The Christianville Spirit: Christian's Year-In-Review 2023

The Christianville Spirit 

The Spirit that Creates New Beginnings 

December 27th. 2023 – TCS # 839 

 

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. 

. Oh Boy! When I say “What a Year” I mean it! You Know, Those Times when You are at a Concert or Special Movie with Tickets in Hand, and You are waiting for that One Friend to Show up. Because They promised that They would show up? Yeah, That is what This Year felt like to Me. Now, Don’t get me wrong, There were Some Exciting Moments of This Year.  

My Mental Health (Anxiety) did get much better This Year compared to Last Year of 2022.  

I entered This Year with Cautious Optimism, because of The Rough Year last year and in a way, Coming down from it. It is Hard to explain. So, I mean This Year was better but, still Rough around The Edges. I did become more like My Normal Self this Year, but by The End of The Year, I came back with a Bang! 

   Needless to say, I had an Okay but, Rough Year Personally. But, At The Same Time, I overcame alot! 

 I know that Everyone Else had a Rough Year in Some Way. 

So, As Much as We want to scream Happy New Year, We have to Review This Year before We can move on. So, The One thing that We definitely needed in This Crazy Year was Something that I tried My Best to Provide, New Beginnings. That was not only This Year’s Tagline and Theme but, This Year unlike Any other Year, We really needed it! 

The Tagline and Theme of 2023 is The Spirit that Creates New Beginnings. This Tagline is Credited to My Mom’s High School Friend, Marianne Fife-Ossage. 

So, First Thing that We need to Review is Something that I do Every Year, which is My Goals of The Year which I always set with Love, Heart, and Most Importantly, with Hope. 

I have Learned that You can plan Goals and Destiny at The Time, says “Not Yet”. So, Maybe I should have My Goals more toward Where I want or Believe that Destiny wants me to go. I will still have My Goals but, This Year I am Letting My Angel Director of Destiny and Of Course, My Guardian Angel lead The Way because They know Where I am headed and Not what I want but, What I need!  

I am Happy to report that I did accomplish some of This Year’s Goals, 2 out of 4! So, I am still hopeful for 2024! 

 

So, Here are My 2023 Goals with Love and Hope in My Heart!  

++++ I Know, I said This Last Year but I feel It is Time that I Deserve to be with My Forever Romantic Person. It is Formal Term that could mean Soulmate, True Love, or Life Partner. Soulmates are rumored to Come, Give You Lesson, and Leave. At Least, That is a Theory that I heard. A Forever Romantic Person is The Kind of Love that makes you Complete as well as Love that You can perfect over The Years. Love that makes you Fall in Love over and over, and You never get Tired of It; that Laughing at Something really Mundane kind of Love; Lay Underneath The Christmas Tree together or like Laying on The Grass looking at The Stars, with only The Christmas Lights at Night kind of Love; Singing to Our Favorite Song kind of Love; and, The Kind of Heart that will Love You No Matter what You look like or What You are doing kind of Love! Someone that is as Christina Yang of The TV Show, Grey’s Anatomy said “You're My Person”. Director of Destiny, “Ma Take The Wheel” with This One! (Seriously, Ma! Must be Next Year!) 

++++ Personal One: Get Back to Myself! The Self that I forgot! (This One took a lot of Work but, I Nailed It!) 

++++ Maybe have Faith’s Daughter teach me to Paddle Board. I would believe that Faith, herself, would still want me to at least try it. (The Family involved, They had a Rough Year this year. So, Next Year!) 

 

++++ And, Finally on The PTLS Front, 2023 is The 16th Year since PTLS was Named and The 11th Year since The PTLS Foundation was Started! So, I will assist The PTLS Foundation in My Own Way! Support My Young Adult PTLS Friend, and Of Course, Spreading Hope to PTLS Family Members and Friends! (I feel like I Nailed that Goal too! I helped PTLS Family Members in Many Ways, from Our Virtual Conference to Spain to Talking to PTLS Family Members) 

So, Those are My 2023 Goals! Kind of Hard to set Goals after a Few Rough Years!  

So, Generally, Most of These Goals have been moved to The Year of 2024. I believe that I will have Much Better luck Next Year! Now, Yes, I know that I may sound Negative when Reflecting about This Year. Now, Just Because Crazy Stuff happened this Year does not mean that Good Things did not come out of It. It may sound Crazy but, Sometimes, The Best Things can come out of Not-So-Great Things. So, with that said, I cannot wait until 2024. 

So, with that said, Before 2024 comes and We excitedly watch The Ball drop, Let’s Re-Live 2023 via what I call “Christian’s Year-In-Review 2023”, My self-produced Year-In-Review. 

 

So, without Further adieu, Let’s get started! 

So, like all Years We start in January. On January 24th, Us in Our Family Country, Smith Family States had The Best Miracle happen in Recent Memory, Uncle Brian, whose Heart was clogged last year in 2022, had a Cleared Heart in 2023! No One how that happened but, His Doctor was Amazed. For Me Personally, on January 13th, was a Sad Day because It had The First Anniversary of My Friend, Kristi passing away. 

Before I start with The News, I try as Hard as I can to avoid any Upsetting Political Stories, but For The Sake of History and My Year-In-Review, I feel I must mention them. If I feel that It may Upset (or Trigger) Someone, I will say, Political Story Alert! 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.** 

In Sports News, The University of Georgia (UGA) won The National Championship of The Second Year in a Row, Ending their 41 Year Drought. Also, in The News, Political Story Alert! (PSA!), on January 1st, The European Nation of Croatia adopts the Euro Currency (Formerly Croatian Kuna (HRK)) and enters into The Famous European Schengen Area (One of My Fascinations of Europe!) 

 

Going into The “Love Month” of February, On February 2nd, A History Marker for Us at The Christianville Spirit, I wrote My 800th Newsletter! That was an Amazing Moment! In The News, From February 3rd to The 8th, Political Story Alert! (PSA!), People were Concerned about a Chinese Spy Balloon flying across The United States.  

Meanwhile, In Disaster News, on February 6th, A Strong Magnitude 7.5 Earthquake hit Eastern Turkey!   

 

Now, A Highlight of The Year, The PTLS Month of March (Marzo)!  This PTLS Month was Very Special because This Year was It was a Big Birthday for Grandma Honey, Her Big 85th Birthday! In The PTLS Realm, It was the 16th PTLS Awareness Day & Month. Actually, Come to Think about It, Next Year will be The 17th PTLS Awareness Day & Month! Get Ready PTLS Family Members! It’s going to be a Big One! In The News, A Big Shock! An EF-4 Tornado hits and Destroys the Town of Rolling Fork, Mississippi. That actually effected One of Our Close Friend & PTLS Family Member. In Weather News, The Latest Nor-Easter Winter Storm hit the Northeast Us on March 15th. 

 

April was a Quiet Month for The Most Part. Except a Little bit of April Blues of Being The 15th “Lighthouse Day” in Our Family (aka: “Popi passing away) on April 17th. A Bit of Romantic Personal News, On April 9th, It was been 10 Years since Trail Hiker and Friend, Delaware Dave hiked The Pacific Crest Trail and eventually, Met His Wife (Code Name: “Cream Tea”). In Weather News, Grapefruit-sized Hail hit The City of Waco and Town of Stephenville on April 28th. That is Seriously Crazy! Also, In Weather News, There was a Tornado in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

 

A Proud Moment of  

The Smith Family Nation happened in May! Both of My Cousins, Gram and Callie graduated from College, Literally, A Day apart but, in Two Different States, Georgia and Tennessee respectively, in The First Week of May. It was a Sad Day for Me because on May 23rd, It had been 15 Years since Lynee passed away. In The News, There was a Shooting at the Allen Outlet Mall in Allen, Texas on May 7th. A Little Close to Home! Also in The News, On May 6th, A Moment of Honor when Charles The III becomes King of The UK 

Personally, June was a Quiet Month except when I decided to Celebrate Italy’s (I) Republic Day on June 2nd, on Top of Sweden’s (S) Sveriges Nationaldag on June 6th. I put The Respective Flags out for The Celebration Day. 

Also, Personally, It has been 10 Years since I met My PTLS “Brother”, Tyler in Mid-June. At This Point of The Year, which I refer to as Mid-Year, I invented a New Holiday called Mid-Year's Eve (June 30th) and Mid-Year's Day (July 1st). I explained The Following Way, 

    My New Invented Holiday, Mid-Year's Eve.  

The Mid-Point of The Year 

End of The First Half of The Year 

(If in School) End of Old Grade!  

Last Day as an (X) Grader! 

 

My New Invented Holiday, 

Mid-Year's Day.  

The Mid-Point of The Year 

Second Half of Year Begins 

(If In School) New Grade! 

 

Happy Mid-Year! And Happy July!  

Glad that You made it This Point! If You actually Read Every Bit of This until Now at a Normal Pace of Reading (Skim Reading Not Apply!) Let Me Know that You actually read to This Point! It’s a Long Newsletter, Trust Me! Okay, Remember I mentioned about Delaware Dave and (Code Name: “Cream Tea”)? Well, on July 17th, was Actually The Day They met 10 Years Ago! Hard to believe that isn’t it?! Also, in Romantic News, in Mid-July, My Cousin Taylor proposed to His Girlfriend, Sarah. Very Romantic Indeed! In The News, Besides The Hollywood Writers Strike that worried alot of Fans of Television and Movies;  

Singer Snead O’Conner (Known for The Single “Nothing Compares to You”) passed away on July 28th. 

 

 

Now, We enter into My Birth Month of August, Where I turned the Ripe Young Age of 36 Years Old! That was Hard to believe too, 36 Years Old! Wow! Also, This Month was The Finale of My Celebrating International Holidays when I did The 1st Observance of Switzerland’s (CH) Confederation Day on August 1st. Personally, There is a Big Event for Me, It has been 20 Years since I met My Best Friend, Karleen. That, to Me is an Accomplishment. In Disaster News, There was a Huge Fire Event on The Hawaiian Island of Maui on August 8th. Meanwhile, Hurricane Hilary hit Southern California (San Diego & LA) First Time that a Hurricane hit California in 84 Years.  

 

September started with Exciting Events here in Christianville where  

+“Christian’s World Amusement Park”+ opened on September 5th and +“Ski Christianville”+ opened on September 15th. Both are a Big Hit for People here in Christianville. Also, A Big Life Event happened This Month where It has been 15 Years since Our Dog, Sophie passed away. In The News, Harry Potter’s “Dumbledore” (Actor) passed away on September 28th. Meanwhile, In Weather News, On September 8th, Hurricane Lee became The Strongest Hurricane Ever at a Category 5 Hurricane, It was a “Fish Storm”, Meaning that It did not hit Land.   

 

October was A Big Month of Celebration because My Brother, Michael turned 35 Years Old. Here at The Christianville Spirit, On October 4th, I entered into My 17th Year of Writing! Very Proud of That! A Deep Moment for Me happened on October 9th, because I read a Future Letter to Myself that I wrote 10 Years Ago. Amazing to see how much I have changed since Then. In The News, A Huge Weather Surprise that literally, No One saw coming, Hurricane Otis (Pacific) hit Acalpulco, Mexico has a Category 5 Hurricane. Meanwhile, TV Star, Matthew Perry (From TV Show, Friends) passed away on October 28th. 

November was Certainly a Month to Remember because of an Event that Christianvilleians hold dear to Their Hearts. 

Christianville Broadcasting Legend, John Maplewood interviewed The “Festival Couple” on November 17th. (Refer to The “John Maplewood’s Gift to Christianville” Newsletter). In Sports News, The Texas Rangers (Baseball) won The World Series for The First Time in like 60 Years! That was certainly a History Marker.  

 

And, Finally, We get to December Now, I will save you and Not Write about Negative News Events because I feel that You do not deserve that as Your Year Ending. I think that We have had Enough of The News and Negative Things.   

So, Let’s End The Year with an Imagine. 

My Version of a Hallmark Scene comes to Mind  

when I went to Atlanta! 

So, Myself and Uncle Bruce walk down to The Park to see The Tree Lighting 
Some Characters were There, Olaf (It took Me and Uncle Bruce 10 Minutes to Remember his Name!); The Grinch; Elsa from Frozen 
They had This Huge Fire Pit where They were doing Smores and This Mexican Pastry Place that was giving out Samples 
It really felt like a Hallmark Movie Set! 
Talked to Quite a Few People there, Including One Guy from A Small Town in Indiana, who served in The Military for 3 Years (Plus Served in Vietnam), When He was Serving down at a Fort in Atlanta, He fell in Love with Atlanta and He has been There ever since. 

 I did Thank Him for His Service and I told him that I knew someone from Indiana (Kristi).  

Honestly, I know that It was Kristi (My Director of Anxiety) Winking at Me! 
I did see a Pretty Girl wearing Red with Clear Glasses, Saw her like Three Times. Almost bumped into Her. I thought to Myself "How are You supposed have a “Meet-Cute” like in The Hallmark Movies?!" 
Right after The Tree Lighting,  

I met Uncle Craig's Girlfriend, Alejandra (Al-A-Hahn-Drah)  

and Then, We went to Uncle Bruce's House to have Dinner 

I felt like I kind of Struggled a lot with The Year’s Theme about “Creating New Beginnings” but, At The Same Time, In Some Way, I did create a New Beginning!  Whether that was When My Mom and I drove out to Atlanta to see Grandma Honey in Longer than I care to remember; Going to Two Tree Lightings; or Going to see the Christmas Lights in Downtown Grapevine with My Mom and Two of Her Gal Pals, It was Definitely a New Beginning, Mom’s High School Friend, Marianne was Right, This Year would be One of New Beginnings and That’s a Good Place to Start! 

 

But, I genuinely hope that You, My Readers, had a Good Year and Hope for an Even Better Year Next Year. And, I can’t wait to see you back here for Another Year of Uplifting,  

 

Compassionate, and Inspirational Newsletters to come in 2024! 

 
 

(For The Last Time in 2023 Anyway) 

 
 

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. The Spirit that Creates New Beginnings!