2013 Holiday Greetings

Time to brief you on our mostly uneventful year. In addition to our regular activities (golf, theater, opera, etc.), here are the highlights (or lowlights):

January: Deanne felt sharp pain in her knee as she was playing golf (on a cold and damp day). The pain lingered, and she finally got first a cortisone shot and then a series of three shots of Euflexxa, a product designed to provide more relief than cortisone alone. Since then, the pain has subsided. Diagnosis: arthritis. Cure: no walking for exercise. She now does the stationary bike. And very little golf for the rest of the season.

February: Nothing to report.

March: We went to Las Vegas to meet up with Deanne’s sister Jackie, who was celebrating her 65^th birthday (the actual date was in November) and the tenth anniversary of her breast cancer survival. The three of us went to the Celine Dion concert at Caesar’s. We enjoyed this concert more than her first one about seven years ago. And it was fun to share the experience.

April: Our mostly annual trip to the Palm Springs to watch the Kraft Nabisco LPGA Championship. Had fun watching the tournament and also worked in an evening at a Palm Springs Art Museum fundraising event and a visit to the cheetahs we adopted at the Living Desert.

May: Deanne decided it was time to do something about the extra weight she’d put on since moving to Arizona. Here in our “active adult” community, every event seems to include food and drink. She joined Weight Watchers (actually rejoined as she’d become a lifetime member back in 1972), and John became an unofficial member. Together we’ve lost more than 50 pounds.

June: Another trip to Vegas. This time for a slot tournament. We’ve participated in several of these events, but this is the first time we actually won something -- $100 in slot credits, which we managed to spend that very night!

July: Nothing to report.

August: Our trip to Minnesota for John’s cancer checkup. We were able to see a few friends and visited both Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. John’s checkup was clean. The only glitch in the trip was that the battery in our rental car died. After a few hours of haggling with Hertz, a replacement was delivered to our hotel.

September: For the September celebration of our birthdays and anniversary, we traveled to Palm Desert. Yes, it’s hot there as well, but it’s a different and fun environment. John’s birthday dinner was at Morton’s – delicious. And they took our photo for a remembrance. Also visited some of our favorite restaurants, a couple casinos, and the art museum. On Deanne’s birthday later in the month, we visited the Phoenix Art Museum for lunch and a look at an exhibit about the art of video games.

October: Nothing to report.

November: Chihuly has returned to the Botanical Garden. We went to the members’ preview and had lunch at the new restaurant. The glass installations are beautiful, and we were visited by a roadrunner while we had lunch. We spent Thanksgiving in Las Vegas – mostly eating and gambling. Got in a lot of walking so managed to maintain our weight despite the extra food and drink.

December: A busy month. Deanne had an episode of TMJ disorder early in the month (following a two-week bout with a nasty cold). That now seems under control and we’ve been catching up on decorating and gifting. Given our new attention to our caloric intake, we’ve limited our purchase and eating of holiday treats. No baking this year.

2014: We hope it’ll be a peaceful year. We have a few trips planned. John’s acting troupe is planning another production in March. Deanne plans to work on a new wardrobe (she’s already had to return some prior purchases because she hadn’t worn them before they no longer fit).

We hope that you enjoy the holiday with friends and family and that 2014 will bring all of us good health and whatever we need to thrive in this crazy world.

Deanne & John