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December 9, 2010

Dear Santa,

You are probably the wrong person to ask, but how does one lose 6” from his waist and get back those 20-year-old abs?  Alas, it appears I am always asking you for impossible gifts for Christmas (hard to get the red Ferrari in that bag of toys), but I have been extremely good this year!  We’ll be leaving you extra cookies at the table on Christmas Eve as I’ve begun to take matters into my own hands and sworn them off (for a while anyway).

Sincerely,

Alan

While shopping for jeans in September, I was shocked to realize I could no longer squeeze into those size 34” waist pants that I’ve worn for the last 10 years.  Since they apparently don’t manufacture 35”, I had to settle for the 36” waist version.  Since this gradual waistline expansion began in my 30s, I have gracefully accepted fate (as well as that extra muffin or donut) … but no more.  No carb diets, skipping meals and moderate exercise have helped drop 10 pounds from most areas of my body except, of course, my waist.

Skiing kicked off our January with Hailey in her second and Shannon in her sixth year of lessons. Hailey is gaining confidence and enjoys leading us down the blue intermediate runs now. Shannon has hit the upper intermediate level wall in her skiing ability showing periodic signs of brilliance swishing down expert level slopes with no hesitation and shares Nora and my love of leaving the groomed runs behind and skiing through the trees. Neither share my love of moguls which the teenager in me still considers a fun challenge. I still hear echoes of my old Ski-To-Die group chanting “Go for it, go for it!” which more often than not ended up in near disaster on my part.

Keeping with a new tradition started last year, we took our main vacation in April again during the kids Spring Break from school.  Nora and I had always wanted to visit New York City, and with nephew Matt and his wife Kristen calling the Big Apple home for the last few years and a friend Lisa who recently moved there, it seemed like a great time to make that happen.  We stayed in a spacious condo on the 56th floor of a very nice building with grand views of the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, located only few blocks from Times Square.  Along with those three we also did up the Bronx Zoo, Central Park, Ellis Island, Grand Central Station, Greenwich Village, Washington Square and marveled at the fourth floor Museum of Natural History dinosaur exhibits. We met up with our family and friends for a few adventures, saw “Wicked” at a Broadway Theater one night and the girls even snuck in ice skating at Rockefeller Center. Nora, ever the human compass, had no problems navigating the subway system and along with some very nice meals out we also enjoyed our share of “street vendor” dining.  Never a dull moment in the city that never sleeps!

Spring brought not one, but two Daddy-Daughter Dances to attend with, yes, not one, but two daughters this year.  While the first dance was later termed “lame” with music (term used loosely here) provided by the Woodinville HS jazz band.  Big Band Era music didn’t really appeal to the pre-teen crowd and it’s just plain sad when “25 or 6 to 4” is the highlight of the set.  The second dance at Bothell HS was much better with a DJ playing a good selection of pop music from this century.

None of the 3 “group” camping trips planned with friends this year ended up panning out for us.  We filled the summer with unique adventures instead. We always enjoy Cirque du Soliel when in town seeing “Kooza” this year.  When our final camping trip of the year was cancelled at the last minute by a freak tree root disease epidemic causing 100’ tall trees to come crashing down randomly around the park we had reserved our campsites at, we improvised and had a BBQ at our house, meandered around aimlessly through “Bob’s Corn Maze” at nearby Snohomish, followed by some bonfire marshmallow roasting with our fellow campers instead.  We attended the World Championship of Sand Sculpting held in Federal Way this year and were amazed at the creativity and incredible skill involved in the 50+ sand sculptures on display.  We made our annual Evergreen State Fair trip, visited the Museum of Glass in Tacoma and did a whirlwind Seattle tourist jaunt with brother Dave and his wife Nan on their 4 day visit in September.

In late July, I attended my 35th Alter High School Reunion (yes, I said 35th) in Dayton, Ohio.  “25 or 6 to 4” was on the charts back then!  For almost a year prior to the reunion a good percentage of the Class of 75ers linked up on Facebook and I made fast friends with dozens of people that I never really knew in high school.  At the reunion golf event I was lucky enough to pair up with some fellow classmates that were “ringers” and our team won the tournament.  The last reunion I went to was my first, our 25th, Nora went with me and we spent the evening sitting in the corner with the dozen or so people I actually hung out with in high school.  This time, thanks in part to Facebook, I talked to most of the 100+ alumni and their spouses that attended the events and had a great time shedding all those old teenage inhibitions.  Made me wish I wasn’t so busy trying to grow up, had gotten more involved in school events, wasn’t so shy, and took the time to get to know them all better back in the day.  In between reunion events I managed to link up with a few good friends found through Facebook (Jeff and Joe) that I lost track of during college, as well sharing a few beers with my long-time Wright State University fellow Computer Science degree buddy, Dave.  It’s been way too long, dudes!

Shannon had a few overnight adventures this year going to Camp Cedar Springs with her fellow Kokanee classmates, her annual Girl Scout weekend at Camp Casey with Nora, and dozens of sleepovers with friends.  Soccer season kept us busy as usual shuttling the girls around for months to all the practices and games, often at conflicting times.  Hailey also took gymnastics this year, with Shannon in dance and finishing up 5+ years of piano lessons.  For the first time in over 20 years, we didn’t attend any concerts in 2010, but we did manage to experience our first Seattle Sounders FC professional soccer game thanks to our friends Heather and Scott who dragged us out for that one evening.  What a great crowd, exciting sport and fantastic team!

Since she was 6, Shannon has never wavered from her desire to be an author.  She has been focused on this for so long, and is so prolific a writer that we bought her a Netbook (smaller laptop) this year.  If she has an idea for a story, she’ll grab her Netbook, go sit on the couch in the living room and type away for hours.  She has dozens of stories filed away on her PC that range from 20 to 70+ pages long, most in the fantasy fiction genre.  This year she signed up for a series of Creative Writers Workshops in Seattle on weekends that with past classes have resulted in a collected set of stories that actually gets published.  Being published is her immediate goal.  When the teachers announced that they were not planning to publish this year, Shannon took matters in her own hands.  She began to write a collection of scary short stories titled “Mindless” with a friend, enlisted me as her editor and when finished we’ll begin the regimen of submitting copies to publishers.  Time will tell on how this works and where it leads.

This Halloween a pair of ”good” witches, a “strangeling” and a gorilla in an English bowler hat were seen wandering the neighborhood and Thanksgiving was spent this year with Nora’s cousin Theresa and her husband Dave, who we don’t see often enough.  Nora and the girls are off to Orlando on December 19th and then immediately driving 3 hours to Punta Gorda to spend 4 days with my mother “Nana” and “Papa Denton”.  I fly into Orlando on December 23rd, they drive back to pick me up and we’ll spend Christmas with my brothers who both live in Orlando and their families.  We’ll sneak in a Disney World Park and possibly Universal Studios before flying home.

Here’s hoping you get that expanding waistline under control in the upcoming year!  Remember, if your travels take you anywhere in our direction, that you always have a place to stay, especially if you don’t mind doing some yardwork in exchange for that room and board!  Merry Christmas 2010 to you and yours!

Love …

P.S. – Our website has been updated with the 2010 Year in Pictures and we’ve made an effort this year to list the entire extended family on the Family Tree page. Check it all out at http://www.digital-vision.com/alan.