Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah 2023

From our house in Sunny Florida, to yours, wherever in the world you are, we send Seasons Greetings for whatever festival you celebrate at this time of the year.

We hope that 2023 has been kind to you and that you are happy and in good health, as we are.

We have had a great year, though challenging at times, but now that we are nearing the end of 2023, we are thankful that we have good health, a roof over our heads and food in our bellies!

When our year began, we had Patti Laburn, Rick’s sister living with us for the first three months. She had not been well over Christmas 2022 and so we had her staying with us so that we could look after her. At the same time, Rick (who is a realtor) was trying to sell her condo for her, which was eventually succesful. Patti moved back to South Lyon, MI in April and now lives in a senior independent living facility.

American Endeavor

American Endeavor is our non-profit organization that Rick set up to promote American values through its educational activities.

One of the great activities we’ve had is a weekly radio show called The Conservative Thought Hour, which Rick and our friend, Kerri Black, have hosted at a local radio station. They present conservative thought leaders, as well as those with opposing views, in a series of one hour interviews. The show began in June 2021 and continued up until May this year.

It was put on hold for a variety of reasons, including some health issues that were presented to Rick about the middle of this year. Excited to say we are about to kick-off the show again on 5th January, 2024 and as we write this, Rick is busy lining up some interesting guests for our listeners.

We also have a monthly newsletter, called “The American”, and on our website you’ll find recordings of some of our shows, as well as a series of video vignettes about the people and events that shaped America. There is also a section on books for both adults and children. You can get to our website through this link. And you’ll find copies of “The American” there, too.

Community Theatre

Jenni’s passion is still very much alive and she has had another good year of acting and directing. In February she directed “How The Other Half Loves”, written by Sir Alan Ayckbourn, at Charlotte Players. And, for the first time ever, also acted in the play. It was quite a challenging experience to get everything right.

The play was a huge success with audiences, especially as there is a scene with two dinner parties on different nights taking place around the same table at the same time!

In May at the Charlotte Players Annual Meeting, Jenni relinquished her role as President of the Board after two years in the Chair. Rick was enlisted to serve on the Board of Directors, too.

In July, Jenni held auditions at Lemon Bay Playhouse for “Baggage”, a comedy by Sam Bobrick that she was directing. Rehearsals began in August for a play opening at the beginning of September. No acting for Jenni this time, and the play was a great success.

In September, Jenni again joined the Venice Theatre Silver Foxes. The troupe features people aged 55 and over, some of whom sing, others dance and others act. Jenni is in the acting group and is having fun with it. Rehearsals are always in the daytime and the main show will be on in February (right after “Calendar Girls”). Then there will be a series of community outreach roadshows.

As we write this, Jenni has just started rehearsals for “Calendar Girls” by Tim Firth, in which she is acting. The play will be on in February 2024.

And, she is just working on the script for “Two On The Aisle, Three In A Van”, by Mary Lynn Dobson, which she is directing for Charlotte Players to be on stage in April 2024. Charlotte Players has a small black box theatre with a fairly small stage and there are 10 actors in the play. That will be fun!

Other Things We Did.

Throughout the year we also went to lots of movies – the most memorable ones were usually based on true stories. Such as Killers of the Flower Moon, Sound of Freedom, Oppenheimer, Maestro. Then there were many fictional and also quite exciting movies Silent Night, The Shift, The Killer, A Haunting In Venice, along with many others.

In September, our friends, Heidi and Joe, came down from Tampa to spend a couple of nights with us and see “Baggage”. They are intrepid cruisers, so if we can catch them between cruises, they always come to see the shows Jenni directs or acts in.

We spent most of October in the UK visiting family and friends. You can read all about our adventures in the other posts on this website.

In November, for Jenni’s birthday, we went to a favorite French Restaurant in Ocala, Florida (about a three-hour drive away), stayed overnight and attended an interesting show called “The Velocity of Autumn” at the Ocala Civic Theatre. A fun weekend.

Sadly, we didn’t get to see our grandkids this year, as we had to cancel our summer trip to OH and MI mid-year, but we are pleased to say that they are healthy and well. Makenna is 11 and Asher is 7 – they are really growing up fast. Indeed, we just received this weather report from Asher.

So, that’s about it for us and all that remains is to send you love and Seasons Greetings. May your season be Merry and Bright and may you have a Wonderful 2024.