The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Encourages
December 28, 2016-TCS # 526
Well, My Readers, PTLS Family Members, and Friends, It looks like We have come to The End of Another Year here at The Christianville Spirit and What a Year it was. It has been an Encouraging Year! See what I did there, hehe! This Year’s Tagline was “The Spirit that Encourages” and It was credited to PTLS Member, Roselle Hollard for suggesting that Name!
I know that I mentioned Last Week about This but, I felt like This Year of 2016 was a Brilliant Year for Me filled with A lot of Opportunity and Lots of Twists and Turns along The Way. So Many Good Things Happened! and, Yes, We had a few Low Points too, but What is a Year without things both Good and Bad. This Year, I will say was a Different Year than usual because I made Goals for The Year and Most of them, I have done, some I haven’t. So, Refresher here, What were My Goals? My 2016 Goals were
- So, Other than wanting a Great Presidential Election and The Olympics in Rio De Janeiro to go well
- Finally My Future Soulmate (hmm.. Maybe Next Year. Yes, For Certain, It will be Next Year)
- Travel More (Mission Accomplished, in Abundance!)
- Meet More PTLS Family Members that I have not before (Mission Accomplished! Next Year’s Goal?)
- Newsletter Goals: Continue to Write Newsletters (Yep! and, I got 500 Newsletters This Year!)
- Personal Goals: Become a bit more Independent (Working on that!); Get Rid of The Hair on My Face (that one might come True very soon); and, The Most Personal Goal, Meet Lynee’s Sister (That, I have to say, was The Highlight and Best Part of My Goals of 2016; that one happened Faster than I thought it would and I met Lynee’s Mom as well. But, You have to wait until The Year-In-Review to hear about that!)
- Family Goals: Mom meets Her Future Husband (Nope, but I am praying for Next Year) and My Brother meeting Someone who would encourage Him (Thank You Dear God!, Mission Accomplished!)
So, When I look back on This Year, I remember different events both Personally and in the News and I am shocked like “That happened THIS Year?!” and Now, This Year of Memories in both ways are Over. But, before 2017 comes and We watch The Ball drop, Let’s Re-Live 2016 via What I call “Christian’s Year-In-Review 2016”, My Self-Produced Year-In-Review. So, Without further a due, Let’s get started!
So, like all Years, We begin in January.
So, Not Long after the New Year started, Lynee’s Sister, Jona contacted My Mom and said that She was ready to Meet Me. Honestly, I was Shocked and I did not think that We would meet her so soon but, on January 23rd, We met her. (Refer to “The Completion of An Untold Story” Newsletter) Meeting Jona, as small as it may seem, was actually a Brilliant Way to Begin The Year and A Highlight of My Year. At The Same Time, Winter Storm Jonas, which was a HUGE Winter Storm hitting Philadelphia and Washington DC happened The Weekend that We met Jona. A Funny Story about that, was that My Friend, Deb’s Mom, whom I refer to as Ma or Deb’s Ma was named Joan. Ma wants The Best for Me. Between Deb and Her Mom, They believed in Destiny. So, The Winter Storm was called Jonas (like The Jonas Brothers), Ma’s Name was Joan, and We were meeting Jona at The Same Time. Destiny? You betcha! Winter Storm Jonas was The Only Major Winter Storm that I totally nerded out on. It dropped 2 Feet of Snow in Washington DC; Richmond, VA; and, Yes, even in West Virginia. In Weather News, I’m not sure if it has happened before or not, but on January 16th, The Actual Temperature and Wind Chills was -30 (Negative 30) in Minnesota. So, In The News, In Mid-January, The Deal known as “The Iran Deal” was finished. Folks, I am giving you Warning, It was a Political Year and I am going to try hard to Not to Mention that many Political Stories, but When I do, If It upsets you, Please move on to The Next Story that I mention. That would really be Great! Just giving you for-warning here, Folks!
In February, It was a Low Point in Our Family because on Valentine’s Day, Our Aunt Ginny passed away and a couple weeks after, We flew up to Medford, Oregon for The Memorial. In Personal News, I got a little boost of Independence because My Mom had to go to Houston for Business and I decided to stay Home. I wasn’t really missing much, My Neighbors would be around if I needed them, and It would have been Boring anyway. So, part of that Independence Goal I mentioned was partly Accomplished and It was an Interesting Experiment to say the least. In The News, on February 7th, It was Super Bowl 50, which was quite a Milestone and Denver Broncos Won!
In March, It was PTLS Awareness Month and Boy did We make it Big! A Friend of a PTLS Family Member had a Billboard for PTLS, It was Awesome. As Promised, I mentioned that I met Lynee’s Mom, Dona (Refer to “The Untold Story Completed: Meeting The Parents” Newsletter). We were in Oregon at the time that She friended me and She friended me a Year to The Day that I had first became Facebook Friends with Jona. She was Ready and Wanted to Meet very Soon! I was honestly Shocked that She wanted to meet so soon, I thought it would have been longer, but, Hey that is Okay. Again, In all Honesty, It was a Highlight to My Year of 2016. If I had to remember 2016 in a Certain Way, it would be that. Well, that and Other Things coming up as well! In The News, on March 20th, US President Obama was The First US President to visit Cuba for The First Time since The 1950s. Also in The News, There was Terrorist Attack in Belgium on March 26th.
In April, It was a more Quiet Month. However, We did have the First PTLS 5K on April 23rd. In The News, It was Sadly Reported that Music Legend, Prince passed away on April 21st. In May, In Late May, We went on Short PTLS Business Trip to Atlanta which was actually a Surprise to both of us. My Mom really helped a PTLS Member with Their IEP. I like to say that She saved them! Also in May, Was What I referred to as “Destiny lead Weirdness”, Refer to The Newsletter about that. Destiny, I have learned, is not always clear! In The News, On May 2nd, There was a Fire at a Historic Church in New York City. As well as US President Obama visited Vietnam for The First Time and Japan as well.
In June, On June 15h, I had written My 500th Newsletter! Another Highlight of My Year of 2016. In The News, Political Story Alert! On June 23rd, The United Kingdom voted to exit The European Union. In This Month, There were Two Terrorist Attacks, in Orlando and Istanbul. It should be Noted as well that Boxing Legend, Mohammed Ali passed away in Early June.
In July, We got to try a New BBQ Place here called “Hard Eight BBQ” when My Uncle Craig came to Town for a Visit. It was really Good! Probably, The Best that I have had in Dallas. In The News, something that Us Dallasites will not forget, There was a Shooting at a Protest in Downtown Dallas on July 8th. To Put it Shortly, In Face of Tragedy, the People of Dallas really showed The Rest of Country that Love is The Thing that matters The Most. I was Very Proud of My City! Other than That, There was a Terrorist Attack in Nice, France.
In August, Being that It was My 29th Birthday, I had a Very Pleasant Surprise Birthday Dinner with My Neighbors on August 5th. For My Actual Birthday, We took a Drive up to Colorado to see My Brother, Michael. That was a Really Fun Trip! Another Highlight of My 2016 Year! Refer to “My 29th Birthday and Surprises” Newsletter. In The News, It was finally time for Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. US Olympian, Michael Phelps (It was his Last Olympics) won His 20th Olympic Gold Medal. The Highlight of His 2016, I bet!
In September, It was a Rather Busy Month! Between bringing Michael’s Dog, Paco back home temporarily to Driving to Waco to meet a PTLS Family Member, refer to that Newsletter. Another Highlight of My Year of 2016 was when I finally got to meet My Friend, Deb (now referred to as “The Famous Deb”, refer to The Newsletter about that!) That was an Awesome part of My Year, Up there with Meeting Lynee’s Mom and Sister. In Late September, We got an Invite to go to Spain, more on that later in The Review! In The News, Sad News of Golf Legend, Arnold Palmer passed away on September 25th.
In October, We got to meet My Grandma Honey’s Boss, Jan Winters for The First Time on October 28th. My Brother and His Girlfriend, Nicole went to Spain for a 2 Week Trip in Mid-October. Nicole had spent time over in Spain, teaching kids English for a Year. A Year or so before She met Michael. in The News, The Chicago Cubs go into The World Series for The First Time in 50 Years on October 24th. In Weather News, Hurricane Matthew hits the Caribbean and Florida. It got so bad that They closed Disney World so People would evacuate. That has only happened twice, I believe.
In November, A bit of Sad News within The PTLS Family, An Awesome and Brilliant Relative of a PTLS Family Member named Faith Thompson passed away on November 20th. To say the least, She was for lack of a Better Word, of Utter Brilliance! She was up there with The Brilliance of My Mom. She probably deserves a Newsletter about Her! I will likely wait until The New Year after The Holidays are over. All Honor to You, Faith! In a more Upbeat Story, over Thanksgiving Weekend, We did a Business Trip to Spain that I dubbed “PTLS En España”. (Refer to “PTLS En España” Newsletter). That Trip was The First Time that I spoke in front of PTLS Family Members publicly! In The News, The Chicago Cubs broke their Curse (Similar to “The Curse of The Bambino”) and won The World Series for The First Time in a Long Time! Not really a HUGE Fan of Baseball, but I was Very Happy when They won. Political Story Alert! And, It’s a Biggie! So, Let me say this first. Let Me Make it VERY Clear that Us here at The Christianville Spirit and In Integrity of This Newsletter, **The Christianville Spirit is and Forever will be Non-Politically Aligned with any Candidate or Leader.** I know that I said I would not mention who The US Election because The Oh-So-Sensitive Situation but, For Historical Reasons, Billionaire Donald Trump won. Whew! That was The Most Challenging Part of This Newsletter. Trying to be funny here, In Movies depicting The Future, They always said that a Celebrity would run The Country, so Why Not?
and Finally, We wrap up The Year with December, This Month went by rather Fast! My Brother, Michael was in Colorado. So, He could not come Home for Christmas, but We did FaceTime with Him and Open Gifts. I would not do it again, but I have to admit that It was Pretty Cool to Open Gifts on FaceTime. In The News, Musician George Michael and Actor Allan Thicke passed away This Month. I am Sorry to say but, We lost a lot of Legends in 2016. All in all here, 2016 was a Great Year for Me and I hope You had a Good Year too. And, I can’t wait to see you back here for Another Year of Inspirational, Encouraging, and Thought-Provoking Newsletters in 2017!
(For the Last Time in 2016)
Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Love and Life is Ever Changing. Roll with It!
