Christmas 2013

The year 2013 is one we will never forget. It was a year of joy and sorrow, peaks and valleys.
We experienced the highs, the lows and all the emotions that life can send your way.

On December 26, we left Minnesota for Arizona sunshine. We enjoyed many adventures there with our son John as we traveled to see the Spanish missions of Arizona and Sonora as well as desert vegetation. John and I spent Easter week together traveling through Sonora to see the beautiful missions built by Father Kino and Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries more than 200 years ago. John loved those missions and their history.

We are so grateful for the wonderful times we had with John who suffered terribly with depression. As you may know we lost our wonderful son and brother to the ravages of his illness in mid-April. The next few weeks are a blur. Hundreds family members and friends came to express their sorrow and sympathy. Margaret and I, Kevin and AnnMarie are grateful for the many acts of kindness that helped to brighten those dark days of spring

June brought us great joy when our son Kevin and his wife Alison brought our new granddaughter Sabine Frances to Minnesota for her baptism. Sabine wore the same gown that her great grandmother Marie Fox McAndrews wore for her baptism in 1910. We were so happy that Alison’s parents Kathy and Terry Walker were able to be with us for the celebration along with many aunts, uncles, cousins and many friends.

In June, I went to Ireland to speak at two family history conferences at Duckett’s Grove, County Carlow. Margaret and AnnMarie joined me there and met many members of our extended family who showed us kindness and wonderful Irish hospitality.

The highlight of August was my 50th Owatonna High School Reunion. I developed an 80-page directory with hundreds of photos and bios on most of my 200 classmates. The “Book” as it became known, was a big hit and has become a keepsake. Also in August and through the fall, the Steele County Historical Society featured a dairy industry display, which included many items from my antique butter mold collection.

The Eustice family gathered in October at Eustice Park in Waldorf, Minnesota for a reunion. We are so grateful to our cousins who had arranged for a commemorative plaque to be permanently displayed in the park to remember John and his love and knowledge of the plant world.

As we prepare for the holidays and winter in our Tucson home we are happy that AnnMarie and Kevin, Alison and Sabine will join us to celebrate Christmas. There is no greater joy than to celebrate Christmas with a small child!

We wish you and yours a joyous holiday season and the happiest New Year.

Margaret and Ron Eustice and family