Fiftieth (50!!) Wedding Anniversary Letter and Photos

50 Years!!

Dear Family and Friends -

By God’s grace, we have survived another year, making it to our Golden Wedding Anniversary. Our dear children surprised us with a lovely dinner at a fun restaurant and tickets to see A Christmas Carol at The Grand in Wausau, and the next day, they showed up at the house for a party. As I told them, the dinner and the play were great, but all of them spending the day with us was what it’s all about, and of course our favorite part of the whole thing!

In March of this year, we started looking for a house in Wausau, intending to sell our farmhouse and move to the grand city where Dänika and children live. Angie and Gus came to the rescue, allowing us to purchase a great house north of town (but still in town) before we get our farm sold, and to begin work on remodeling the lower level (we all call it a walkout ‘basement’ where I’m from) to give us a second kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom. Since Dänika’s family will also be living in the house, we thought it might be a great idea for Gpa and me to have a place to watch something on TV besides cartoons, and give everyone a break from all the daily togetherness (which, by the way, Gpa and I are certainly enjoying!)

After spending the summer months working on the farmhouse (repainting the exterior, building a new deck on the back, etc.) and Kevin and crew finishing up asbestos-removal jobs, he officially retired August 1 so that he could get busy on the Wausau house. No lounging around the donut shop for this guy! We completely gutted the lower level (yes, even I helped with that), knocked out a couple places in the walls for windows (I did NOT help with that), tiled the entire floor (a huge job that Kevin did by himself and it’s beautiful, I might add), and as of today, we now have a kitchen with appliances, and hopefully within a week will have the plumbing hooked up and can begin the final painting and bookshelf building so that we can move furniture in toward the end of the month. One of those pieces of  ‘furniture’ that the men keep whining about moving, is the old wood-burning 1915 Home Comfort range, which will sit at one end of our kitchen. I remember when we bought it from Mike eons ago and moved it to the farmhouse near Reeve. Kevin declared that he was NEVER moving that beast again. This will be the fourth move since then. And they are not getting out of it, no matter how much they protest.

In late February another little Masrud, Tobias, was born to Joe and Courtney. That now makes 12 grandchildren (one, expected in May by Joe and Courtney) and 2 great grandchildren (Penny, born to Lydia and Marcus last year, and the one they are expecting in May of 2020).

I am grateful for the LCMS Lutheran Churches that Kevin and I have been attending - one in Rice Lake when we’re in Dallas, and its sister church in Wausau. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to be part of a worship service. It feeds my soul in more ways than one. Once we’re settled in at Wausau and have sold our farmhouse at Dallas, we will be starting membership classes in Wausau.  There’s a lot more to this story, but nothing y’all need to know.

We are so grateful to God for blessing us with our family, for good health and work for all of them, and for God’s continuing mercy and forgiveness. We are grateful for Jesus’ life, death, and Resurrection that give us all hope of a future with true justice and peace. One of my favorite quotations is from N.T. Wright, ‘By the evening of Good Friday, the world was a different place. A revolution had begun.’  Jesus had defeated the powers of evil, inaugurating his Kingdom on earth.

We hope you have a blessed Christmas, remembering when God entered into our humanity out of incomparable love -  to save us.

Kevin and Judy, December 13, 2019

 Photos from the family surprise party!
Some members of the family were engaged in prior commitments,
so were not able to attend. We love them too, but don't have them
pictured in this collage.

P.S.

I've been asked about when I'll be re-opening my soap shops. It will definitely not be until after New Year's, but I will be sure to stop in here and update you on progress.

Join me on Instagram: @cranberrymorning

I am closing comments because at this point, I simply don't have time to come back to the blog. I wanted to stop in and let you all know what's happening and that I did not fall off the edge of the earth - yet. I hope to be blogging again once we're settled in. No definite dates on that yet, but it is getting closer. :-)

Merry Christmas!