Last night my son, Charles Morgan Howell IV, arrived in Oysterville.  Let the trumpets sound and the celebration begin!  In our house, the Christmas Season is officially under way.

 It’s been two years since Charlie was last here.  On alternate years, we go to Los Angeles to spend the holiday with him.  He sometimes comes up in the summer – for family reunions or (God forbid) a funeral, but was unable to get here for our 25^th anniversary in September 2012.  In the meantime, though, we’ve been to L.A. on three occasions – last Christmas and also during the two intervening summers to see him perform at the Theatricum Botanicum where he has been a member of the company for two seasons running.

Acting is a new ‘career’ for Charlie, if you can call working for little or no money a career.  Like 90 percent of actors, he still has a ‘day job’ but it, too, is problematical these days in terms of making a living.  He is a screen writer and producer for daytime television – a six-time nominee and three-time Emmy award winner for “Pinky and the Brain” and “Animaniacs.”  But… it’s a whole new world out there in film land, just as it is everywhere else. New technology, outsourcing, and all manner of other 21^st century woes have had a trickle-down effect throughout ‘the industry,’ screenwriters being no exception.

When jobs became fewer and farther between a few years ago, Charlie took some acting courses and has already begun to make a name for himself as a “comedic Shakespearean actor” according to one critic.  According to Charlie, that’s probably not surprising.  For almost forty years he has been pitching ideas for Saturday morning cartoons to networks and studios – often presenting character bits, doing a variety of voices, accents, etc.  But, as they say, “timing is everything, especially in comedy” and that skill has served him well onstage.

And speaking of timing… as usual, Charlie drove straight through from L.A.  Nineteen hours!  I don’t expect to see much of him until noon or later.  Even so, my Christmas is definitely underway!  Hallelujah!  Raise the flag!