2010 Holiday
Greetings

Greetings from sunny, but not so warm, Arizona.  As I write this, we have clear skies and
a temperature of 48.  We’ve
had quite a bit of rain over the last week – but in the desert, rain is
welcome (but it does mess up the golf schedule).

It has been a busy year (much of which we covered in an
update I sent in May).  We will
cover a few of the highlights of the first part of the year, but focus on the
second half.

Golf.  Deanne is still serving as president of our
women’s nine hole golf.  She can only serve two terms so someone
else will have to do it next season.
The highlight of her golf year was winning the local President’s
Cup in February.  Other than that,
her golf game has been deteriorating.
She’s not playing as much because of the recurrent pain in her
back and leg.  She received a series
of epidural injections this fall, which has helped.  John has been playing about once a week
with a group of guys who are out mostly to have fun.

Theater.  John is still involved in the local
theater group.  They’re
scheduled to do another mystery dinner performance in March.  Various logistical challenges led to the
cancellation of the planned December production.

Travels.  In late May we traveled to southern Arizona – visited some  wineries,
Bisbee (an old mining town that’s been revitalized as an artists’
community), and the Kartchner Caverns, which are
amazing.  We spent the 4th
of July in Sedona.  While there we
took a Red Rock Jeep tour to a different part of the area (we’d been on the
standard Pink Jeep tour on an earlier visit).  We were the only two passengers so were
able to have conversations with our tour guide about a lot of the history and
geology of the area.  We like Sedona
and plan to visit again.  For many
residents here, it’s like the northern lakes area in Minnesota – a great summer getaway.

In August we made our annual trip to Minnesota for John’s cancer check
(he’s fine). The highlight of the trip was attending Art Perchance, a
fundraiser for the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  We saw some friends from Deanne’s
time on the Ordway Circle of Stars board and won a couple of pieces of art,
including one by an artist from Minneapolis who was a finalist on Bravo
TV’s reality show, Work of Art:
The Next Great Artist.  Unfortunately, when we made our
“bids” for the art, we forgot about shipping (or even getting it
back to the hotel in our rental car).

Deanne skipped her 50-year high school reunion so that we
could spend our 41st anniversary in Las Vegas, lured in by a cooking
demonstration by Wolfgang Puck.  The
demonstration was delightful.  After
the show, we stopped by one of his restaurants to buy his cookbook (hoping to
have it autographed).   And,
who showed up?  Wolfgang.

He not only autographed the book, he spent some time
chatting with us and provided us with champagne to celebrate our
anniversary.  While in Vegas, we
also went to the Cirque du Soleil presentation of The Beatles’ Love.
We loved it (though I guess in honor of my high school reunion, we
should have attended the Elvis show).

At the end of October, we spent several days in Carlsbad, California
– visited Sea World and Legoland (where we played miniature golf on a
challenging little course designed to look like the North Woods – built with
Legos, of course).  We came back a
couple of days early to attend our community Halloween party.  John went as James Dean (the theme was
celebrities), and Deanne went as a Top
Chef contestant.

Our next excursion begins next week.  We’re taking a
AAA tour to attend the Tournament of Roses Parade.  While there we’ll visit the Getty Museum,
the Reagan Library, and the site of the assembling of the floats.  As of now, it looks as if we’ll
have wet, cool weather.  We’ll
have to remember to bring our rain gear (don’t need it much here in Arizona, so we may need
to hunt for it).

Family News.  John’s father died last January.
He was in his 90s and, though somewhat hobbled by a broken hip and other
maladies of age,
still mentally agile.

Deanne’s nephew, C.J., joined the army in late
2009.  He and his long-time
companion (and the mother of two of his children), Andrea, got married at the
end of last year.  In June, C.J. was
deployed to Afghanistan.  He’s stationed near Kandahar.  His unit has lost several members in the
last six months.  He was home for
about two weeks earlier this month.
We think he’ll be deployed for just one year, but one never knows.

Hobbies.  Always needing to fill our retirement
time, we’ve found (and refound) some leisure
activities.  Deanne still plays mah jongg about once a week, and
both of us recently began to play bridge after a hiatus of at least thirty
years.  Deanne’s college friend,
Karen Kohout, and her husband
convinced us to try it, and now we have a regular weekly game (well, the last
two weeks anyway).  We were pleased
that the basics came back to us so quickly.  We’d been hearing that the game
had changed, but either we’re learning the changes or not playing the
changed game.

We’ve also become big fans of the Food Channel and
have been trying new foods and new preparations.  Why did you think I had a Top Chef
jacket?  It’s great fun, but
it hasn’t helped us keep our weight under control.  Maybe in 2011?

Well, I think I’ve covered the highlights of the
year.  Hope to hear from many of you,
and maybe see some of you as we travel.

To all, a merry Christmas and a new year filled with fun and
love and all you hope for.

Deanne and John