Happy New Year, everyone! 

We had a quiet New Year's Eve at home, and celebrated today with the Rose parade & the total nail-biter Rose Bowl football game (Go Blue!) -- complete with pre-game snacks & Korbel Brut (applesauce, & the tiniest sip of the Korbel on a sponge, for Jimmy!)

I anticipate that this will be the last post for a while, unless something unexpected happens. Jimmy is focused now on recovery, recovery, recovery -- speech articulation, swallowing, and building up energy and physical strength -- lots of ongoing micro- & macro- neuromuscular rehab exercises -- but at home, & on our own.

Since I last wrote, Jimmy has been slowly but steadily improving in all ways, not least in gaining weight back to healthy, walking, doing stairs (up & down). In the apartment he moves around without even a cane. When we go outside, though, he still prefers the elevator and using the rollator, for extra stability and support (and a seat, if he needs to take a break.) New York has had really lovely weather over most of the late fall & early winter, so we get outside for walks as often as we can. It's sometimes uneven progress... but over time, we both see so much improvement.

There is still a long way to go, but we hope that Jimmy will be air-travel ready within the next month. We are both itching to get out to our Michiana home and see the work that was done on it in 2023. (Yes, there was that, too -- some pricey but absolutely necessary structural fixes discovered in replacing our deck.)

Jimmy has had some work (signing *lots* of fan-merch for a vendor); I am slowly starting to take a few new consultation clients, and hope to get back to some teaching within a few months. Rebuilding our lives professionally, whatever that ultimately will mean, is also going to take some time. 

But "time" is what I prayed for most, through the worst days of the summer hospitalization... time to be together, to enjoy the gift that God gave & continues to give us in each other, for as long as we can. 

2023 is obviously a year that both Jimmy & I were not sorry to see come to a close. Yet we are grateful for the love and support and prayers and cards and all the other ways that each of you gave of yourselves to us. Knowing that so many of you visited Jimmy's site, not once or twice, but often, means more that you will ever know. To those who made tribute donations to CaringBridge in Jimmy's name, we thank you. One never knows how much a cost-free, ready-made site like this is needed until one needs it. You are all simply amazing.

For 2024 -- no resolutions, just hopes & prayers for openness to whatever comes our way; and appreciation for the love of family, friends, colleagues, students, fans, and those whom we will never meet in person.

All our very best,
Martha & Jimmy