Puddle Jumping: Merry Christmas From Scotts 2021 Year In Review

Merry Christmas from the Scotts!

I wasn't going to write a Christmas letter this year. In fact, I haven't been much in a celebrate Christmas mode this year. But, here we are at the end of another year.

This year brought some joy, like watching our daughter get engaged in May and spending time with a childhood friend who visited while we enjoyed the Sky Wars Fireworks competition in September.

It also brought some despair that we are still working through.

After avoiding it successfully for almost two years, COVID found us, and we didn't get a light case. Defying statistics, even our young adult and teenagers struggled with the virus more than many others in their age group. John ended up in the hospital for 5 days with oxygen that dipped into the 80s. We all feel as though we pretty much lost the entire month of November. Once again, we don't know why, but God brought us through.

We sincerely don't know why or what God has planned for us. But, for some reason, through all of the ups and downs and losses we have experienced over the last few years, we are still here. We are alive to praise Him, the giver of life!

Ultimately, overall, if we were to sum up our year of 2021, I would say: By the grace of God, we are survivors.

But, alas! We do not want to leave you with the impression that we are battered and torn and down for the count. No, we press on giving God all the glory!

Here's a very brief summary (remember, I wasn't even going to write a Christmas letter this year, but for some reason I did) of how our year has gone:

John - The entertainment industry got hit hard with C19 shutdowns, and John especially felt the blow since he plays mostly for retirement centers and restaurants or other parties that involve large gatherings. When you are in the business of gathering crowds together to entertain, these past couple of years has been difficult. All in all, he was happy to have any work this year at all. Bottom line numbers brought him up to not quite half the shows that he normally does. Still, he's so happy that he can still remember lyrics of songs and how to play after what happened to him in 2019. He and his sister have spent this year clearing out his parents' house and trying to get it ready to sell after the death of his dad at the end of 2020. This has been a long, emotional project.

Tere - While John's live music gigs dwindled, Tere's writing work tripled. Early in the year, she and her siblings sold her childhood home after the death of her dad in October, 2020. She has also been listing and selling items from John's parents' house on eBay, Poshmark, and Facebook Marketplace. Additionally, she has shifted from driving John from gig to gig and has become Eliana's personal chauffer.

Graham - 21, Graham is our go-to tech expert. He helps John a lot with loading music onto his iPad for gigs and any and every technical question we have. He spent most of the year working on a couple projects to build his resume' as he tries to find his way in this upsidedown world that got shattered for him just as he was beginning to take college classes online.

Jale'na - 19, One highlight of our year is that in May, Jale'na became engaged to be married to Andrew Barton. The wedding is set for the end of 2022. But, planning has been a delight. She is working 3 part-time jobs that involve her skills of dance and voice. Andrew is finishing up his 4-year degree at Missouri Baptist University.

Eliana - 15, Eliana continues to love to bake goodies that are delicious and beautifully plated. She will deny it, but she is also a very talented artist. She also got accepted at the young age of 14 to dual enroll at St. Charles Community College. She completed her first semester as an A student. She is still homeschooling the rest of her high school classes and hopes to eventually become a nurse, a neurologist, or a psychologist. She wants to help people and to fix a lot of things she sees wrong with the world. It's exciting to see her plans develop as she pursues her future.