The Parodi Family - Skip and Amy

December 2008

What a fast way to deliver a year end card to everyone! You can cut and paste or print the picture and/or our letter if you like to have holiday cards displayed - or don't and save a tree! In either case, know that we are thinking of you. Let me know if you would like me to send you a hard copy of either.

 

-- Amy

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The pictures are (clockwise, from upper left): Loren competing at Ms. Fitness in her "I Dream of Jeanie in a Bottle" routine; Skip on the Madelyne deck in front of the gorgeous new railing he built; Lindsay in Okinawa; Aaron in the Alps; Amy, Vic, Abby, Carol, and Skip at the Nike Women's Marathon pasta feed; our "illegal" Hillary sign in front of our Los Altos house; NY Rep. Yvette Clark, Amy, Mills College President Janet Holmgren, and CA Rep. Barbara Lee at the Democratic National Convention in Denver; Cody; Pua and Kiko; the announcement for Burton's conference room; our view from Madelyne (center)

Dear Friends and Family – A busy year, but fortunately not too eventful!

 

Skip’s older daughter Loren moved back to Los Altos with her two miniature dachshunds, Pua and Kiko. She is living with her best friend Julie and Julie’s bulldog, Monty. Loren continues to coach gymnastics and 3 of her students won state competitions! She completed her personal training certification and continued to compete in Ms. Fitness USA.

 

Skip’s younger daughter Lindsay, still based in Okinawa Japan, was able to visit here last Christmas and then later in January. Now a Corporal, she had a temporary assignment in Thailand, continuing to fulfill her dream of seeing the world. This spring she expects to move to her next duty station, Camp Pendleton in San Diego, CA. It will be great to have her in the same time zone!

 

Amy spent the first half of the year working pretty much fulltime on Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Though Hillary did not receive the Democratic nomination, Amy did attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver. You can see her blog at http://www.amypearl.com/ under the “Politics” link. She also went to Italy with the Perlman/Dipillas to visit nephew Aaron who was “studying” there and to Paris France with niece Abby and sister-in-law Carol for Abby’s “work.” Carol and Vic came to visit San Francisco when Abby ran her first marathon (no quotes - quite real) at the Nike Women’s Marathon in SF in the fall. Aaron is finishing his senior year at Indiana University and nephew Christopher has started his freshman year at San Francisco State. A visit to Cincinnati coincided with a great surprise party for Uncle Burton at the Federal Courthouse, where a conference room was named for him!

 

Skip continues to manage Jelich Ranch, http://www.jelichranch.com/. He has been doing a lot of bow-hunting, including special license goose hunting with his childhood friend Fritz in Washington, a whitetail deer hunt in Illinois and a very special “license” turkey hunt at a friend’s property in Mendocino County.

 

Amy’s Dad is getting along and Skip’s parents are doing well despite Ernie having a stroke in the fall. Ernie is home now and doing ok. Our big loss this year was Gretchen, Skip’s very elderly German Shorthair Pointer. She was very old, but happy and lively until the very end. We continued to enjoy our house in Sonoma County, where we had some great visits by friends and family. This fall we decided to rent the house for at least a year, so for now we'll have to enjoy it virtually at http://home.earthlink.net/~casawhiteoak.

 

We wish you all a happy, healthy and hopeful 2009 --

 

-- Amy & Skip