Alpena

Yesterday we got my mom's Christmas letter in the mail.  It went over her year, the climax of which was selling her house in Alpena, Michigan and moving to Florida full time.  In our joy for Mom and working to support her, we had all set aside just what this meant for our family, until last night.  As I read the letter to the kids after dinner, the emotions began to come.  We talked about what we will miss about our trips to Alpena.  I thought I would write this blog post to expand on that a bit.

My family moved to Alpena in 1985, when I was 9-years-old.  It is where I grew up.  It is where my faith was formed.  It is where I left when I went to college.  It is to where I went back when I found out that my dad had been killed in a car accident. It is where I took Amanda to meet my family and to learn more about me.  It is where I asked her to marry me and where we eventually wed.  It is where I brought each of my kids to play every summer and every winter.  We walked on the beach.  We had hundreds of fires.  We lit off fireworks with Uncle Al.  We rode the go-carts and ate ice cream.  We saw how deep we could go into the big lake.  The kids made sand castles and eventually were able to go out to the big rocks.  The boys spent a few days by themselves there with Gigi and eventually more.  They looked for tadpoles in the creek.

This is my list.  My extended family's list would be different.  As we transition away from that place into new family traditions yet unwritten, we do so with some fear and uncertainty.  As Mom wrote in her letter, we trust God.  I don't want to over dramatize this, but I think it is important for us to grieve a little.  We are shutting the door on what was a large part of our life.  We are thankful to God and to Mom and Dad for the gift of Alpena.