As we once again celebrate the holiday season, we look back at 2009 as a year to remember, both in large and small ways. This year marked the historic inauguration of Barack Obama as our 44th president. As a result, our country is now acknowledging and working to slow global warming, rebuilding relationships with other countries that had been alienated by our former president for several years, attempting to wind down a war of adventure while trying to end another with some sort of victory, and slowly endeavoring to make health care for all a right and not a privilege.
For us, this has been a relatively quiet year, though punctuated by happy events that we will long savor. Our first big memory of the year was our cruise to Alaska. For ten days the Sea Princess plied the waters between San Francisco and Alaska and back home, allowing us to see such sights as the Mendenhall Glacier, Ketchikan, Skagway, the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad to the Canadian border, and Tracy Arm Fjord. We had planned this trip for the summer of 2010, to celebrate the passage of both our 50th birthdays. But fate had other plans and we enjoyed the trip a year early. While in Juneau, we both put a hex on the House of Palin as our tour bus drove past the governor's mansion, and only a few days later she resigned from office. We like to think that in some small way we had something to do with it. You are most welcome.
The second big event of the year was the 50th birthday celebration of Rob, held at the Pasta Pelican restaurant in Alameda, site of many family gatherings. Over 100 guests joined in the celebration, eating, drinking, toasting, and dancing. It was truly an event to remember and one not likely to be repeated until the year 2059.
Fortunately for us, the year was a quiet one. We love living in Alameda. Both our jobs are secure, at least for the moment. And we continue to enjoy relatively good health. Aside from the occasional breathing difficulties and other reminders that we are no longer as young as we used to be, we plod on.
Our Christmas season this year began with a concert put on by the Oakland-East Bay Gay Men's Chorus. We also enjoyed a presentation of A Civil War Christmas in Palo Alto. On December 12th, our church, First Congregational Church of Alameda, presented its 130th Christmas concert, complete with Rob both singing in the choir and playing hand bells. After the concert, the choir and bell choir held a holiday party. Christmas Eve will find us at the Ludwig-Cabrera house for the annual family gathering. On New Year's Eve we will celebrate in Monterey, staying two nights at the Deer Haven Inn and attending a musical "Twist and Shout" event to ring in the new year.
As we end the year, Sarah Palin "wrote" a best-selling grudge screed while her daughter's baby daddy posed for Playgirl; Susan Boyle's debut CD soared to the top of the charts; a sci-fi cartoon, the most expensive movie ever made, is poised to be the hugest movie ever; teabagging has taken on yet another new meaning; health care for all is being hijacked, as always, by special interests, apathy, and the usual hatred of the wingnut right; education continues to be a very low priority for most taxpayers; reality TV has brought us balloon boy hoaxes and White House gatecrashers; texting while driving continues to be a nationwide obsession; virtual online friendships are replacing real ones; and "You lie!" has entered the lexicon as something you can shout to a president during a speech to Congress - unless he is white, of course.
Despite our tenuous hold on societal sanity, we wish for you and yours an exceptional holiday season and a 2010 filled with all that makes life worthwhile - health, happiness, and friends and family like you.
