Christmas 2023

 I’m not sure if it’s the confidence that comes with surviving Covid, or if we are so far into middle age that youth and vigor are only experienced in our imaginations, but Jenn and I have come to the realization that we are adults! Full-grown, self-actualized adults. Eyes forward, shoulders back, ready for anything that comes our way. Who cares what anyone thinks of us? We decide what happens! Answerable to no one.

Well, still answerable to our kids….and our parents, sure. And our weirdly judgy neighbor; what’s up with him? But adults! Mostly, I guess.

Jenn was promoted this past June to a senior stage manager position, which sounds like she works at a community playhouse. To Disney everything is a show, even the division that oversees the trams, shuttles and parking lots. We are all very proud of her advancement and went to Orange Hill restaurant to commemorate the occasion. We got dressed up and ordered drinks that were completely unknown to us, but we played it off as if we had been drinking Suicide Slides for years.  Forgive our deception, but we were dressed to kill. The food was fantastic and the company even better.

Orange County lights

On our bucket list is to camp two nights on one of the Channel Islands, which will require a ferry and a haul of all the water, food and camping equipment. To prepare (i.e. to see if we are remotely capable) we packed into Joshua Tree’s backcountry a few miles and set up a tent. After one night we declared success, packed up and out. It was Spring after a lot of rain, and although you couldn’t call it lush or even green, it was far more verdant than I had ever seen Joshua Tree. If you’ve never smelled the high desert after a rain, consider it for your bucket list.

Success!

We had a number of memorable road trips to Central California (and one quite a bit further). Jenn and I took weekends touring Solvang and Morro Bay, which I would recommend to anyone who wants small-town California charm. In Solvang, we lunched at the Sausagegarten (yes, they serve a variety of pork links, and no, they do not cater to a particular clientele) and I drank beer from a 2L stein.  Morro Bay was memorable for our kayak trip around the estuary and a foray onto the sand dunes in which our guide pointed out a trash midden of seashells left by the Chumash at least a hundred years ago. It was a beautiful and exhausting day. Emily invested in a road-trip vehicle and promptly set off for parts unknown. When she returned, Jenn gently grilled her as only a mother can. Emily broke down and declared she wouldn’t tell us, but she would show us if we were that interested. Apparently, she hadn’t realized that was exactly the challenge Jenn was hoping for. So they took off on a mother-daughter road trip and went as far north as Sue-meg State Park (near Eureka) and when they returned, asked, “Do you know how long this state is?!” Then they answered, “No, no you don’t. Let me tell you…” And I heard all about it.

Mother Nature must have noticed our newfound maturity and felt it necessary to humble us. In August she sent 50% of our annual rainfall in two days and added 45 mph winds to boot. I know this sounds banal to the rest of the country (“Uh, wind and rain are normal weather events, son”), but in southern California wind and rain are the two Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Our local news goes on Stormwatch! and we all sit transfixed in front of the tv, watching cars driving through the rain while we murmur, “Oh, those poor people.” Then She kicked it up a notch, Earthquake!! And we were already at peak panic! We were so rattled it took us forty-eight hours to forget the whole thing ever happened. After all, internet memes, political turmoil and Taylor Swift’s on tour and tickets only cost $3500! There’s no room in our heads for what happened yesterday.

Wine tasting in Solvang

Hiking in the Redwood National Park

Sunset at Morro Rock

Along the Big Sur Coast

We also saw two shows whose target audiences are charitably described as educated and refined and less charitably described as dorks and nerds: Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me at the Greek Theater and the Tina Fey-Amy Poehler comedy show in Redlands. We had a great time at both but were very out of place, as we saw almost nothing but dorks and nerds at both places! [Insert your own joke at our expense here] If you envy us for attending those, you might like to know I met Kai Ryssdal in the offices of NPR’s Marketplace and even had Nancy Farghalli take pictures of the two of us. I found out later that Nancy can produce the heck out of a radio show but can’t operate a cell phone camera. Nuts!

Claire, in particular, soared to new heights of maturity by getting a job, securing a driver’s license, moving into an apartment she shares with three friends, and chewing up UCI courses and spitting them out! We are very proud.

Legal to drive!

Beside going on road trips, Emily is gainfully employed at Knott’s Berry Farm, which is no longer owned by the Knott family, has no berry plants, and is not a farm of any kind. Huhnh. But they do have a great chicken restaurant, where Emily helps out. She has designs on the next challenge. Stay tuned!

For our 25th (Jenn claims this using dates and facts, but I trump this with my feelings that say we’ve been married ten years, twelve tops) wedding anniversary we flew to Anchorage and cruised the Alaskan and Canadian shoreline back to Vancouver, enjoying fresh salmon dinners, kayak tours, river floats, forest bike rides, glacier encounters and a significant amount of alcohol along the way with a great group of friends. We even got dressed up on the actual night of our anniversary to take pictures of ourselves. As long as you don’t put them alongside our wedding pics, we look pretty good!

Hubbard Glacier

Later we invited this same group of friends over for a beer-themed party in October. It was great fun, drinking beer and playing German folk games (like Stump and Masskrugstemmen) but I never could come up with a catchy name for it. October Beer Party? Fall Beer Festival? I’ll work on it.

Prost!

Luckily no new name was needed for the feast on a Thursday in November, so we had the whole fam damily over for turkey and trimmings. It is a relief to spend time with loved ones, exploring the bonds of kinship and friendship keeping us in love with each other. That, and my goodness, the food!! I should have fasted for the next two days. But I didn’t.

It is now Christmas season, and I can think of no better time to wish all of you happiness, love and peace for now, next year and always,

The Leebs