2023 Year End Review by Marc

1.       My wife is so smart.

2.       Sometimes you aren’t supposed to figure out why a patch of grass in your backyard doesn’t grow well. Sometimes you don’t want your elderly neighbor to tell you where they buried their horse years ago.

3.       Having three teenage daughters will bring a ton of joy to your life, improve your ability to read body language, increase your faith through prayer, and keep you humble as you continually fail to learn how what they say doesn’t mean what you think it means or what it used to mean.

4.       A special assignment at work is worth it if you’re surrounded by great people.

5.       Snow skiing trips aren’t for our family.

6.       After comfortably teaching the first daughter to drive during the pandemic when no one was on the road, teaching the second daughter to drive more recently was equal parts terrifying and faith-building.

7.       Even though Amazon drivers tore up our lawn four times previously, my wife still had the most forgiving, compassionate demeanor with the driver while they waited for a tow truck. Thankfully I was in the office and able to learn from her patience via text message updates (and calm down before seeing the lawn).

8.       We shouldn’t have waited five years to build a turnaround spot in our driveway (see #7).

9.       Moving the firstborn to college was physically the easiest move ever (thanks to multiple church volunteers who unloaded/moved everything) and emotionally the toughest move ever. But “the new normal” does get so much better than it felt while driving home that day.

10.   When attempting to adopt a stray cat that wanders in the neighborhood, make sure that the cat food is also not tasty to raccoons, opossums, deer, and coyotes.

11.   Raccoons love bananas!

12.   The waffles in Belgium are entirely different (and better, actually) than Waffle House.

13.   Paris is overrated. Especially when you visit during a long layover and one of your kids is struggling sick the entire time.

14.   Clogging has brought so many experiences to our family, with all three girls enjoying the sport. Seeing all three girls clog in a college football bowl halftime show for 47k people was just incredible.

Liberty Bowl 2023

 Friday the 29th was even colder than the day before, and it was a cloudy, overcast day. We stayed cold all day, and I spent a good amount of time in the restroom area, which was one of the few heated areas in the stadium.  The University of Memphis was playing in Bowl, so while we were facing the visitor side behind the musicians, we were facing the hometown crowd.  Those fans were amazing and we were all glad that it worked out that way. They loved the performance and weren't shy about letting us know.

Marc got a field pass to help take pictures and video, so that was a cool experience too. 

Warm air was pumped into the benches, and the girls took advantage of that while they were waiting to go on the field.

Some hot chocolate waiting for them after the finished.

This was such a fun experience, and I'm glad the girls were able to join America's Clogging All-Stars for this event. It was a jam packed few days, and everyone was exhausted by the time we headed home.

Memphis - Liberty Bowl

After Christmas we packed the car and headed to Memphis for the Liberty Bowl.  We didn't have much time to explore the city, but we did check out the Grotto and the Peabody Hotel.

    

We had practice at the stadium. It was a cold, but beautiful day. They danced to live music from the 70s funk band, The Bar Kays.

 

That afternoon the girls walked in the Liberty Bowl parade down Beale Street. 

It was such a fun day, and everyone was excited for the halftime performance the next day at the game.

Christmas 2025

 Christmas is such a special time with family. We love old and new traditions.