Many moons ago, when the kids were kids, and so were my wife and I, I began writing a Christmas letter to send out to friends and family each year. I’m sure many of you do the same. I suppose this form of communication is what we relied upon before social media wormed its way into our lives. So it goes. Anyway…what follows is this year’s Ellis Family Christmas letter. Have a lovely 2020…we can all see clearly now.

This year it seems that I have been particularly hesitant to disrupt the serene wintery landscape a blank sheet of white paper so graciously and effortlessly provides, with the dashes, lines, curves, and dots, that we who can read and comprehend the English language, rely upon to move that which is in our heads to the heads of others. If your head is not particularly interested in that which is in mine, avert your eyes from the dashes, lines, curves, and dots that I am about to commission in an attempt to paint a picture of the past year in the lives of this particular Ellis family. If you are curious, and not a cat, carry on.

In October, Dawn and I escorted Sierra to Brooklyn, the quaint one in New York, to help her get settled into her apartment, and get ourselves settled into the reality of it all. There is a lot of “all” in that neck of the woods, but after spending about a week roaming around, and getting to know her 8.5 million neighbors (nice folks), some of the nausea and mild terror of leaving her behind subsided…some. The city suits her, and we are quite thankful for the familiar faces of her fellow Montana State film school alumni that make up the wonderful network of roommates and friends she has so far away from home. Within a few weeks of beating the streets, she became gainfully employed with an actual job, in her actual field, as a production assistant with SHOWTIME’s Billions. So yeah…she’s doing it…she’s gaining on that person she set out to be, and managing to bring that sweet, caring person she’s always been along for the ride.

Jackson flew the coop too. He didn’t ditch us to the extreme that his sister did, but he ditched us just the same. So it goes. I suppose as Dawn and I “approach” middle-age we have started to take on a wee dusting of that “old person” smell, and since neither of the kids inherited my anosmia, one can’t blame the youngins for putting a little distance between themselves and dear old mom and dad. Jackson tried his hand at the restaurant business this summer as a busser and a host, but found that mounting a fake smile upon his face, and being hospitable to tourists on a regular basis, was not his cup of spilled pop. He’s a kind and caring young man, but I suppose everyone has boundaries to the extent of cordial niceties they can lay at the feet of “hangry” strangers. He’s found a new gig where a smile is optional, and interactions with two- and four-wheeled objects outweighs the interactions with bipedal Homo sapiens. Meaning can be elusive, but he’s searching for it, and thinks it may possibly reside among the ranks of the Air Force.

As for the “dusty” ones, Dawn and I are just dandy. No kids interrupting our Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy cocktail hour with all their needy demands…“I’m hungry…my appendix hurts…blah…blah…blah…” We still have Pre, yeah the kids abandoned their dog too…sad…sad…sad. Doeth their wretchedness know no bounds? So other than a pokey old Lab that spends his days sleeping and farting, not necessarily in that order, it’s just the two of us again, just how it started. Life has brought a fair amount of growing and going this way and that our way over the years, but we’ve managed to keep ahold of one another throughout. We have much to be thankful for. Thankful our children are searching for their “thing”, and thankful we have gratifying vocations that allow us to do our “thing”. Dawn is in her 11th year at Promotion Physical Therapy, helping people move along with a few less hitches in their giddy up. I’m in my 6th year at Chadron State College, where I am quite grateful for all that my colleagues and students bring to my life.

Life has been kind to us, and we hope kindness finds you and yours as well. All the best.

The Ellis Family

Josh, Dawn, Sierra, Jackson & Pre