The Todd Family 48th Annual Christmas Letter – 2017

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! E pili mau na pomaika‘i ia ‘oe a me ke akua ho’omaika‘i ‘oe, ʻŌmea! (May blessing always be with you and may God bless you, Beloved!) Here we are facing the end of another year that has passed way too quickly. Much of what has happened has been surprising – even though we saw it coming. We apparently need to forget about being “retired!”

Crucita is actually busier than ever. She’s still active in two retired-teachers organizations, and subbing at “our little school” – St. Catherine of Alexandria Catholic School. She jumped in as a temporary-full-time teacher for a couple of weeks in December when one teacher left suddenly. This year she “broke a record” and subbed for every grade level including Kindergarten! That was “interesting!” we had planned on laying aside our roles as RCIA/C teachers, but no one else stepped up, so we’re back at it again with three young catechumens and two adult candidates. It’s very rewarding work. Maybe this coming Easter, someone else will step up to take the reins. Crucita does an amazing job catechizing the children. She is now the Vice Chair for the Pastoral Council; Chick left the council after 6 years due to health reasons.

Chick is still working – sort of – but only as a management consultant for Hawaii Home Infusion. He decided to step down from his duties as a lector and cantor at church. We decided it would be too much of a distraction if the lector fell over on the way to the Ambo. He really enjoys the RCIA/C classes, and continues to work on the Aloha Friday Moon Beam Network blog – there are now over 600 posts there! All of the messages are sent out by email, but it’s possible in the near future that only a link will be emailed; the Site Manager figured out a way to make a Reader View available even on Windows devices.

Health issues continue to play a significant role in our lives. We both got knocked for a loop in September and October with some horrific flu-bug. Nonetheless, Crucita manages her health issues quite well. We found out in October that Chick has a full-thickness tear in a tendon in the left shoulder. We considered surgery, but the surgeon recommended Physical Therapy first. That’s going well, and may pave the way for moving forward to replace both hips. We are hoping that if those surgeries are successful, we may be able to do some traveling again. That would be great news for Crucita.

The biggest change this year is that our son, Tim, has moved to Kauaʻi to be our live-in caregiver. He arrived mid-August, and has already made a huge difference by picking up the chores Chick just can’t handle any more. He brought along his cat, Lucius, and started busking around the island. Most days or evenings when he’s out he pulls in pretty darn good money! We are really happy to be reunited after 20 years apart; it has taken some getting-used-to for all of us, but it’s well worth it.

Cereza is still living and working in TN. Her boys are doing well in their classes; aged 13 and 11, they are good to their Mom and enjoying going to church. Perhaps if we are able to travel …

As for what’s next, Crucita is in the early stages of planning a BIG party to celebrate our Fiftieth Anniversary in April of 2019. She’s enlisted the help of some young ladies whose wedding we attended. The events were just beautiful, so she’s hoping to capitalize on their experience. And of course ALL OF YOU ARE INVITED!  Stay tuned for further details.

Come visit sooner if you can. Our email addresses are shown below and (surprise!) we’re also on Facebook. Be sure to check out http://aloha-friday.org and to join the Moon Beam Network. To sum it up, we’re doing pretty well, and still crazy in love. We’ll close with our traditional

Christmas Blessing:

May Hope and Peace and Joy and Love
Be yours in the coming
of the Christ Child!
Chick                       and                       Crucita

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About Chick Todd

American Roman Catholic reared as a "Baptiterian" in Denver Colorado. Now living on Kauaʻi. USAF Vet. Married for over 50 years. Scripture study has been my passion ever since my first "Bible talk" at age 6 in VBS.

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