Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas everyone!

Over the past year we have had many experiences that push us towards reflection.  My daughters are eight and ten and getting too tall to carry comfortably.  We lost a beloved pet (Skitter, a guinea pig).  Emily kicked the soccer ball between my legs and nimbly stepped around me in a scrimmage, proving that her soccer skills are in the ascendancy while mine…well, it’s not polite to use the terms I am thinking of.  Father Time marches on, and it’s our job to adapt.

Claire still has a wonderfully bubbly and undefeatable personality.  We were out selling Girl Scout cookies door-to-door in the neighborhood when a very nice older woman opened the door.  She immediately sensed our intentions (the wagonload of Thin Mints might have given it away) and was crestfallen, “I’m so sorry—I don’t have any cash.”

Claire responded, “That’s okay,” and the woman got her smile back, assuming she was off the hook, “you can write a check.”  She laughed for a moment and then bought four boxes.

During Spring Break Emily and Claire travelled north to San Simeon to tour Hearst Castle with Holly and Rich.  Rich took a hilarious twenty-second video of Claire up to her chin in short rib bones (and up to her eyebrows in barbecue sauce), still chewing and yet reaching for more.  We have an agricultural balance among our daughters; one wants to raise livestock, and the other wants to eat them.
See the rib eating video - click here 

Morro Rock

Claire played on the Lavender Lava under 10 girls AYSO soccer team, and I was the coach.  We learned how to win and how to lose.  Claire made many friends and is getting better all the time.  I still have a long way to go in knowing what nine-year-old girls think is important—it took two days and three rounds of voting to come up with “Lavender Lava.” Yet we struggled with keeping both feet on the ground on throw-ins all year (sigh).

Emily moved up to the much bigger field with the under 12 girls, and I had the pleasure of watching her score the winning goals in two games (I can describe each one in less than ten minutes if I leave out the details, ask me).  Her team is undefeated and will be participating in the playoffs in January.

Soccer is the confirmed favorite outdoor activity of Emily and Claire, which is a relief because I secretly believe it means a lot to my wife.  Just because I played and refereed for years and think it is the greatest game in the world don’t think I’m the one pushing them to play.

Other competing outdoor activities this past year included playing in the snow up at Mt. Pinos in January where I learned that repeatedly crashing your elbow onto ice will cause it to swell no matter how cold you keep it.  We got some sliding discs and whiled away a Saturday—only stopping for lunch.

Wisconsin during the summer with my parents is also very outdoor heavy.  Emily water-skied around the lake for the first time.  We actually ate some of the fish we pulled out of Leader Lake, thanks to the deep-frying maestro, Uncle Matt Ryder.  Speaking for all the girls in the family, Claire said,” I don’t really like to eat fish…unless it’s deep fried so you can’t really taste it.”

We took our annual expedition to Wilderness Walk, half a zoo for woodland creatures plus one Bengal tiger and half a collection of themed shacks (maze, tilted, jail and the like): very unpolished and very fun for us.  While we were watching the wolves a passing ambulance siren set them off to howling and all the game animals got very alert all of a sudden; very fun to watch.  At the end of the day the girls all had a memorable time on a trail ride outside of Hayward.

Jenn and I returned to the scene of childhood memories by taking our girls up to Gooseberry Falls, fifty miles northeast of Duluth near the northern shore of Lake Superior.  We had a very nice two hour hike and played in the water; no rangers and no safety railing nearby, just one warning sign and an ethos of personal responsibility. Jenn likes to contrast that visit with the inanity of some of the visitors to Disneyland, “I didn’t know I could be hurt if I put my hand between two moving pieces of metal.”  She says that something about overpaying entrance fees turns off parts of people’s brains.

Gooseberry Falls

Speaking of childhood memories, at Claire’s birthday party we resurrected a game my grandfather used to organize for my cousins, brother and me: a kind of scavenger hunt in which we would discover rhyming clues and eventually discover the grand prize.  Everybody loved it and Claire’s group did too.

Back in school, Emily decided she wanted to run for treasurer but she lost to a sixth-grader: disappointing but not crushing.  Now this particular sixth grader had the good sense to up and move just two weeks after the election, so Emily was appointed the post.  I asked if the horse’s head she put into the sixth grader’s bed affected her decision to leave, and she just looked at me funny.  Now she gets to count up the Santa-gram money.  Sonny would be proud.

Jenn is moving up through the ranks at Disneyland—every couple of months she comes home talking about new training and responsibilities and yet is still in a good mood.  She really enjoys it and is looking forward to more training this year.

I’m still trying to land a full-time teaching job and occupy myself with substituting.

We were just invited to go on an evening boat cruise with Ryan and Angie Balius.  We cruised around Huntington Harbor to see all the lights while sipping hot chocolate and eating cookies. The electric power went out on one side of the harbor, obviously an overloaded transformer.  We gleefully indulged in speculation about the owners of waterfront mansions not being able to afford that month's electric bill.  After an hour SC Edison must have taken pity on the paupers and turned the power back on. This trip can put even the most convinced Scrooge in the Christmas mood.

Disney Family Chistmas Party with Jenn's parents

That’s about it.  See you all soon,

The Leebs