December 2020


Dear Family,

What a momentous year we’ve had, epitomized by this year’s Christmas. 

In an earthshaking development, for the first time since our boys were born, our Rieger family of four will not celebrate the day together. Due to the pandemic, Schuyler and Katie have taken the step, as we all do one day, of having their first Christmas together in their own place, in Santa Cruz. We’ll only see them via the inter-tubes. I’m sure Katie’s parents are missing “the kids” just as much as we are, but it has also been lovely to see their own holiday decorations going up in the background of our weekly Zoom calls.

On the other hand, Hunter and his girlfriend Summer moved in with us in September, so we have Summer to complete our number. Living with Hunter and Summer has been the perfect antidote to the tedium of the pandemic. It’s like our sophisticated cousins from the big city dropped by for a visit to our quiet country home and got stuck here—and hilarity ensued! They’re full of youthful energy and new ideas, they dress in the latest mash-up of styles, and they’re ready conversationalists. They are both avid cooks, and we’ve had to beef up the stock of flatware to support the industrial scale eating that’s been going on around here.

Hunter built a six-foot-tall, 60-foot fence on the west side of the house in November. The 12 fence posts stand on footings that each contain two 60-pound bags of concrete. That’s roughly three-quarters of a ton of concrete, altogether. That fence is what to cling to when the tsunami hits. Hunter is taking carpentry classes at Laney Junior College, which turns out to have a nationally admired program—the things he finds his way into! Meanwhile, he continues to compose music, and I’ve purchased one of his compositions for theme music in the podcast I produce for The Asia Foundation.

While she applies to grad schools, Summer is working as what I like to call a governess to a rambunctious pair of seven-year-old twin girls whom she guides through their online first-grade classes—along with lunch, recess, and various kinds of enrichment like making crazy TikTok dance videos—three days a week. She brings endless creativity to the job, but she can also be stern when those naughty, naughty twins misbehave, and she always delights us with tales of adventure and misadventure at the end of the day. I won’t be surprised if those two girls grow up believing that Summer actually has Mary Poppins powers: I certainly think so.

Susan’s bookkeeping client, the retired screenwriter, has slowly been reduced by the advancing years to the point where he needs more comprehensive assistance than Susan feels comfortable providing, and that relationship is coming to a close after 17 years. On the other hand, enough of the liberal international order has survived the outgoing administration in Washington to keep The Asia Foundation in the international development business, and my cozy spot in the communications office seems quite secure. I edit various and sundry reports and studies, publish their blog, and recently, at my boss’s insistence, launched a biweekly podcast that I produce and cohost with a comms-office colleague. Though she’s an avid podcast listener, she has no technical training or production experience, but she does have a singer’s voice and a degree in international relations, which means she’s the one asking the smart questions in our interviews.

I never did like commuting to San Francisco twice a month—I’m uncomfortable with the dress code—and my work can be conducted perfectly well over the inter-tubes, so the rolling pandemic lockdowns have hardly affected me. It is shocking to say it, but I’ve got to tell you, life for us right now is very good. A similarly fortunate friend remarked to me that he wasn’t going to waste his energy feeling bad about his own good luck, but I do feel bad that our circumstances can’t be shared by all the people in America who are really desperate and frightened this winter. The slow-motion calamity that has descended upon our country hangs like an ominous dread over our cozy, comfy Christmas. 

Hey, smiley-face emoji!

Please enjoy this delicious granola from our celebrated Hearst Kitchens. We will be thinking of you on Christmas Day, and every other day as well.


Love,

John, Susan, and the rest of the household.