Posts

Image
  Seasons Greetings!   We're a little late this year but the battles have been real!!      2026 has gotta be better, right?? It’s a mad, mad world we’re living in right now but we are strong and will get through all of this craziness. I believe in the human heart – however hardened in these unprecedented times and so I share the story of when food betrayed Robb. The annual Allred Holiday letter was born in 1999 when I sent out messages to friends, family and neighbors of good cheer. Robb was horrified. No one, he said, wants to read that. They want to revel in our misery so they can feel better about themselves. It was Robb’s sunny disposition that first attracted him to me. Here goes: 2025 has been challenging. Our new grandson, Apollo, came into this world with a few heart issues. Nine days into his precious new life, Apollo had a cardiac event that involved LifeFlight, untold hours of worry that are still hard to describe. But he is growing stro...
Post a Comment
Read more

Let's Try Something Different, Friends!

Image
 Greetings, Friends and Family ~ We're breaking with tradition this year to offer a little more interactive fun. 2024 was a crazy, chaotic year with little hint of anything less going into 2025 so we need a cartoon wrap-up. This year I employed my oldest, Kerri, to draw this year's events, complete with my 30th year reunion with my bobsled sisters -- the 1st women's bobsled team in the United States, our upcoming documentary "IceBreakers" and more: Please find: 25 mice                               an opera singer                              a man in a rolled up snowman Grinch                                   a duck                        ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Happy Holidays 2023 'The Holiday Lesson'

Image
                                                                                                                                         For the first time in 23 years, the Allred Family holiday letter will not be filled with bad news so that you all may feel a little better about your own lives. For example, it will not be shared that both Kyle and Michelle (two different incidents/two different cars) were rear-ended and both cars were totaled or that now every time Kyle sees a similar car he calls out, “love it while you can!” We won’t share that I was part of a horrifying telephone scam in which AI was used to imitate Tommy’s voice or that Ka...
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
  Seasons Greetings 2022 This now 23-year-long holiday letter tradition seems more appropriate than ever. Here is the premise: Unlike those letters that share extraordinary milestones and celebrations, we’re here to tell you how hard & humiliating life can be. For example, after working for over two years, full time researching and writing, editing and re-writing, I signed a contract with Rowman & Littlefield to publish the “bible” of women’s sports history ONLY to learn that the 315,000-word masterpiece had to be brutally gutted to 150,000 words. I had actual stomach aches over deleting some of the amazing women from history.             On the subject of books, Kerri (daughter) started a book club for, I believe, the sole purpose of forcing me to read dark, deep brooding stories in which serious contemplation and self-reflection is required. It’s awful. Only because I...
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
  Dear Friends and Family – For those who are familiar with the Allred Holiday letter (in which we have only reported the awful things that happened to us so that you, the recipients of this gift, might feel a little better about your own lives) are breaking the tradition of more than 20 years. 2020 has caused so much discord, disruption and suffering that making fun of the bad did not seem appropriate. Because many have inquired about the letter, I will offer a few assurances:              Robb has not changed. He still argues with the television, has “trigger commercials” that set him off; he argues with the dogs and himself. His newest quandary is that he can’t get “the look” he wants when constantly reenacting the commercials he hates to show me how it should have been done. He’s seven years old. Ironically, he did care about a dove which had taken refuge in our garage & pooped on everything, though periodically whispering, “…becau...
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
                                      We're Going to Expedite This Holiday! 2019 Happy Holidays!                                                   I am awakened to a phone call. This is just one of too many to count. It is important to note that in these trying times, some things never change. Daddy (a.k.a. Col Marc Powe) is still escaping from memory care. Protocol dictates that the staff at Isle at Watercrest begin the call in this manner: Alex: Hello? Isle: Alex, your dad is okay but … It is here that I will next learn about how my father has done something somewhere somehow. Currently, there are several “open” investigations. On this phone call, however, I learn that Daddy has made it upstairs, through a locked stairwell again. The story, however, ...
Post a Comment
Read more