Our House

Our letter went through a week of edits, revisions and remembering a tidbit here and there. Most of the letter was typed during the three Bowl Games listed below. The Rose Bowl (Hooray Michigan State!) and Sugar Bowl (Congrats Clemson on your first BCS Bowl win!) were fantabulous games! Tammy watched them, but did not type. The entries below are segments that did not land in the letter, but chronicle snip-its of history.

Witt and I are at home today due to single digit temps; we're calling it a SNOW DAY. :) Happy 2014!!

Typed 31 Dec: With minutes left in 2013 Texas A&M just beat Duke in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Ok -- Johnny Manziel is that good. Known for its premier basketball program, the Blue Devils left it all on the field; heart matters. Kudos underdogs!

Typed 3 Jan: Last night Oklahoma shocked college football faithful by beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and then the temperature dropped tremendously across the South. Today Witt and I saw our first house wren of 2014 – we smiled. I suppose delayed is better than not at all. So, here I sit on the last official day of Christmas Break (3 January 2014) typing and finally it feels good – let the revisions begin!

Typed 6 Jan: Tonight during the National Championship game we are putting the final touches on the year in review letter! 4^th quarter and the score is 20-21 --- oh dear! Nope Auburn just scored again 27-31 with one minute to go. 34-31 Florida State leads with thirteen seconds remaining. (Ask Alabama --- Auburn only needs one second!) Seminoles are National Champions!

“Behind every trial and sorrow that He makes us shoulder,
God has a reason."

~ Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns

6 January 2014

Our three family photographs for the Christmas card are festive, but the card did not find its way to your mailbox (or even Snapfish.com cart). Parts of this letter have been floating in my brain since Witt survived a “broken” nose in January and wore his bruise as a badge of honor. Combining numerous Post-It notes into a single document seemed overwhelming, but how could I end the year without an attempt at our annual re-cap? The letter takes hours. After coffee, blood, sweat and just one more correction -- Marc usually smiles and says something like: I don’t know why you put yourself through this, but it sounds like you. Good job.

January found our fingers crossed for the Falcons to land in the Super Bowl, but the 49ers flew into town and dashed those hopes; their fall 2013 season was pathetically dismal. The Braves had a fantabulous regular season and then were buried by the Dodgers in the post-season; spring training is just weeks away. (Are the sports gods from California?) In March we celebrated Witt’s sixth birthday (even the Sam’s cashiers sang to him). Six is big; one has to use two hands to show this age! We enjoyed a Spring Break visit to Gulf Shores with our neighbors and Witt lost his first tooth April 25^th. The end of summer found us celebrating our twentieth anniversary, Witt entering 1^st grade and our family joining Boy Scouts of America. Marc and Witt are having a ball; Tammy is stitching patches and taking pictures. Folding chairs accompanied us to the soccer field on fall Saturdays to cheer for the Rams. In October His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited Atlanta and Tammy was a volunteer; he shared a message of world peace begins at home with kindness. Batman returned home Halloween with a huge bag of loot. Witt was a member of the church’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat (phenomenal volunteer cast) in November and our family celebrated Thanksgivukkah. Marc and Witt consumed the first forty-five books in the Magic Tree House series during bedtime reading this year.

On the morning of April 15^th Tammy was granted a transfer to Duluth High School (interviewed on April Fool’s Day) in Witt’s cluster. That afternoon Marc called with the news of the Boston Marathon Bombing. Thanks to ordinary citizens and cell phone cameras the authorities were able to identify the perpetrators after a scary manhunt across New England. Our nation embraced the Boston Strong slogan. How appropriate six months later a team (of grown bearded men not affiliated with Duck Dynasty) was able bring the World Series to Fenway, fans sang “Sweet Caroline” and Bean Town celebrated what humans can do when we work together – heart matters. Life is Good.

The following people/phrases may very well define America in 2013: Ted Cruz (& Dr. Seuss), Federal Government Shut Down, gay marriage, gun control, IRS scandal, Malala, NSA, ObamaCare, Vladimir Putin, selfie, and Eric Snowden. Time’s Person of the Year, Pope Francis, seems to have brought a philosophy of Leaders Serve to the Vatican since his arrival in March – refreshing!

The world said good-bye the Monopoly iron (the cat won Facebook voting), Blockbuster (We have many fond memories of walking the alphabetically arranged VHS tapes in Charlotte and later DVDs in Snellville most weekends.), Candlestick Park, Creative Memories and to many extraordinary people who changed the world in their chosen profession. Dear Abby, President Mandela, Prime Minister Thatcher, Actor: Dennis Farina (Law & Order), Author: Tom Clancy, Baseball Legends: Cardinal Stan Musial & Oriole Earl Weaver (both on 1/19), Broadcaster: Pat Summerall, Designer: Lilly Pulitzer, Film Critic: Roger Ebert, Journalists: David Frost & Helen Thomas, Musicians: George Jones (Anyone humming “He Stopping Loving Her Today?”) & Lou Reed, and Pianists: Van Cliburn & Marian McPartland. The following shaped my childhood in the 70s -- TV Actors before DVR: Bonnie Franklin (One Day at a Time), Annette Funicello (The Mickey Mouse Club), Jean Stapleton (All in the Family --- Archie!!!), Ned Wertimer (The Jeffersons) and Inventors: Andre Cassagnes (Etch a Sketch) and Chuck Foley (Twister). Mr. Soprano, James Gandolfini, died in June at the age of 51. Upon hearing the news my mind immediately ‘journey-ed’ to the diner scene in The Sopranos finale, “Made in America” and I started humming Don’t Stop Believin’. (Marc absorbed the entire series; the only episode I saw in full was the last.) The producers of GLEE handled the tribute episode to Finn Hudson, McKinley High School football player turned show choir member, with dignity. In reality, Hudson was Cory Monteith; he was a son, a brother and a friend who lost his battle with drug addiction on July 13th. As a teacher I appreciated Monteith’s family and the FOX Network not sweeping this very real issue under the rug, rather allowing viewers to be reminded that life is not always as it seems. Nine days later on the 22^nd the world said hello to Prince George of Cambridge. Life goes on.

This is the third year America’s Got Talent has made our family letter. Jimmy Rose, while not having the best voice, made the finals with heart. His original song “Coal Keeps the Lights On” was amazingly authentic (and was played in DC during an energy debate). Marc thought Kenici Ebina, performance artist, should win (and he did), while I pulled for comedian Taylor Williamson. We cried, laughed, and shook our heads all the while cheering for underdogs and the American Dream.

Our family gives four paws up to the new shows: The Following (FOX) and ABC’s The Goldbergs. We continue to view Longmire, The Mentalist, Major Crimes, The Newsroom, and Glee when time permits. Marc is a huge fan of Gold Rush and Witt has memorized portions of the Disney Channel’s Dog with a Blog (adorable series). Tammy had the joy of teaching Khalid Hosseini’s The Kite Runner in the fall after being totally moved by it in January. Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks, Gretel Ehrlich’s The Solace of Open Spaces, Anne Morrow’s Gift from the Sea, and The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout were a few of her favorite reads in 2014. Witt offers the following advice to kindergarteners and 1^st graders: “Don’t forget your snack!”

We’ll do better in eleven months with our card and letter – hopefully! We wish you a 2014 filled with abundance, comfort and joy. Be well.

Marc, Tammy, Witt & Ilene Glaser