The Bass Family writes a year-end letter

Dear Friends,

What a year! Hope our annual Christmas letter finds you all healthy, happy and full of the holiday spirit. Our year has been wonderful, and we’ve been so blessed.

Mostly, of course, we’ve been wet. We’re OK with that, because the alternative for us would be unspeakable. But it does get kind of repetitive around here. Billy leaves our little weed patch every morning and gobbles up all the shad he can find. I try to get out for an hour or so each day, but it takes all of my strength to keep the silt cleaned up around here.

We do have our share of fun, I must say. In April, Billy and I took a second honeymoon up in the creek where we both were hatched. He made terrific arrangements on this isolated gravel bar. The current over the spot was so relaxing and I loved the way it made Billy’s pectoral fins glisten.

We’re thinking about moving. Billy has been eyeballing a dock on the other side of the lake. It’s got a lot of sturdy posts and Billy says the crawfish are so numerous that we could eat at home more often than not. I’m sure it’s noisy, though, considering the humans who tie their boat there, so we’re still weighing the pros and cons.

Sadly, I must also tell you that Grandma has left us. You all know how much she loved her buzzbaits … well, they finally proved to be her undoing. She was always attracted to the gold ones — what an eye she had for bling!

One day in May, not too long after Billy and I returned from the creek, Grandma just went nuts and started chasing a gold buzzer. She almost missed it, but the stinger hook caught her lower jaw and she was a goner. Last we saw her was when a human with a red hat pulled her out of the water.

We did get word from Ol’ Walter, that walleye who hangs at the bar in front of the state park, that Grandma had been dumped there and was flirting with a couple of bucks half her age. We hope she finds her way back this direction, but she’s a big girl and will do whatever she wants.

You know us, though. Life goes on. Biff and Buffy are away in their new schools. They’ve learned a lot and have managed to stay out of trouble, which is more than I can say for the Dinks across the bay. If the gossip is even half true, I fear they’ll never make it to ice-up.

Speaking of the ice, it’s coming. Billy says every year that we should swim to where it’s warmer. Two years back, we actually decided to take the plunge, but the grates in the dam were too narrow for me to get my fanny through. I told Billy to go, but he’s a homebody and said he likes our weed patch just fine for now.

As for the coming months, I can stand the cold, but it’s the darkness that gets me down. We don’t eat much when it’s cold and dark — I’m sure you all don’t either — so we pretty much grab everything that will fit in our mouths when the light returns.

Billy’s such a charmer. He said we’re going back to that creek again in April or May — depends on the weather. We can’t wait.

So that’s it for now. Please stop by and visit our weed patch anytime. Or call and we’ll go grab some perch.

Love to All,

The Bass Family

Billy, Beth, Biff & Buffy

jwwollitz@aol.com