Every year Claude writes a Christmas letter to go in our Christmas cards. This year was a little tougher to write but he got it done. I believe he did a fantastic job. Here is our year as view through the eyes of my hubby, Claude Christensen.
THE CHRISTENSEN FAMILY CHRONICLES
Circa 2020
2020 being what it
is, the year of the big “reset”, we were tempted to just send you a
fill-in-the-blank letter. However, let’s
pretend we all had a GREAT year full of fun and excitement enhancing our holiday
pleasure.
Caveat -- Yeah, I don’t know about you but I am
definitely staying up until midnight on December 31st to make *^#! SURE 2020 really and finally goes away. We call this one the “Year of Piling On” AKA
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” or maybe “The Year of the Drive Thru”. Anyway, what follows is an update on how
Eagle Bend’s Power Couple faired this year.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but when the highlight of any given
month reads – Sandi got her hair cut, or we both got oil changes, or our trash
pick-up day got changed, being clever and creative gets almost too much to
bare. Soooo, if you care, AND YOU DO,
read on…
See, we do to0 have a social life…
Truthfully, for a
couple of old people supposedly on “lock-down” we managed to get out there a
little bit here and there, now and then.
January BC (Before Covid) was a big month aka haircut and oil change… February BC saw us celebrate our 50th
anniversary. Then, if memory serves, I think it was a Hershey bar exchange for Valentine’s
Day. Then we got REALLY crazy and flew
out to Arizona to “hang” out in and around Tombstone for a few days (related to
our anniversary). It was a great trip
except for Day-2 when I smashed my foot into the corner of the fridge in the
hotel room and broke my toe – aka the Broken Toe at the OK Corral. We enjoyed the now limping adventure
none-the-less and saw lots of interesting stuff. Other February highlights include getting our
respective driver’s licenses converted to the new Kentucky Real-ID cards that
cost four times as much for twice as long but allow you to get on the
occasional airplane. Oh, and then there
was the Beach Boys Concert. It was a little
surreal watching people older than us sing a bunch of surfing songs (Actually,
they still sound pretty good). During
the BC era we made several trips to LaGrange to watch the Marx kids do their
thing in band concerts and plays as well as a trip with ‘H’ to see The Empire
Strikes Back in concert with the Louisville Orchestra.
And then, the Wheels came off the Bus…
BC came to a
screeching halt in Kentucky starting in March so we had to “86” all the fun
stuff we had planned, including our 50th Anniversary Family Reunion
at a resort in Berlin, Ohio. Nothing
much happened in April. We just cut grass, weeded flower beds and stared longingly
at each other at a safe social distance.
The highlight in May was pretty much updating our respective calendars
for all the stuff that got cancelled in March and April. In June we threw caution to the wind and snuck
off to Michigan to make some deliveries and count heads. In June we continued our now quite regular onslaught
of the local drive-thrus. I’d add here
that Sandi got her hair cut and I got an oil change, but you already knew that…
And we’re driving, we’re driving... Our big, albeit unplanned, event for the year
came in July, as our presence was requested out west for some family
business. Turns out the best way to
handle it was a big ole road trip. On
the way out, we traveled through the wilds of Oklahoma and made a quick visit
to Sandi’s sister who lives, as they put it, in the middle of nowhere. Then it was across Middle America and through
the Rockies (which we really enjoyed), and on to Tremonton to take care of business. Finally, it was time to point the car
eastward. Taking a different route
coming back, we wandered around a bit in the big Wyoming parks, then into South
Dakota and points eastward stopping along the way to see some Family and Church
Historical sights. The trip itself was
good but bitter-sweet. We no more than
returned to the Bluegrass than it was time to hose ourselves off, repack the
car, and return to Michigan for more deliveries and some unplanned family business.
There and Back Again -- In September,
which seems a lot like yesterday, we traveled up to Newport, Kentucky to do the
Legacy Gangster Tour. This requires an
explanation. It turns out that Newport, Kentucky
was like Vegas before Vegas was Vegas.
It was a town filled with all manner of shady activity, real and
imagined, involving all the famous names one would associate with that sort of
thing. This was a walking tour around
the sights of the old casinos and speak-easies of the 20s and 30s and even
beyond. We met the Tour Guide at the
“Gangster’s Dueling Piano Bar” if that tells you anything.
By October, things
had loosened up a bit and we were able to shiver through a couple of High
School Football games to watch ‘H’ blow his horn and “Bailey” manage her social
life. As much fun as that was, we were
itching to hit the road yet again. Sooo,
using my birthday as an excuse, we pointed the car south and drove down to
Jekyll Island, Georgia, a place I had discovered back when I was an important
elected official. There is a resort
there comprised of “cottages” (aka mansions) once owned by the rich and famous
of the northeast who wintered there.
These have now been refurbished and converted into rentable rooms and
suites available to normal folks like us.
It’s a beautiful southern resort with lots of trees filled with Spanish
Moss, great seafood, quiet beaches and interesting water features. We had a great week to say the least (on our
private enclosed balcony).
In November, as I
recall, there was some kind of election, but I wouldn’t exactly call it a
highlight… That honor would be the visit by our HVAC guy to check out our
heating and air-conditioning systems prior to the winter, or maybe the new
washer and dryer we had to buy, or perhaps the great 2020 brisket and turkey
thaw in preparation for Thanksgiving,
We’ll leave you with some poetry…
ODE To The 26th
When the presents are opened and each package undone,
With the wrappings all strewn left and right,
And all of a sudden, you seem quite alone, with no spouse
or children in sight,
Just sigh to yourself and go to your shelf for the broom
and your little dustpan.
Then put on a smile, sweep them into a pile, and throw
them all in the can…
Oh Yeah – The Kids -- They’re fine.
Congrats
on having accomplished your most important holiday task. We wish you just the
best Christmas ever and Good Tidings To One And All… The Christensen’s !!!
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