I'm taking a short break in my regularly scheduled programming to give you...
The Carline Family Christmas Card!
Here it is, in its entirety:
"Seeing isn't believing. Believing is seeing."
Ten
points for the person who can name the movie I quoted above. Much like that
film, life at the Carlines is often about believing the unbelievable. From
Santa Claus, to Christmas miracles, to pretending the house is clean and the
dogs are well behaved—why accept reality when fantasy brings so much happiness?
Not that reality is always bad.
Marcus really is in the first
of his two senior years at Cal State Long Beach. Confused? Apparently when you
have a double major in Vocal Jazz Studies and Composition, it takes you an
extra year to get the job done. He’s sharing an apartment near the school with
a friend and is so buried in classes he barely comes up to ask for more money. Dale’s
fantasy is that his son will have time for a haircut. I’ve begun to call him
M.C. (Mushroom Cloud) Marcus. I’m not certain what he’d say is the highlight of
his year, but for me, it was that he turned 21. How could he become an adult in
reality, when I’m still pretending not to grow up at all?
Dale’s big news is that the
stars finally aligned and the figures added up, making his dream come true. In
other words, he retired from Raytheon this year. What’s he going to do now?
Well, according to him, he’s got a list of home repairs for both houses, he
plans to continue to coach kids who want to play basketball on the Placentia
Youth League, and I may or may not have some suggestions. In other news, he went
to the Frozen Four NCAA Hockey Championships again, and did a little final
traveling for Raytheon before saying his goodbyes.
I just keep writing books,
riding horses, and attending to the needs of the Placentia Library as one of
their trustees. My latest book is a memoir. Not mine, but my horse, Snoopy. (He
tells a darned fine story.) I’ve done some special events with this book, from
horse shows to large expositions, and they’ve all been fun. I can’t decide
whether I fit writing around all my other activities, or fit everything around
my writing, but I somehow manage to get it all done.
With Marcus’ schedule, it’s
getting harder to plan family stuff, but we still made our annual trip to the mountains
of Northern California with most of the gang. It’s becoming a bittersweet
voyage for me. I’m so proud to see all of our kids growing up, and yet I miss
the days when they were little. For other trips, Dale and I scampered off to
Cambria for our anniversary, and he tagged along to a library district-related
conference in Monterey. Fine meals were consumed and wine was purchased.
The animals are all doing
well. Lady Spazz and Duffy entertain me daily with their full-contact
wrestling. Now that Dale’s retired, perhaps I’ll take my laptop to Starbucks
and let them entertain him instead. Katy the cat is getting very old and spends
all day sleeping, after which she rests. Frostie and Snoopy are wonderful, as
usual. In addition to his own blog, Snoopy now has his own Facebook page and
YouTube channel. That horse loves an audience.
I’m looking back at
my calendar to see if I left anything out, but the year has whipped by so
quickly, I’m surprised at all we’ve done. It almost looks like we time
traveled, and maybe we did. Perhaps it’s because I write fiction, but I like to
believe in magic. I think we all should go out on a limb, bet on the underdog
and reach for the unattainable, at least once in a while. And when it feels
like the world is sucking all the joy from our hearts, we can all follow the
instructions in the movie: Shake our snow globes and “Remember!”
Wishing you a Magical Holiday
and a Fantastic New Year!
For those of you who don't want to read it, here is a badly narrated version for your listening enjoyment:
Happy Holidays!
