Greetings, good tiding and blessings to you and your family. Here are a few stories and awards that highlighted our year.

Reibstein Family Most Likely To Awards

Clean up the house:  Rachel --she has no competition in this category.

Get invited to friends house:  Sharon

Win a Jr tennis tournament: Vanesa –won 2.

Attract male attention:  Rachel --exposure to her can cause Rachelitis in young males.

Sleep in our bed: Sharon --it was a waste of money to buy her a new bedroom set.

Join the Chinese Evangelical Church:  Vanesa --loves their Friday evening dynamic youth group and retreats.

Have photo appear in high school newspaper:  Rachel –for starring on High School Varsity Tennis

Visit us in San Diego:  Dr. Steve Daily, Dr. George Proctor, Eugene Borg, The McCarys, Steve Dahl, Dr. Mark Wheaton and Dr. Guy Nash      

Attend High School:  Rachel –still home schooled, but may start High School classes in February.

Turn her bedroom into a fun zone:  Sharon --her room is a shrine to her dolls, horses, cars and games. 

Push you out of bed:  Sharon –with a series of punches, kicks and jabs, tiny Sharon has several times shoved me and others out of bed.

Go to a banquet:  Rachel --two this year.

Get out of a traffic ticket:  Terry --only one ticket in the last seven traffic stops (over several years).

Most likely to sleep during church:  Terry

Become a supervisor:  Ana --at Scripps Memorial Lab.

Skip a shower:  Terry –went six days out of laziness, subsisting only on sponge baths; a family record that will undoubtedly go unchallenged by his female competitors.
 

The Backgammon Goddess

Ana is the reason I quit playing Backgammon. Playing against her brings out the worst in me. I can’t think of anything I hate more than watching her gleefully escape from impossible situations with rolls that consistently defy all laws of probability. She is truly the favorite of the backgammon gods. My good friend Mark Wheaton has felt the pain and describes this phenomena as “Ana Rolling.”

Showdown at the Double Tree Resort

One beautiful summer day by our club pool I decided to try my Backgammon luck against Ana. It wasn’t long before she was back to her old tricks. She rolled double sixes three times in a row to beat me on her final roll! My only relief from my suffering would come from man handling her into the pool against her will. I pretended to take my loss calmly and unleashed a sneak attack on her. It surprised no one. She was ready with a determined defense, and to make matters worse, Vanesa and Sharon came to her aid. 

 it was an epic struggle, but I managed to drag Ana to the edge of the pool. I easily dispatched light weight Sharon by flinging her tumbling into the pool. Vanesa was a formidable foe and fought fiercely to keep her mom from public humiliation, while the ever cautious Rachel was watching the action unfold from a safe distance. Finally I maneuvered Ana into position for a hearty send-off when suddenly, in a final act of desperation, she managed to thrust her Hispanic hips into my side. The backlash of the titanic collision was mighty and sent everyone flying. Vanesa fell to the cement and paid a dear price for helping as her mom came crashing down on top of her. The explosion knocked me off balance and I teetered on the pool’s slippery edge. Rachel says she will never forget the last look of disbelief on my face as I sailed backwards and disappeared into the water. As for Ana, her only injury was the suffering from a mild chest pain from laughing too hard.
 

Mug Marks

Not long after the pool incident I became so frustrated playing Backgammon with Ana I slammed my mug into our breakfast table with such force it left a permanent mark in the wood. Although I have not been able to master Ana, I have developed a nice winning percentage against my daughters. One morning Sharon challenged me to a game over breakfast. Citing her dismal record against me, I asked,  “Are you sure you can handle another beating?”  “Dad,” she retorted, “when this game is over, there’s going to be another mark on the table.”   At last count there were three marks, each with it’s own story.
 

The Bad Back and Bedside Manners

One Sunday morning my Chiropractic friend Dr. Steve Wilson was visited at his home by his surfer friend Bill and Bill’s friend Rob. Although Rob had never been to a chiropractor before, his pain and Bill’s endorsement prompted him to seek relief. Steve was dressed informally in his well used sweat suit when the two arrived. After the preliminary questions were completed, Rob was instructed to lay face down on the adjusting table while Steve felt around for subluxations of Rob’s spine. Before making the necessary adjustments, Steve stripped off his sweat pants so he could work in his tennis shorts. Upon seeing this, an alarmed Rob suddenly shot up and exclaimed,  “Wait a minute! Bob didn’t say anything about this!” 
 

Cock-a-doodle-doo

Rachel has a math lab she attends on Tuesday with some other kids from public school. A boy in the lab who sits next to Rachel consistently naps through the class, so finally the teacher asked Rachel to wake him up. Rachel looked at the boy with his head resting on the table over folded arms. His face had become so relaxed that saliva was drooling from his mouth. She tried to think of the best way to handle this responsibility, then she moved into action. She pressed her mouth close to his ear and cried out loudly in the fashion of a rooster. The poor boy’s head snapped up so hard that saliva flew in all directions, causing a room full of laughter.
 

Parental Tricks

At our church I would frequently provide a special feature for Rachel and Vanesa’s early teen class. Since my kids were new at this church, I would ask a series of questions, which allowed us to express our thoughts and experiences and get to know each other better. This often provided unexpected entertainment as well. For example I asked, “Do your parents have any tricks to get you to do what they want?”

A boy named Scott replied, “Yeah. My dad tells me he’ll give me ten dollars if I’ll do something.” 

Adult leader Doreen exclaimed,  “That’s not a trick, that’sa bribe.”  Scott, still slouching in his chair, cleared up the misunderstanding by repeating the key words, “Ten doll-hairs.”
 

Don’t Blame the Piano Player

On a different weekend at church, Doreen was leading us in a song and she had split up the group by gender. The girls were to start and the boys were to wait to repeat the refrained melody at the proper time. The males weren’t showing the proper enthusiasm and our timing was off. This caused a series of starts and restarts by our leader Doreen. After each failure she would point out that it was the male’s fault. On our fourth attempt Doreen abruptly stopped the song, and with understandable frustration exclaimed, “Stop. Stop. Stop. It’s the pianist’s fault.”

Her agitated mispronouncing of  “pianist” made it sound like she was still blaming the males, but using an even harsher term.

We all fidgeted uneasily, scarcely believing our ears. Then George cleared his throat and spoke humorously of what we were all thinking, “I beg your pardon?” We all laughed, and at first Doreen couldn’t understand why. But when it finally dawned on her, she exclaimed, “Oh no, no, no, not you George!  You’re supposed to be our leader!”
 

Tempting Mother Nature

Mark Vines, a former touring pro, came out to California from Denver to play in a tournament and visit. We took him, his wife and two boys to experience the wonders of the La Jolla tide pools. It was an unusual day, for Alaskan storms were pounding the cove with heavy surf. I brashly walked to the brink of the coral edge where the waves were loudly crashing against the rocks. At first nervous at how close I was to the edge, Mark became bolder after a few minutes he moved forward, but he was still at a comfortable distance from the edge.

 As Mark turned to face his anxious family, a rouge wave exploded thunderously against a nearby rock and sent up a fierce blast of cold ocean water twenty feet into the air, which completely engulfed Mark and soaked him to his socks. It was as if the ocean was aiming specifically at him. As Mark’s family witnessed the salty baptism, they quickly moved into action by howling in side-splitting laughter. There’s nothing like a nurturing family!
 

Tennis Nerves

Rachel was about to play her third match in a big tennis tournament for girls age 14 at a club in Fullerton, but first she took a nervous trip to the bathroom. When Rachel came out she was surprised to see her opponent there for the same reason.  “Nervous?”  She asked.  “A little.” Rachel replied. “Why do you ask?  “You just came out of the men’s bathroom.”  Rachel got the last laugh by winning her match easily. Afterwards, Rachel claimed she was only in there for ten seconds before she discovered the urinals, causing her to made a hasty retreat.
 

Favorite Movies

Bridget Jones Diaries, Oh Brother Where Art Thou. If you like war movies When Trumpets Fade was good and Pearl Harbor was top notch.

Until next year, we wish you health, happiness and laughter. Be kind to each other and pray often.