Christmas 2001

Dear Family and Friends,

I always enjoy the Christmas letters that many of you send that let us catch up with what has been happening in your lives. I've always thought I would like to do that, but we haven't even done real well with Christmas cards the last few years. But, before you drop us from your Christmas lists, I thought I'd try to get off a last minute e-mail. Maybe it will become an annual tradition (we'll see). For those of you who get this in the mail in January, please send us your e-mail address if you have one.

It was a rough year for our world, but I like to think that the forces of good are more alert and stronger because of it. I pray that peace will grow and hatred diminish in 2002. As for our family, we had a busy, but good year. God continues to bless us so much! Here is a little bit of what we were up to.

We have tried to add some pets this year to fill our spare (???) time. Two aquatic turtles ran away (OK so maybe they walked slowly away while we weren't watching) and now we have a black bunny that seems to be content living by our pool (for now anyway). The kids are growing fast and Patty and Mike are trying to keep up - with the pace that is.

Allen is in third grade and doing well in school. He turned into quite a reader this fall when Megan introduced him to the Harry Potter series. This propelled him to the top of his school in their accelerated reading program. He started piano lessons a few weeks ago, with his family encouraging him to go on to play drums in the band when he gets to intermediate school. He loves to be outside and play hard even more than reading or music. He played soccer again this fall with Mike as the team coach.

Megan is enjoying Seabrook Intermediate School (6th grade) as a science magnet student and is playing clarinet in the band. Andy and Megan both got new instruments this year (see below for what kind Andy got). Megan continues to take dancing and has a lot of great friends in her Girl Scout troop, which Patty leads. This past year she earned both the Leadership Pin and the new Junior Bronze award - which are the highest honors a Junior Scout can achieve. She went to Girl Scout camp in Seabrook for a week during the summer and has now bridged to Cadettes scouts. She's never bored because she loves to read and do many other things.

Andy likes Clear Lake High School (9th grade) and has worked particularly hard in band. During marching season they practiced every day after school and played at the football games on Friday nights. At the end of this semester he even moved up to the second of the 4 bands at the school. We are particularly proud of him for this, as he has only been playing trombone for 5 months. Previously he had been playing French horn & trumpet. We are already talking about seeing him on TV in the Texas Longhorn band in 4 or 5 years. Andy also loves the computer and working on his own websites (and he got a digital camera for Christmas last year).

Patty is doing well in medical school, having completed 2½ out of 4 years already. This year has been clinical rotations where she got to deliver babies, visit the psych ward, etc. This fall she was in private doctor's offices, which was nice since they work 8-5 and she had more time at home. She had a few weeks off during the summer after passing a national board exam, but not enough time by the pool. She took her Girl Scout troop (and families) to San Antonio one weekend in October to mark their advance to the Cadette level. That was fun! They also painted a giant American flag on a building in September to show their patriotism.

Mike is helping more with meals, etc., but he is usualy the hunter/gatherer type (Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, etc.). Oddly enough, the kids don't seem to mind that. NASA continues to be an exciting place to work although the future is a little uncertain due to many recent management changes. He has continued his solar energy interests by working with the Houston Renewable Energy Group and by doing solar car projects with 3 different schools this year. He and Allen did a little camping and went to the annual Renewable Energy Roundup in Fredericksburg, TX in September. Speaking of solar cars, Andy likes to keep it quiet, but Mike has installed a solar powered air conditioner on top of our old Taurus station wagon. The bright side for the rest of the family is that we bought a new mini-van this year to transport our growing family in greater style. In December, Mike was able to extend a business trip to Reno and San Jose to visit his aunt, uncle and cousins in Fresno as well as Yosemite National Park.

After big car trips the last 2 summers (Grand Canyon in 1999, North Carolina and D.C. in 2000), we didn't have a long vacation this year (we bought a car instead). But we did spend a few days in New Braunfels (picture) in August and went camping at Thanksgiving. We have several trip ideas for next year if we can fit them in to our busy schedule. If any of you can come visit us here, we will certainly make time for that!

May God bless you and your friends and family this Christmas and in 2002!

Love,
Mike, Patty, Andy, Megan and Allen Ewert