Dear Friends and Family,

God Jul! It’s getting cold here, but that’s cool because this year it’s been so hot where we’ve been, now it’s finally not is comforting if not quite -able. Wool socks rock, so we won’t quibble. In town we’re known, Kari and I, as mild-mannered Techie Guy and Teacher Lady; when we roam, we’re…well, still us, just far from home.

Surprisingly, among the places where we earned perspiring faces since last Christmas was…Alaska! Driving there was quite a task: A month at least to cross B.C.! (Okay, more like three days, but we were not expecting Alcan driving to devolve to just surviving skeeters, dust, and signs that threaten bears and moose and goats, while sweatin’.)

Actually, the trip was fun. We chose July so I could run the Sourdough Triathlon (Half-Ironman) and carry on a Collins Clan tradition, namely: signing up then training lamely.* (Were we texting, here’s the place where I’d insert a smiley face.) Having done that Fairbanks tri successfully ensured that I could also start the Ironman in Kona, where I showed I can still tickle hour seventeen despite the best conditions seen in nearly 40 years! (My trick: Fly over next to someone sick.) My mom and dad were also there, and Scott and Kristin came to share the volcanic aloha, too, so Kari didn’t have to do her tropic walking by herself while I was laid up on the shelf.

Iain’s in Canoga Park (L.A.) where he enjoyed the dark and relatively traffic-free commutes to Burbank so that he could work third-shift at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios. I don’t know what he did, exactly, but he scored an Annie nomination for it! SuperMansion – VFX (with Bryan Cranston as T. Rex).

Siri’s down in San Diego with her boyfriend, Josh, where they go anywhere the theatre community has need of her or him: Producer or director, actor, singer, tix-collector, writer…if it doesn’t pay consistently, then that’s where they have spent the year accumulating credits while their dream is waiting just offstage to hear its cue. There’s still a lot of work to do, but someday soon we’ll get to see them launch their own stage company!

I could ramble on like this forever, but I’d likely miss the window for delivery before the new year, and I see the cards, addressed and stamped and eager, so I’ll stop and won’t beleaguer them (or you), except to say, Enjoy Your Winter Holiday!

*Case in point: When Siri moved, that Collins Clan tradition proved effective once again, as she signed up for Rock ‘n’ Roll with me – the marathon, that is – in June. The gig economy, though, soon exerted its own influence, to which she had to kowtow since it’s hard to run if you don’t eat, and vendors don’t take funky feet and fitness in exchange for food (and asking them to do so’s rude). She finished anyway! (Of course: An apple seed grows near its source, while heterozygosity ensures she’s not a clone of me.)