-
- Christmas
2003
- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- Well,
usually most of you are updated on us through the website, but we will go
ahead and sum up our year for you. Terri
and her best friend, Angela, still have their faux finishing and decorative
painting business “Faux du Jour”.
Although Terri misses teaching, she enjoys the flexible schedule and
shorter hours of painting. Bret
is still an intelligence officer in the Air Force stationed at Ellington
Field here in Houston. However,
he will soon be leaving the active duty to work for a corporation that is
providing Computer System Services for the Air Force’s array of flight
planning software suite. Not to
worry though as Bret will still be in the Air Force as a Reservist Intel
Officer for the one weekend a month drills and two week summer training
periods.
-
- In
January, Bret spent six weeks temporary
duty in Phoenix. He took
the opportunity to take a trip to the Grand Canyon with a fellow service
member and Mary, Bret’s mother, who flew in for a couple of days to visit. Terri flew to meet Bret for the last 2 days and helped him
with the long, boring, drive down I-10 home.
But hey, we got to see snow in El Paso.
In February, we spent a week
in Europe. We flew into
Paris and spent 5 nights there. Then we took the Chunnel to London for the last two nights
and flew home from there. We
were there just in time to witness the anti-war marches, which we didn’t
let dampen our sight seeing. Thanks
to Mary and her neighbor who is a former United Airlines employee, we were
able to fly business class on this international flight.
We highly recommend this whenever possible.
Then in April, Terri’s Granddad Angel in Houston passed away at the
age of 84 years old. Thank you
for all your prayers you gave surrounding this time.
We had a beautiful memorial
service when the Angel clan could all fly in.
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- We
spent the 4th of July in Mount Pleasant to visit Bret’s
parents. Later in July, Scott and Lucy joined us on a two
week road trip throughout the western U.S.
We flew to Vegas, rented a SUV, and drove to Seattle visiting Grand
Canyon, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, Death Valley (in July!), Mammoth Lakes,
Yosemite, San Francisco (we saw Judi and Ted), Redwoods National Forest,
Crater Lake, Mount St. Helen’s, and Seattle.
Bob and Liz Sabol joined us there for our annual family vacation.
In August, Terri missed Bret’s 34th birthday so she and
Robert (her brother) could fly to New Jersey to be with Grammy Sabol
(Terri’s father’s mother) on her birthday.
They also helped Uncle Tom install a tile floor in Grammy’s
kitchen. Terri and Robert were
also able to visit the ‘shore’ to see Madelyn (Terri’s godmother) and
half of the Sorianos (other relatives).
Bret, his best friend Craig, and another friend Mike supported the Houston
Texans football team by flying to Miami to watch them win. While there
they also got to drive down the Florida Keys and spent awhile at Key West
and got the Navy Lodging experience.
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- Mary
stopped in Texas again on her way home from Europe.
Unfortunately, our 4th anniversary happened during yet
another Air Force conference that Bret had to attend, this time in Florida.
We were able to celebrate it the next day when he came home.
Do you see a recurring theme here?
For those keeping count, we have actually only been in Houston
together for one out of four anniversaries.
For Thanksgiving,
we visited Andre and Glenda Brogoitti in Mt. Pleasant.
They have their own family reunion with close to 30 people every
Thanksgiving with the head of the family, Bret’s grandmother, Bea
Brogoitti (who just turned 97 last month).
In December, we usually visit New Jersey, but this time Grammy came
to Texas for a 2 week visit.
-
- This
has been the year of marriages and babies.
In January, Meredith’s
baby, Mitchell, was born. He
was baptized in November with Bret
named as the Godfather. He
is also Godfather to Meredith’s other son, Drew.
In April, Angela and Rick’s baby, Emma, was born.
Marty and Rachel from Dallas got married in Houston in March.
Carrie and Lewis from Houston got married in Dallas in June.
Bret
and Terri got their marriage blessed by the Catholic Church on May 19th
with an intimate gathering of friends and family.
Terri’s cousin Devon had her second son, Gabriel in May.
Robert
and Rachel’s baby, Rose, was born in October, making Terri’s parents
grandparents for the first time (also
taking the pressure off of us). Rose’s
baptism took place in December while Grammy was here.
Scott and Lucy were named Godparents.
We’ve also had three sets of friends in the young adult group get
married this year and several other friends who either had babies or are due
in the spring.
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- Our
hobbies still include going to the movies, eating out, napping, and being
active in the church young adult ministry.
We bought season tickets to the Broadway Series in Houston, along
with most the family. This year
we saw Chicago, Aida, The Graduate, The Full Monty, and Thoroughly Modern
Millie. It’s not quite the
same as the whole New York experience, but it’s a pretty good alternative.
Bret is still the webmaster for the young adult website (www.sugaryams.com)
and the webmaster for Terri’s business.
Terri continues working out regularly and doing karate not as
regularly because of scheduling. She is a green belt now working on her blue belt.
Terri’s acting this year was limited to a couple workshops and
meeting Erin Gray (Buck Rogers). No movies this year. In
the spring, Terri along with Liz and Aunt Carol, became certified in Level 2
Reiki, a method of healing through a Universal Life Energy.
This fall Terri began a 3 semester church course, along with her
parents and Scott, to learn more about their faith.
Our daughter, Abby (the tortoise-shell calico cat) is also doing
well. She just got her tummy
shaved to cut down on the hairballs. She
will turn 7 soon.
-
- We
hope this letter finds you in good health and happiness, and we hope you
have a great holiday season and Happy New Year!
- Love,
- Terri
and Bret Brogoitti
-
(and Abby)
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