Dear Family and Friends,

Season’s greetings, and—yes, you’re not wrong—things are looking a bit different this Christmas! For those of you who have yet to hear the good news, we are now Tierney + Norton around here. Kendra and John Norton were married this summer and are counting their blessings (and their kids). They were introduced by mutual friends at a Halloween party in 2023, started dating in February 2024, got engaged in April, and the wedding was in July (in a heat wave). Kendra baked the cake. John brought the swamp coolers. We are so grateful for God’s goodness in bringing our families together.

John’s four kids were already friendly with the older Tierney kids, as they all attended St. Monica Academy. Fun fact: In 2015, a few months after making the transition from homeschooler to “real-school” eighth-grader, Jack came home with a black eye. Kendra was able to extract from him that the shiner was the result of a projectile carrot at lunchtime but he was unwilling to turn stool pigeon on the carrot flinger. UNTIL NOW. Shortly before the wedding, the culprit was revealed to have been his now-stepsister Maeve. No one can remember why she threw it, but we all agree he very likely deserved it.

Jack (22) and Bobby (19) have been roommates at USC for a couple years, and will keep it up though Jack is, as of December, a graduate with a degree in Aerospace Engineering. He plans to accept a full-time offer from Fenix Space and get to work shooting stuff into space. His newest obsession is Brazilian no gi jiu jitsu, or, as the rest of us call it: cuddle fighting. Bobby is working on game design and animation at the USC film school and reading obscure Tolkien and listening to obscure vinyl in his spare time. He went on a two-week pilgrimage to Poland over the summer and sent his mom one text: a photo of the lamb butter mold used by Pope JPII’s family when he was a child. So, he knows his audience.

Betty (20), Anita (15), and Mom embarked on a ten-day “hen do” and pilgrimage to England the week before the wedding, like ya do. The visits to Catholic holy sites happened to coincide with Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour stop at Wembley, so that was number two of an eventual four Eras concerts for Betty (also Los Angeles, Indianapolis, and Toronto). She will continue her nursing studies at St. Xavier University while living with Jim’s parents in Chicago. She helps them around the house, they keep her on schedule, and Gramma is teaching her how to cook. Anita wowed as the lead in the school musical, South Pacific, and is playing volleyball and basketball. A sophomore this year, she’s searching for a university with a world domination major.

Gus (17) is a senior at St. Monica Academy. He bought a fixer-upper Mustang convertible last summer and has been working on getting it running ever since, both with the help of Grandad. He was in the chorus in South Pacific, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, plays volleyball and basketball and won the school-wide Poetry Out Loud competition. He was accepted to Benedictine College in Atchison, KS where Maeve (21) and Livia (20) are studying graphic design and nursing, respectively. Maeve spends her free time answering customer service emails for Catholic All Year. Gus is waiting to hear back from Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, and plans to follow in Grandad’s footsteps and become an airline pilot.

George (7) has taken over for Frankie (13) as the unofficial mascot of Boy Scout Troop 140, and Frankie is aiming for Patrol Leader. Frankie talked John into going along on the campouts, just like he used to do back when Jack and Liam (24) were scouts.

When not sidelined with a fractured wrist, Frankie was on the flag football and basketball teams and just might break the all-time St. Monica record for red slips. He is directing a series of action shorts in which George stars as the nefarious Gerb Granson, sweet potato and clownfish thief.

Lulu (11) spent two years running forced-labor lemonade stands and confiscating birthday money from her siblings to put into a backyard hot tub fund. When she announced to Grandad that she had saved up $283, he told her he was pretty sure that’s exactly what hot tubs cost and brought one home. She lets us use it.

Midge (9) is head girl of our homeschool again and working hard to keep fellow students George and Barbara (5) in line. She has found a penpal in her eldest stepsister Mairead (26)—rhymes with parade—who lives in Nashville and is a professional baker. Midge’s favorite homeschool event of the year was the St. Nicholas Advent Market, where she sold out of her selection of liturgical-themed crafts. Barbara’s appendectomy was the year’s (second) biggest surprise so far, and now, just like her Madeline doll, “on her stomach is a scar”. While hospitalized, she drew a picture of a unicorn on one side of a paper and of “the inside of the unicorn” on the other side, prompting her to announce that she had “a GREAT idea for when I’m a grownup.” New life plan: start a museum of the insides of animals.

John and Kendra did a twenty-one mile walk to the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in WI to celebrate their engagement, and spent their honeymoon in Santa Barbara. We got thirteen of the fourteen kids on a Disneyland trip, and seven of them on an RV trip to the Grand Canyon, then picked up two more plus grandparents at a campsite for Thanksgiving weekend. For those of you keeping track of our annual Thanksgiving murder mysteries, this year Nana did it. We’re looking forward to our biggest ever family Christmas dinner! Keep us in your prayers; you’ll be in ours.

May your Christmas be joyful and your 2025 be filled with wonder.

With love, from the Tierneys & Nortons