Well, the holidays are over for 2018. We had three celebrations again this year. I guess that is the way it’s going to be now that we’re living in two places.
We went over to Carol and Kenny Alexander’s house for dinner on Christmas Eve.
Carol is Diane’s former husband Tom’s sister. They have become close friends of ours since we moved to the Vegas area.
Christmas morning, we went over to daughter Toni’s house by 8:30 a.m. to see grandson Camden open his presents. Of course, he was still asleep when we got there.
Santa was very good to Camden. Robots were the theme of this year’s Christmas for our grandson. He got Star Wars robots and a larger one called Jibo, that was downright eerie. Once it learned your voice and appearance, it would see you enter a room, acknowledge you and call out your name. What’s next, your own personal android?
We drove back to Fountain Hills on Dec. 27 to prepare for the Cruikshank family Christmas. We all got together at our condo on the 29th including my mother, Joyce, who celebrated her 92nd birthday in September, sister-in-law Linda, daughter Holly, her husband, Bruce, their daughters, Addy and Brooke, and my son, Brent, and his wife, Gina.
This was the first Christmas without my brother, Steve, who passed away unexpectedly in April, one week shy of his 67th birthday. Christmas wasn’t the same without him and his wit. He could really make me laugh.
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Anyone who reads my column on a regular basis knows that I like “small world” stories.
This began when I used to produce a small newspaper in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas in a development called Holiday Island.
I was interviewing a couple who had just bought property in the recreational development. As it turned out, the woman who selected the lot for their retirement home thought the woman who was building a home on the next lot, looked familiar.
They started talking and discovered they had lockers next to each other at a high school in Chicago. After high school, they went their separate ways, one getting a college degree in accounting and working for Sears while the other spent her life as a housewife raising four kids.
They became good friends in their retirement in Arkansas.
I was at a New Year’s Eve party at some friends’ house when I was told a small world story about two other people at the party.
Telling me the story was Chris Swanson, a part-time resident who lives on Keymar Drive. His wife, Kim, is a flight attendant for American Airlines.
Kim and Chris were on their way back from a trip to Europe. Their return flight routed them through Chicago. That flight was full except for one seat in coach. Chris took that one, while Kim sat in one of the fold-down jump seats in the plane that the flight attendants use during take-offs and landings.
During the flight back to Phoenix, Kim started talking to one of the flight attendants, Charlene Bryant. As they talked, the conversation eventually led to where each of them lived.
When Kim said she lived in a town called Fountain Hills, Charlene said, “I live in Fountain Hills,” Their conversation went on, and they further discovered they live just around the corner from each other.
Charlene lives on Stancrest Drive and Kim lives on Keymar Drive. And yes, they have become good friends.
Yes, it is a small world.
In closing, I want to wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.
