and I made it through another year! In truth, we not only made through the year but we were very much blessed and treasure many wonderful moments. Second, I humbly acknowledge that this classic work of literature is undoubtedly the highlight of your Christmas season. So, grab a hot cup of cider or hot chocolate (or maybe a good numbing agent), sit back, and relax as I drag you through everything you never wanted to know about 2024 from the perspective of Cathy and Jim Gantenbein—but mostly from Jim’s perspective.

• Jim began the New Year by not being allowed to eat on January 1 and 2 so he could have surgery to fix another trigger finger. The really fun part came just before the anesthesiologist put me under. The surgeon, who has fixed previous trigger fingers, checked up on me and noticed that another finger was also a “little” stiff. His last words to me (and over my objections) were a cheery, “I’m going to do both fingers!” And he did. I only mention it here because surgeries seem to be the only certainty in my life. None of them are life threatening but the recovery time for each of them seems to take so much longer than when I was… not as physically mature as I am now. The last thing about January was that I noticed my left heel was very sore and I began limping.

• In February we traveled to Eugene OR to celebrate Mom’s 95^th birthday. My heel hurt worse and my Achilles tendon began to hurt, too. Mom was doing fine.

• March was traumatic. We hosted a sleepover with our three local granddaughters on the 1^st - 2^nd. As you can imagine, at our delicate stage of life, we needed a period of recovery. So, after visits to the chiropractor and therapeutic massages, we went to Eureka for a couple of nights with the Calhoun offspring. As if Alison had had enough of us, she drove us 4+ hours to San Francisco on the morning of the 9^th, unceremoniously leaving us in some parking lot before driving straight back to Eureka. What were we to do? We spotted another form of transportation and took advantage of it. As it turns out, we were Shanghaied onto a commercial ship leaving on a round-trip voyage to the Hawaiian Islands. To our relief, the Crown Princess took good care of us for the 16 night cruise before Alison retrieved us in the same spot she had left us. A highlight of that cruise was our visit to the Arizona Memorial, a very solemn place. My heel/ankle/Achilles tendon was worse.

• March ended on Resurrection Sunday (Easter) and we joined others in celebrating and praising God for Jesus’s resurrection from the grave!

• Then came April. What is it that we call April 1? Oh, yeah, I remember now. On that day I had my semi-annual checkup with our doctor. He said something about where my Achilles tendon connects to the heel being damaged and gave me some exercises to do. Also in April—and since it had been over 3 months since my last surgery—I had a number of basal cell spots removed. That’s always fun. “Please, cut off some more of my skin. It feels so good when you stop.” But the truly difficult part of April was when our dear daughter in law, Denise, had cancer surgery which also signaled the upcoming courses of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. This has been an extremely challenging time for Denise, Aaron, Sélah, Emma, and Jada as their lives have been dramatically altered. Through all of this, God has been gracious and Denise has maintained her faith in God. Aaron has been doing double duty. Denise’s mom, Carla, has helped enormously with providing care, transportation, etc. for Denise and the girls. Cathy has had a new career as chauffeur, housecleaner, lady-who-gets-the-girls-to-the-YMCA-and-makes-sure-they-get-showered-and-dressed-after-swim-lessons, and anything else that comes up. My role? I get to be grandpa… one that limps.

• May 26 was spent at church and then coming home to celebrate each other and the countless blessings from God on our 50^th anniversary! Most of May, June, July, August, and September can be summed up with one word: Gardening. Cathy weeded pretty much every day while I remained in awe of her. And limped. I continued to limp.

• October 1 was a return trip to the doctor. This time he referred me to an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in foot and ankle stuff. A muffled cheer arose from deep within. To celebrate, we left the next day for 6 nights in Hawaii! Hey, it was the year of our 50^th anniversary and we were going to celebrate every chance we got! As a part of our celebrating, we also flew to Oklahoma in October to attend our graduating class’s 50^th anniversary Homecoming at Oklahoma Baptist University. The month ended after a visit with the orthopedic surgeon and x-rays that finally revealed the cause of my discomfort. We are not certain exactly how it happened but, at some point in January, I broke my heel bone. Actually, I pretty well shattered the back end of it and the largest chunk of broken bone had worked its way up into my Achilles tendon. Surgery was scheduled.

• November started with a trip to Indiana to visit David, Jordan, Levi, Maelie, and Hank. We just don’t get to see this family enough! We also enjoyed the opportunity to visit with Jordan’s parents, Stuart and Debbi Groves. I continued to limp, but now with hope.

• December has been a great month (so far). My heel/ankle/Achilles tendon was repaired (Left Foot Osteotonomy Calcaneal, Strayer, Achilles Tendon Repair) and now I am developing a tremendous amount of sympathy for people who live with limited mobility. Everything is a challenge! Well, not reclining. Reclining is not a challenge. Reclining is easy. But, after many many days, reclining can be boring. 

I reckon that's it. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

In His love,

Jim and Cathy