The best things seem to always come full circle don’t you think? The classic movie Hocus Pocus is rumored to be remade next year, can’t tell you how excited we are about that! FOR REAL! Taylor Swift did a remix of a whole album this year and she’s still, only like 12. Mom jeans are even making a comeback, which is too bad for those who got the low back tattoos thinking they would be showing them off just above their thongs even while they were hanging out in the nursing home. It’s healthy to eat eggs again after the whole cholesterol avoidance thing. There are even new Harry Potter Legos out this year! SCORE!

Chr’s and Julie totally flow with the times of course, acting so hip and cool that we can go unrecognized in the throngs of people who attend the State Fair, able to mingle undetected holding sticks of food. How, you ask? Because, we have embraced ‘ReMix Mode’ ourselves!

First, we finished the house in Cannon Falls, sold it, and are building in Cottage Grove like normal people. Our address on the envelope is current and will remain so as long as our book collections can fit in the new house. This house is even going to have a complete kitchen. For resale value, of course. We thought about going for the bungalow style with the high-rise toilets and hard surface floors, but, we decided we aren’t dead. Yet. The house should be done in the spring, with a workshop for Chr’s and separate space for Julie as we have determined we live best together when connected by an intercom.

Julie went back to being a school nurse, like she was probably meant to be, but had a lot of fun on her detour into clinic nursing these past years. All the ‘Nurse Julie’ t-shirts came back into rotation. 

Chr’s went back to traveling after living in the same state as Julie for nearly two years. It was a good run, seeing each other day and night, day after day, but…like the sea called to sailors in years gone by, Delta and Hilton beckon to Chr’s with their Sky Miles and reward points.

We even cycled back to being a dog family. Total dog hiatus after Frank for several years, and then Liz and AJ adopted an adorable elderly dog named Kody. Then they got Roo, an acrobatic, talkative puppy who is just like Liz was as a kid. That was followed by Shannon and Ryan’s acquisition of a quiet puppy named Olivander who quickly learned how to get out of his pen, much like Shannon did with any sort of crib or containment when she was a baby. Days later, Hannah and Riley came home with Wriggley. Isla feels it is her sole goal to keep him fed constantly. Isla eats 18 out of 24 hours which is a dead ringer for Hannah’s habits at the same age. We live in a pet free apartment right now, so we aren’t having any puppy snuggles here, but just wait, the new house should have plenty of room for that in the spring. 

We’ve gone back to vacationing at Disney, just without kids.  We went to California to cheer on Coach Shannon’s cheer team, waved and clapped furiously, and then snuck off to do an entire day at Disneyland without her. We last did Disneyland, 21 years ago with the girls and Norman and Patty Gilmore. So, we abandoned Shannon, called Norm and Patty, and off we went until it closed. We didn’t act any younger this time, we just weren’t taking turns holding sticky little fingers and sharing straws. 

A few things are kind of on a new spiral. We are through with the wedding cycles with all our girls married. We have a whole wedding closet of dresses and accessories. We are now into just attending weddings and throwing showers. We can have glass balls again on our Christmas tree. We can watch binge watch whatever we want on TV but we mostly stick to the same 4 channels.  It’s just like being a kid, except instead of the channels ranging from 2 to 11, they go from 42 to 7,989 and have password protection. 

Life does come full circle. If it was just a midlife crisis we would be driving different cars and have gotten face lifts. Twice. This is just regular generational ReMix. Chr’s is back to looking at swingset plans for the new backyard, Julie is back to stocking up on tempera paint for kid crafts. We tried to open up some space for new books and were fairly successful.  We got rid of 6 books before we moved.  Thank goodness, or we wouldn’t have been able to get that storage door shut! We’re keeping all the same kids, inlaw’s, grand-dogs, and grand-kid. Old friends are always a part of our lives, and every time we flip our careers or addresses, we add a new circle and the Christmas card list gets longer, and we love that. 

As always, Peace, Joy, and all alternative greetings and salutations to you and yours – Julie and Chr’s