Happy Holidays from the A2 Ezekiels--The LOOONG Version

Thanksgiving weekend, 2009, finds us looking back over a busy eventful year, with lots of changes in our family as well as our nation. In our family, all the changes were for the good. In our nation, we’ll have to see how it all works out…

New Years 2009 found all four of us in different locales: Lewis was at our house watching the cats. Tina was at Sheila’s condo in Gaylord, enjoying skiing and snow with family, while Dan camped with his buddies 75 miles away at Sleeping Bear. Elaine was in both Costa Rica and Panama, as part of her 5-month stint as an AFS exchange student.

Lewis, who is now 23, was living at home while he completed a grueling year in the U of Michigan’s MAC program (Masters and Certification). Elaine, who is about to turn 20, had completed high school in 2008. She flew to Costa Rica in August, where she lived with the wonderful Reyes family, worked on her Spanish, volunteered in a school, and had many adventures traveling through Central America.

Among many other adventures, Laney helped protect baby sea turtles from vultures and dogs as they clambered from their beach nests to the sea. She climbed a volcano, taught English and recycling to students grade 1-11 at her school, where she also supervised a cleanup and landscaping project and made many new friends from many countries. You can read all the details at her blog .

As always, Dan and Tina continued to teach. Tina coached her second and third consecutive state champion KMO team, while Dan had two third places and a second place. All the usual events, like the Science Fair, Kindergarten Buddies, the Silly Olympics, and environmental field trips, along with the daily routine of teaching lessons and correcting work, kept us busy.

Early in January, Tina had her 50^th birthday. On MLK weekend, Dan and Tina flew to New York City, where we celebrated by attending Wicked, enjoying a snowstorm in Central Park, riding tour buses all over Manhattan, strolling Times Square, and eating at many great restaurants and delis. It was a vibrant weekend in the Big Apple, as Capt. Sullenberger had just safely landed his jetliner in the Hudson River when we arrived, and Pres. Obama was to be inaugurated the day after we left. We found NYC far more friendly and less violent than in Tina's favorite TV show, Law and Order! It was so moving to see John Lennon's memorial, look at paintings of Van Gogh and Picasso, see ancient sculptures, and visit Ground Zero. We are mostly tent-camping kind of people (especially Dan), but this showed us how much fun we can have visiting a big city.

Meanwhile, Mandee and Lewis were driving to DC to be present at the Inauguration, along with so many other young people (and not-so-young people) from all over America. Their experience was cold, sleepless, hectic, and unforgettable. They sat near the Washington Monument as the Bush Administration finally passed into history and Aretha, Stevie, and so many others ushered in the new era.

The next week, Elaine returned, and we were all together back home for the next six months or so. Mandee got her a job at Pizza House as a waitress, and she continued with that up until she left for Kalamazoo College in the fall. It’s hard to tell which was a more eye-opening cultural experience for Laney, going to Central America or living in working America.

In February, Tina and her friends, many of whom had also turned 50 or were about to, spent a week in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, frolicking in the sun, eating, and shopping. Meanwhile, Dan and some of the other husbands spent three days skiing at Caberfae, in Northern Michigan, and also had a lot of fun.

Before we knew it, spring sprang, bringing softball, Mother’s Day, the bird-a-thon, and finally summer arrived, with Top of the Park and LMRA camping. Tina had bought a new car, a white Pontiac Vibe, and she and Elaine decided to take a road trip to California. They drove out via Durango, where they visited Barb Wynne, and the Grand Canyon.

In California, Lainey and Tina met up with Dan, who had flown out. We all attended Jasmin’s big 15^th birthday party in Santa Cruz. Jasmin is Margalete’s wonderful daughter. Rafe and Kathy were there, and of course Josh and his family. After the big bash, we all went camping at Big Sur, enjoying the wild Pacific coast and the redwoods. Then Dan flew back home. Elaine and Tina drove home, via Yellowstone Park, having spent a total of 17 days on the road.

Dan had a summer he calls the Season of Quixotic Pursuits. It started with accompanying the Joybox Express, Mark Braun’s (“Mr. B”) piano-on-a-bike, on the last leg of its triumphant 150-mile debut road trip, from Chelsea to Ann Arbor. The sight of a full-size piano rolling down the road, pushed and pulled by three bicyclists, then stopping to play an impromptu concert for, say, workers at the Jiffy Mix plant in Chelsea, brought a smile to many hard-pressed Michiganders in this summer of unemployment and financial stress. At the end of the tour, the Joybox Express pulled into the U of M campus, just in time for the annual Townie Party, which precedes the Art Fair. Google 'Joybox Express' if you want to see pictures of this improbable undertaking.

We enjoyed the Art Fair, attended Jan’s Art Fair party, held our 8^th (!) annual block party, and Dan helped the neighbor across the street, Eileen Dickinson, build her wonderful new chicken coop, as owning 4 hens had recently been legalized in Ann Arbor. (ed. note: n the hens just started laying!) Dan headed up north for a quick campout at the Pigeon River with Dave Cappaert and State Rep. Chris Harker (D-Ore.) It was fun to hear about Chris’s adventures after having been elected to the legislature in the Obama landslide (I just love writing 'Obama landslide'). Because he is a freshman, he sits next to Republicans, and that is a cultural experience for everyone.

Meanwhile, Tina and her sister Maureen, were feng’shui-ing our house, in anticipation of the beginning of the A2 Ezekiel Empty Nest Era. Like many people our age, especially those who have raised kids, our house was cluttered and full of useless treasures that no one had time to sort through and throw away or recycle. In a remarkable surge of energy, Tina and Maureen completely re-did the downstairs of our house, mostly by getting rid of clutter and items we no longer needed, but also by streamlining furniture arrangement and art placement. The result was a much nicer environment, a refuge from the stresses and strains of life and work. We could probably do it four or five more times! Dan’s contribution was to build a pretty new cedar grape arbor outside and stay out of the way of the cyclone inside.

Dan continues to serve on the city’s Greenbelt Commission, which continues to be rewarding and educational. The local economy has changed completely in the five years he has been on the commission, land prices have plummeted, and development has crashed to a halt. The different market actually favors land preservation, and the Greenbelt is growing nicely. The commission has added a new focus on helping small farmers grow ‘local food’ and, as a result, Dan met some dedicated young local growers and helped them build a large ‘hoop house’ (temporary greenhouse) in the Greenbelt. He also attended several of the local-foodies’ Friday morning breakfasts. These people remind Dan of the early days of Recycle Ann Arbor, with their dedication to the environment, big dreams, and unlimited energy.

At Pizza House, where Lewis and Elaine work, they have a team trivia contest on Wednesday nights. We went several times and won several times. Lots of fun to ponder the questions, some of which refer to details the 50-somethings have never heard of, while others are easy for the older folks, mysterious to the 20-somethings.

In early August, Lewis finished his masters degree and teaching certificate, passing his certification exams with flying colors. Then all four of us went to Maui, where we have a time share, the first time just we four had gone on a trip together for several years. We had a wonderful time, snorkeling, playing mini golf, playing pool volleyball, eating and sightseeing. We saw many beautiful fish, dolphins, sea turtles, witnessed a swim-by of unearthly spotted eagle rays. We also went scuba diving. Lewis and Dan went on several extra scuba dives, one at night, where Lewis overcame his worst fear, night swimming. We saw sharks, beautiful corals, turtles, and even held an octopus. The undersea world is a beautiful, weird, quiet part of the planet that all of us enjoy exploring.

Tina and Dan celebrated our 27^th anniversary while we were in Hawaii. We would do it all again without a second thought.

As summer wound to an end, Dan and Tina camped in Leelanau with Alice, Lewis worked at Pioneer Band Camp, and Elaine impatiently waited for college to start as she continued to wait tables and sell drinks at Pizza House. Lewis and Mandee moved into an apartment and got a kitten, Elle, who terrorizes their furniture and pants legs full-time. In the horrendous local economy, Lewis didn’t get a permanent teaching job, but he is substitute-teaching and continuing to deliver pizzas. He is hoping to get a full-time teaching job next school year.

In sports, we all four played on softball teams this summer. Lewis joined Dan and Tina on the Nematodes, while Elaine played the hot corner for Pizza House. The Nematodes started off with a tough 0-8 run, but finished with a 2-game winning streak. The younger set, namely Lewis, Hunter, and Amanda joined us for the first time: it was fun to watch their speedy baserunning and fearless defense and realize that maybe we looked like that thirty years or so ago. We are so grateful to be able to continue to play. No one got a serious injury, and we had a lot of fun, as usual, both before and after the games. Elaine loved the camaraderie of her team and got lots of props for her skills and hustle.

Dan biked nearly 3500 miles in all during 2009, and Tina started doing a new DVD workout called The Firm, which our niece Bridget swears by. The Detroit Tigers almost won their division, breaking our hearts by losing a one-game playoff to the Minnesota Twins in extra innings after the season had officially ended. By losing, the Tigers rendered useless and void the tickets Dan had bought to the playoffs in Detroit. The Michigan football team had a 5-7 no-bowl-game season, which was hard on Lewis, who is an obsessed fan and season ticket holder.

Additionally on the sports and health front, Dan and Tina participated in the Ann Arbor Public Schools fitness challenge, and our team, The Lean Mean Green Machine, won. Thanks to many of your generous donations, Team Ezekiel was the leading fundraiser for the Eco Center’s Eco Ride. Also, Dan finished donating his 10^th gallon of blood. We bought some cheap kayaks this summer and enjoyed exploring the Huron River with the Brawns, as well as the Crystal River up north, with Alice. On both rivers, we heard the thrilling hoots of Barred Owls.

School started for Dan and Tina, and finally it was time for Elaine to head off to Kalamazoo. She shares a dorm room with Yvonne, a nice girl from Grand Rapids, and she quickly made fast friends with tiny Phoebe from LA and tall Emily from Lansing. Elaine and Phoebe made friends because they discovered they both love the smell of hazelnut coffee and listening to NPR.

Elaine has had a wonderful semester, immersed in Spanish, creative writing, and the New York Times. She volunteers at a public school, tutoring students whose families speak Spanish at home. After her year in Costa Rica and Pizza House, she found she has a lot to say and a lot she wants to learn. She loves the small-college, academically-focused world of K College and is delighted to be a Hornet! She has completed her first term, is home for a month, and just turned 20.

As our state’s automobile-based economy implodes, money for public schools has been in short supply. Dan and Tina volunteered in the campaign to raise money for schools through a new county-wide tax. While the issue passed in Ann Arbor, it was annihilated in the rest of the county, so it was not adopted. As a result, there will be very painful cuts in our school budget later this year and next year. We aren’t in danger of losing our jobs, though we may take pay cuts, but there will be losses in programs that we hold dear and that make a huge difference for our students. Also, some of our younger colleagues, the lifeblood of any school district, may be laid off. We feel fortunate to have jobs, especially such rewarding ones, and we intend to carry on during these hard times and continue to do all we can for our students.

One of the reasons we love living in Ann Arbor is the lack of crime, but with the increased unemployment, even our town is no longer as easygoing as it once was. Crime visited us three times this year: Dan’s (unlocked) bike was stolen, but he witnessed it and chased the thief down the crowded street; with the help of a young bystander (who threw his heavily-loaded backpack at the thief as he was cycling by), Dan recovered his beloved bike almost immediately. Someone broke into our (unlocked) house one evening and stole some money and a bottle of wine, and recently someone stole Dan’s laptop comuter from his (unlocked) classroom. By now you are probably asking “how dense are they?”, but third time’s a charm, we have instituted locking everything. A sad recognition that our lives have changed, probably forever.

Dan had a great up-north weekend with the Quill Pigs, including Fred and Mark, who came from out of town. Our annual Halloween party was a lot of fun, especially because Halloween was on Saturday this year, so we didn’t have to worry about getting up early and going to work the next day. We have decreed that from now on the Halloween party will be held on the last Saturday of October, since our friends no longer have trick-or-treat age children. Tina was a sari-clad call center operator, and Dan was a be-grilled rapper. Mike McGraw and girlfriend Marie stole the show, coming to the party as one another.…

Near the close of the year, we got the sad news that Dan’s aunt Ruth had died in Philadelphia. She was an indomitable teacher, union organizer, advocate for poor students and Holocaust survivor.

As we look back on an eventful year, we realize how lucky we are to have rewarding work, good health, loving families, and wonderful friends. We enjoyed all the times we got to be with you this year and hope for more of the same in the year to come.

Love,

Dan, Tina, Lewis, and Elaine

Ezekiel Family Holiday Letter (Looong Version)

This year was one with many significant changes, for our family and for our country. We celebrated two graduations, two big victories (one athletic, one political), had one child move out and another one move back in. We also enjoyed many trips, as a family and as individuals.
Lewis graduated from the U of Michigan last spring and is now in a U-M graduate program called MAC (Masters and Certification). He is student teaching in History at Pioneer High and will have a teaching certificate and masters degree in June, 2009. His program is quite intense (and expensive!), so he is living at home this year.
Elaine graduated from Pioneer, capping off her high school career with another two seasons of rowing on the crew team, getting good grades, and being admitted to Kalamazoo College for 2009. In the meantime, she is living with a host family in Neily, Costa Rica, for five months, trying to become fluent in Spanish, volunteering as an environmental education teacher in a K-11 school, and having as many adventures as she can.
We usually begin the year camping up north, but this year we were in Florida, attending the Capital One Bowl game. It was Lewis’s last game as a member of the U-M Marching Band, so we thought ‘why not go?’ Having lost to Ohio State at home (a game Dan attended with Andy O., in horrendous weather), the Wolverines were a two-touchdown underdog to the U of Florida, but much to everyone’s surprise, a great football game broke out, and Michigan won!
We were so happy Lewis got to go out on a victory. We also had fun visiting Universal Studios theme park and two beautiful state parks, where we saw lots of birds and our first wild manatees. It felt weird to see in the new year at a ball in a fancy hotel instead of around the peaceful campfire with our buddies up north. I guess you have to try everything once. Lewis’s band experience has been very positive, for Lewis (and his proud dad). He is still very involved in intramural band sports and sits behind the band at every home football game. Since the trombones call themselves ‘bones’, Lewis is now a fossil, because he is an old bone. In the summer, Lewis got his motorcycle license and bought a sweet 150cc Schwinn bike.
Dan spent MLK weekend in Boston, where his dad had fallen, broken his hip, and had an emergency hip replacement. Mercifully, Rafe made a fairly quick recovery and was up and around in fairly short order. Rafe has since been both to Israel and Costa Rica, and has gotten a dog, so you can see he’s bounced back. Tragically, his sister Miriam had a similar fall and surgery shortly after Rafe did, but didn’t recover and died soon after. We also lost Bert, the husband of Dan’s dear Aunt Bernice, this year.
In February, Tina and Dan went skiing in Colorado. We had a great time, traversing a lot of the state, meeting up with Dan’s colleague Jackie at Copper Mountain, enduring a big bliizard in Leadville (including some double-black-diamond driving back to our motel at night while it was snowing sideways!) After the storm cleared, We drove to Durango, in beautiful blue weather with incredible snow-covered scenery, to visit our friend Barb Wynne, see the Knowledge Master people, and ski at Purgatory. As we crossed the state, we saw mountain sheep in several places, and we soaked in the open-air hot springs at Pagosa. Though we dropped in during the work week, Barb was a gracious hostess, and it was great to reconnect with her. In March, we got in one last ski, as Tina’s sister Sheila hosted us for a weekend at her condo up north.
The school year was a hard one for Dan, as he adjusted to having his planning time cut almost in half, as well as teaching two grades (6th and 8th, instead of just 6th, as he had taught for the last 15 years). As usual, he was also busy with coaching KMO, running the Silly Olympics, organizing the Science Fair, and many other special activities. In his spare time, he continued his Greenbelt Commission service, birded, and rode his bike.
Meanwhile, Tina spearheaded a series of environmental initiatives at Bach School that culminated with the school receiving a Green School certification from the state. Tina was interviewed on the Issues of the Environment show on WEMU, our local NPR station, about that. She also continued coaching KMO along with all her other teaching duties. Our jobs continue to be both challenging and a source of deep satisfaction to us.
In April, Dan chaperoned Elaine’s school band field trip to New York City. We had a great time being tourists during our five day visit, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, attending Wicked, birding in Central Park (Dan only), visiting Ground Zero, Little Italy, Chinatown, Planet Hollywood, Planet Rock, and Greenwich Village. We also went to the top of Rockefeller Center (at night), went to a concert at Lincoln Center, watched another Pioneer High band perform at Carnegie Hall, and took a boat tour to Liberty Island and around Manhattan. Elaine’s band played a lunch concert at the atrium of one of the Trump Towers. Our hotel was close to Times Square, and a lot of our touristing was done on foot, which made us feel like real New Yorkers.
While Dan and Elaine were in the Big Apple, Lewis was graduating from U of M (along with his kindergarten buddy, Ashley. Hunter was graduating from MSU). Because Michigan Stadium was under renovation, the graduation ceremony was held on the Diag, the biggest crowd there since the antiwar protests of the 1960’s. It was a gorgeous, crisp spring day, the trees and flowers were in bloom. Thanks to cell phones, Tina and the Westons could see Lewis and Ashley, and it was more fun than our own graduations. It seems like Lewis, Hunter, and Ashley were in Mrs. Kluge’s kindergarten the day before yesterday, so this was definitely an occasion for both a smile and a tear.
In May, we had a big bash in our backyard to celebrate Elaine’s HS graduation. Grandpa Rafe Ezekiel and Grandma Tish Harmon were there, along with a lot of the crew team and Elaine’s other friends and relatives. It was another beautiful day, and the party continued (for the parent generation) with a bonfire far into the night. The graduation itself was held in Eastern Michigan U’s convocation center and was the usual kaleidoscope of pomp, circumstance, pride, laughter, and tedium that is found at such events. Afterwards, Tina and Dan dealt blackjack at the All Seniors All Night party at Pioneer, where Elaine said her class felt more unity than they ever had during their four years together at school (welcome to the world of instant nostalgia, Laney!)
Blessedly, the year finally wrapped up for everyone except Lewis, who had to start his Masters program immediately, and we went on our annual June camping trip, but not at Lake Michigan Rec Area, which had been left inaccessible by a freak 11-inch rainstorm with 80mph winds three nights before we were due to be there. We went to D.H. Day, another old haunt, instead. It was fun to go somewhere different for a change (and the amazing cherry pie of Cherry Republic was only a short bike ride away), but we missed the remote end-of-the-road feeling (and lack of cell-phone service) of LMRA; we hope to be back there next June, as usual. The weather was ridiculously cold for June; one night we heard coyotes howling close by.
Mike McGraw, Ron Weston and Dan went down to LMRA to check out the devastation. Though it wasn’t possible to drive to the campground yet, we did ride our bikes there. In several places, the roads or bridges were washed away, leaving huge gulches in the sand alongside the roads. A really awesome display of nature’s fury.
While we were camping, Ron and Dan realized that we both planned to re-roof our garages during the summer, and we decided to join forces. Lucky for Dan, since he had never roofed anything before, and Ron knew what he was doing! We worked our butts off for eight days or so, and got our roofs stripped and re-shingled, which was a great feeling of accomplishment and a good antidote for the frustrations of the school year.
Summer worked its usual magic, as we relaxed into the routine of gardening, bike rides, softball, and Top of the Park. The Nematodes got off to a 4-1 start, ended up 4-6, but the main thing is that we had fun, and after the first game, no one got seriously hurt. Pretty good for people in our late 30’s (Sandy), 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s (everyone else). A cool thing that happened this summer is that we started having hummingbirds come to our feeders for the first time. They are amazing and fun to watch. Tina exercised her ever-growing artistic prowess by hosting several fun craft days at our house.
In August, Dan, Tina, and Elaine flew to California to spend 8 days with Dan’s brother Josh and sister Margalete and their families. Uncle Don Rubinstein and his wife Jannis came up from LA to join us for part of the time. We had a sensational time in Salinas and Santa Cruz. Some highlights included a great enchilada meal at Josh and Myrna’s, going to the beach, wharf, and boardwalk at Santa Cruz, meeting Margalete’s friend Tom, and going bodysurfing with him (in wetsuits) at his favorite beach. Lewis couldn’t come, because he was finishing school, then being a counselor at Pioneer’s band camp.
Tina and Dan spent a few days in a cabin near Killarney, Ontario, a place we had always wanted to visit. We saw a couple of bears, including one Tina saw from her bike. We climbed to a beautiful place called The Crack at the top of some high limestone rocks, which afforded a beautiful view of the surrounding lake-strewn wilderness, with Georgian Bay in the distance.
Then it was back to Ann Arbor and the sad (for the parents) task of taking Laney to the airport to fly to Costa Rica. She is participating in an exchange program sponsored by AFS (American Field Service) in the small town of Neily, near the Panamanian border. She is living with a local family as their daughter, volunteering as an environmental educator at a school, learning Spanish and local culture, and generally having an international adventure during her gap year before college (she starts as a freshman at Kalamazoo in the fall of 2009).
Elaine has had many amazing experiences, including attending language school at an organic farm as well as helping hatchling turtles make it to the sea without being eaten by wild dogs or vultures. At this writing, she has just celebrated her 19th birthday and is about to meet up with Grandpa Rafe and Nona Kathy for some R & R at an eco lodge in the Monteverde cloud forest. But she can tell the story better than we can; read her wildly entertaining blog at .
We miss her dearly, but we are not yet empty-nesters, as Lewis moved back home for this year of Masters study. We see him every now and then, as he flashes between student teaching, college seminars, and sports events. We get to assuage some of our Elaine jones when Lewis’s friend Mandee comes over to eat or study. We like her a lot.
Lewis adopted a one-eyed kitten named Callie, who is a charming addition to our home. She has a tortoiseshell pattern, and looks very much like our first cat, Angela. Our older gray cat, Nimbus, was not too thrilled to have Callie around at first, but they are becoming friends and playmates, which is fun to watch.
In the fall we mostly taught our brains out, as we say around here, but Dan went camping up north with the Quill Pigs one weekend this fall, and Tina went up north with her sisters and mom on another weekend, staying at Sheila’s condo.
Like many of you, we participated in the election campaign and were thrilled by the election of Barack Obama. It was Elaine’s first vote, and when she brought her absentee ballot to the post office in Neily, Costa Rica, and told the postal workers what it was and who she voted for, they cheered. That story made us realize even more the import of this election, not just for us, but for people around the world.
In Ann Arbor, on election night, there was an impromptu midnight parade, as thousands of joyous college students poured out into the street after the TV networks called the decision and the new president-elect gave his wonderful speech in Grant Park. Another outcome of the ’08 vote is that our friend Chris Harker was elected to the state legislature in Oregon!
In early December, Tina’s brother George married our new sister-in-law, Judith, in a beautiful ceremony in a magnificent cathedral in downtown Detroit. The occasion was especially memorable for two reasons: the atrocious icy weather we all had to drive through to reach the wedding, and the wonderful double surprise of seeing George’s son Conor and the mythical Guido, who as an exchange student lived in the Harmon home in Detroit lo these many years ago. Both Conor and Guido had come all the way from Chile to be at the wedding.
Amid all the grim economic news this fall, we feel a light of hope as we await the new administration. Along with all of you, no matter what your religion or political stripe, we pray for more prosperous, greener, more equitable, and more peaceful times in the year to come. May you have a healthy happy holiday season.

Love,

Dan, Tina, Lewis, and Elaine Ezekiel