CHRISTMAS CARD 2010

It is that time again, The Dreaded Christmas Letter. Will they brag? Will they whine? Will they bore you to tears? Will they ramble on and on? Probably.

In January we attended the Fancy Food Show again. Fabulous good eats. Every kind of food you can think of and more. We sampled wonderful hams from around the world, cheeses that I still dream about, risotto made in a Parmesan cheese wheel, wines, chips, chocolates, and more. Loved it.

Janet is still volunteering at an Oakland school. The highlight of the year was going on a field trip with the whole school. She quickly found out that riding a school bus for over an hour is just as uncomfortable as it was in the 70’s. Still no shocks on those buses, or are there any seat belts.

Janet continues to volunteer at the County Recorder’s Office doing wedding ceremonies. The sister of a friend asked Janet to perform the ceremony for her wedding. That was great. The family treated Marty and Janet as if they were blood kin. This was a really feel good wedding and reception.

Janet continues to blog regularly. On her blog she shares what is happening in her life and sometimes Marty’s: X rated weddings, art projects with first graders, testing recipes, chasing down garbage trucks, pictures of our road trips, blowing glass. www.ihavenoendings.blogspot.com

Marty is still advising at Phi Gamma Delta. He is on the alumni board and enjoys it very much.

We both worked the San Francisco Aids Walk again. A wonderful event, that every year we hope is our last time. We hope every year that next year there won’t be a need for the walk.

In January Marty went to Los Angeles to watch friend Luis in a billiard tournament, The West Coast Challenge. This is an annual event. Luis is that good, and Marty is that excited about billiards.

Marty is consulting with Horizon Wealth Group and assisting them in their marketing. He also continues to work with Reverse Mortgages. He has a new website so go check out www.MartyAppel.com.

Marty continues his love of making glass. Throughout the year he has assisted Randy Strong at demos in Berkeley and in San Francisco. He also has crafted pieces that are used by companies and agencies as awards. His website www.MartysGlass.com displays some of the pieces he has made.

Marty has continued with his gardening and enjoys seeing orchids blooming all year round. We have 6 plants in the house now full of blooms.

One of the funnest times we have is when we get together with two other couples a few times of the year. We call us the “A Team” and we have a blast going to each others’ homes and cooking great food and drinking some fabulous wines. Look out GORDON RAMSEY. We are on your heels.

In August our nephew and his family were transferred to Travis Air Force Base. Travis is just up the road from us. It has been great to have extended family close to us. Their son asked us to come for his school’s Grandparent’s Day since his grandparents live out of state. We went and had a wonderful time. My brother and his wife are coming for Christmas to be with them. We will join them Christmas Day as will our son Erik

In September we decided to downsize for many reasons. We need to find a place where we don’t do the maintenance, no steps, and a place to grow old in. Well, we are old, grow older in. We got the house ready for market, and that nearly killed us. Erik and a friend moved furniture out to the garage. The stager wanted a nearly bare house. We painted and cleaned carpet. Friends helped us pack up, Marty and another friend put in new windows. Our 72 year old windows were rotten. We had traffic through the house, lots. But no one was buying, just lookie loos. With the holidays, we have taken it off the market. Maybe in the spring we will try again.

We are still fairly healthy. No big issues that a pill won’t fix. We struggle with the economy as the world is. We value our friends and family who support us. We wish we could be with the far away friends and family. But please know we think of you and miss you.

May you have a wonderful Holiday Season and a healthy Happy New Year.

Love to all of you,
Janet       Marty

DOMESTIC THURSDAY

Thursdays I usually stay home and act like a housewife. That word act is important to remember. I am not a very domestic animal. Well, I do like to cook. But someone must do certain things, such as clean toilets, wash and iron clothes, clean house. It seems that would be me. Marty could do most of that much better than I do. (I am much better at laundry. He doesn't understand hot water and colors.) But I don't want to hold down a paying job, so he does that for me and I take care of the inside of the home.

Today was a mixture of domestic bliss. I washed several loads of laundry, starched and sprinkled shirts to iron tomorrow, put up some laundry, did Christmas shopping, worked on our Christmas letter, made a huge pot of chili, and took out the recyclables.

The Christmas shopping was great. I love online shopping. No crowds, no driving there, just walk into my office and start clicking. I found the perfect gift for Marty, which I can not share. He reads this blog also. But trust me, even though we are doing the frugal Christmas, it is great. It took a while to comparison shop on line. You have to find the best price, then lowest shipping, tax or no tax, and then remember which site is best overall. He will love it and he doesn't even know he wants this. Well, maybe he does. : )

I love writing our Christmas letter. Every year it gets a little longer, which means it could be boring or worse bragging. We get those bragging letters sometimes, Sally Mae is prom queen, Johnny is president of the class. I won the lottery, you didn't. But that is OK. The worse are the letters that tell all the doom and destruction that has happened in a 500 mile radius. Every death down to fifth cousins will be listed. They will share the stories of the plague of locusts that wiped out their petunias, and that their fan belt broke after 100.000 miles. Those letters do sorta make us laugh.

We try to just list our year's happenings. Marty and I do a lot of things, we are active seniors. And I like to share our life with friends all over the country. Yes, sometimes we brag too. You have to toot your own horn sometimes. So forgive us. I write lots of stuff, put in beginning sentences about Marty then he adds details, and finally he formats and edits it. So maybe it isn't too long. This year he has a lot to edit. I have already filled the page and he still needs to flesh out his stuff. Maybe we will have two pages this year.