Christmas Newsletter 2025

“Proverbs 23:15-18: 

My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad indeed; my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.  Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord.  There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.”

A praise we have this year after many years of waiting for the right timing is that we are able to start looking for a house of their own for Chris and Ryan.  We are carefully looking and pray for guidance to find the right forever house for them.  We are also blessed that their health is good at this time.  We have been so grateful for their housing with their current company and will be continuing with that company once we move them into their own house, also.  We hope to find something with a little yard and more breathing room where they can live for many years.

Also, after five years of very hard work and also some good creative paper writing Roger got his bachelor’s degree last month!  We are so proud of him!  We are going to take some time this winter to organize a lot in our house and make some repairs and then will see what kind of valuable work is waiting out there for a bachelor’s degree in social work.  We are no stranger to having a ton of projects going and it looks like it is not changing anytime soon!  With several people moving in/out around us over the past decade+ we seem to have items everywhere that we need to sort and purge!!  Probably like most everyone we and you all know!  Looking forward to opening up rooms here to enjoy ourselves before we are too old to enjoy them!

We have our music room HALF set up in the back of our house and are very eager to record some music on some neat equipment Roger has had for a while!  We have several songs we are working on and hope to gain some momentum on this now!

We also have a boatload of data entry ready to do this season that has been stacking up!  Our picture pages show our day trips last year that we had to Medina/Wayne Cty., OH, Erie, PA., and also our multi-day trip to New York.  Much of our work is now online, not in person, and together we will catch up again.  This summer we will likely do the New York trip again (that one is yearly in many areas, every other year in others) and our PA multi-county trip is due after about 4 years away.  We also need to get to some Southern Ohio counties after about 3 years.  So, this shall be a busy year for that!

 Last year I explained how I was working at Riverside Preschool; that position was great fun and an incredible learning experience.  I was there from November, 2024 until end of May, 2025.  It also gave me more confidence to teach kindergarten, which I had always been a little afraid of!  With some classroom moves and mergers they no longer needed a substitute in my capacity this year at the preschool, so I am not there very often this year.  I did see they were seeking a certified preschool teacher as a substitute; unfortunately, that I am not!  I did see a lot of subbing opportunities at another Riverside school coincidentally, and I am seeing some of the preschool kids now there in kindergarten!

Everything has pros and cons, and though I loved the preschool assignment last year very much, I really appreciated getting to see old friends again at Broadmoor, Fairport, Painesville City, and other Riverside schools that were now appearing on my availability schedule with my schedule no longer only locked in at one opportunity.  So, some fun reunions have been had!  With getting used to working three days a week last year (plus my weekend days), I have tried to keep that up this year, though, granted, I do take some weeks and only work two or two and a half days — the flexibility IS nice!   

I also decided to sign up for special independent provider training to be able to work on my own in elder care.  I almost am at the last level of this, having done all the trainings and just awaiting certification from the state.  I probably will do this about one day a week, as my own business.

We are eager to get going on the dental procedures and hearing aids for the boys, still waiting (2024 was Ryan’s pre-surgery appt and Chris’s was in 2025).  Chris continues with success with his psoriasis biologic.  Colleen had one more job change this year and seems to be thriving in her latest grooming store, which, happily, is very close to our house! As you will see in pictures, Colleen has gotten SUPER involved with musical performances this year.  I will add some videos to this letter, also.  She and her boyfriend have been having a lot of fun performances at Lyric Bistro in Fairport Harbor, Ohio.

Our goal is to get more speech therapy for the boys again after some good starts last year, Nov. 24-May of 25 and then June 25-August 25.  We would like more solid plans to get them using the tablets more, also, although Chris specifically seems to be catching on more to starting the “on-tablet” conversations, which is great as he is more non-verbal and really needs that opportunity!  Ryan seems to be reluctant to use a lot when he is not at speech and we hope to get him more interested in using it by somehow helping him to see some kind of benefit to being able to show his needs more.  Patience!!

After losing our Papa in October 24 and having all the sad “firsts,” without him, but knowing he was out of pain, we also lost my uncle Don K in January of 2025.   Ironically, Roger spent his last day with his Papa on approx. October 4, 2024, and I went with my mom and saw Uncle Don K that same day.  I did not get to see Papa again.  Then I did get to see Uncle Don in November 2024 one day, but he was not doing well and we did not stay too long.  I wanted to get back again, but a huge cold spell with a ton of snow sidelined us then for at least a month, and then uncle had COVID, and I had a very bad cold, and then we entered a huge cold snap.  So, I never got back down there.  When he passed, I was really sick, I remember trying to call and make the arrangements and I had no voice and was coughing continuously, in the middle of what ended up being about a 6 week major bad cold or respiratory virus, and the day he was laid to rest it was many digits below zero.  

On the side of new beginnings, Nephew Eric L. and his wife Becky welcomed their second son into the world in March, Owen L.  I look forward to seeing them soon, after a few missed opportunities, one being EJ’s birthday party this summer where my truck broke down halfway to the party!!  I noticed the truck running worse and worse, and pulled off the road and called a tow truck and it was, I believe, ball joint and tie rod problems, if I remember correctly.  Then we were invited over at Christmas but it conflicted with another engagement we had with Colleen who we really wanted to see before Christmas, so we hope to see the wee one soon!  You will see in the pictures that we DID see EJ in March for my and Ryan’s birthday, so that was a special treat!

Getting eight yew (Christmas tree) plants planted this year was a cool accomplishment, and we appreciated my mom buying them as well as some other plants that made it through last winter and HOPEFULLY will make it through this one.  Some of them are still under our steps.  Once these yews get big enough, we hope they will replace our broken and long-gone fence with these Christmas trees and eventually get new Christmas lights to go around our house!

Also, in the pictures you will see we had some fun with AI and made pictures of each kiddo as a baby and then what they would look like at 20.  Ryan’s was the closest to his real looks, colleen’s was the farthest (where maybe a mix of the two pics looked most like her?) and Chris’s was not TOO far off but not terribly close either.  I am not a huge fan of AI but that was a fun thing to do!  I am sure AI has its good points, also, and try and keep an open mind about it!!  

Also in pictures you will see we had two picnics and also fireworks with our friends, mine and Ryan’s birthday with family, Chris’s birthday and thanksgiving with family, a Christmas Eve lunch, and a Christmas gift exchange with our friends! we still will be having a few little Christmas gatherings with Roger’s mom and sister, and my mom.   So treasured, all these family and friend events!  Also, for the first time EVER we saw a concert at Mentor Rocks – Bon Jovi tribute band with our best friends!

So, a busy year!  In prayer and meditation for the future, please remember to pray and have HOPE!  And, from my preschool days and also my school days now with kindergarten and all the other grades —

“BE SAFE, BE KIND, WORK HARD!!”  And a neat extension of that I just now found!

 

 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/909660650/be-kind-work-hard-stay-humble-smile

 

Dorene, Roger, Christopher, Colleen & Ryan

My “Mary, Did you Know” video and my singing

 

RESTORED 2000-2005 newsletters

• EMAIL DORENE: transcribing.mom@gmail.com, daehumphries18@yahoo.com

• EMAIL ROGER: thedodger1@att.net, thedodger64@gmail.com

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• INSTAGRAM:  Criscollrj

• FAMILY WEB SITE: www.criscollrj.com

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WINTER 2025 SLIDESHOW

https://www.criscollrj.com/2026/01/06/winter-2025-picture-gallery/

 

 

SPRING 2025 SLIDESHOW

https://www.criscollrj.com/2026/01/06/spring-2025-picture-gallery/

SUMMER 2025 SLIDESHOW

https://www.criscollrj.com/2026/01/06/summer-2025-picture-gallery/

NEW YORK WORK TRIP 2025 SLIDESHOW

https://www.criscollrj.com/2026/01/06/new-york-work-trip-picture-gallery/

FALL 2025 SLIDESHOW

https://www.criscollrj.com/2026/01/06/fall-2025-picture-gallery/