Christmas 2004.

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Well, usually most of you are updated on us through the website, but it’s been such a busy year, it hasn’t been updated as frequently as in the past.  Terri and her best friend, Angela, still have their faux finishing and decorative painting business “Faux du Jour”.  This has been a very busy year for them.  Word of mouth and referrals have been great.  Bret is still an Intelligence Officer in the Air Force stationed at Ellington Field here in Houston and was promoted to the rank Captain earlier this year.  However, he has left active duty to return back as a Traditional Guardsman in the Texas Air National Guard doing the one weekend a month drills and two week summer training periods.  He has since taken a job with a corporation that is providing Computer System Services for the Air Force’s array of flight planning software suite.

 

In January, Bret spent two weeks in Salt Lake City training for his new job.  Mary and Terri took the opportunity to visit him for a few days and Terri tried skiing for the first time.  With ski lessons and a recent 100 inch winter snowfall, Terri did very well for her first time.  A couple weeks later Terri’s Uncle David and Aunt Sharon from the northeast came to Houston to visit family.  Then Terri joined Mary in Germany for 9 days.  They visited Munich, Garmisch, and Innsbruck, Austria.  Terri tried a couple days of ski school there, but didn’t have as much luck, as there was only very hard ice on the very steep slopes.  A few weeks and a few massages later, her body finally recovered.  Meanwhile, on his own, Bret hosted a Superbowl party.  Somehow it was difficult to get tickets even though it was in our home city. Terri got to hear the Europeans’ take on the Superbowl aftermath.  In February, Bret spent a week in Las Vegas for a conference.  Terri, unfortunately had to go with him.  We were able to see “O” and “Jubilee” on the Strip.  We also attended a taping of “The View” which was in Vegas that week.  We were very close to all the girls and we got to see Elton John perform as a guest.  The next week, Terri, along with her brother Robert, and mother, Liz, flew to Bangkok, Thailand.  What started out as a mileage run (it’s a frequent flyer thing) ended up being a great few days of lots of cheap spa visits, custom-made suits for everyone in the family, and an overnight trip to the River Kwai.  It pretty much replicated Terri’s trip with Mary a couple years ago, so she made a great tour guide.

 

By the end of March, Terri began working on the set of ‘Friday Night Lights’ in the Astrodome.  They shot this movie (that was released in October) for 3 weeks where Terri worked as a sideline fan.  She can be seen in the movie if you know where to look.  Terri’s been interested in acting for about 4 years now, but this movie really sparked her desire to pursue it more aggressively.  She made a few good friendships during the filming.  Since April, she has signed on with a Houston agent and an Austin agent, attended many classes and workshops (including audio and teleprompter), and filmed many speaking parts in independent and student films, cable access commercials and television shows.  Networking is very important in this business, and two relationships formed on the FNL set (Laurie and Lee) have been very beneficial to all as we look out for jobs for each other, support each other’s projects, and carpool to Austin for auditions.  Laurie and Terri even went to LA for a week this summer to redo their headshots, visit the eyebrow guru Anastasia, take an acting class and visit her friend Marie, who moved out to LA from Houston a couple years ago.

 

In April, Bret spent a week in Norfolk, VA for more conferences.  For Memorial Day weekend, we joined Scott, Lucy, Fabien, and Danielle for camping on Lake Sam Rayburn.  I think this will become an annual tradition.  In the end of June, Bret and Terri flew to Hawaii for a couple weeks.  We joined our friend, John (who took us to Africa, Bora, France, etc.) and a few others on the island of Kauai for a week.  Bret and I also spent a couple days on Oahu and a few nights on the Big Island visiting Mary.  While in Hawaii, we went snorkeling, saw and walked on an active lava flow, and did a helicopter tour.  Later in July, Bret’s best friend Meredith and her family came to Houston from Dallas to visit for a weekend.  Then, Bret and Terri joined the Sabol clan for the annual summer vacation.  This year we went to Big Sky and Yellowstone National Park.

 

In August, Bret spent 3 weeks in Alaska for a major joint military exercise.  However, it was an awful three weeks due to the worst fire season in Alaska’s history, encasing Bret in smoke continuously for almost the entire trip.  When he came home, Terri had planned a surprise party for his 35^th birthday, which actually fell when he was in Alaska.  There was even a surprise guest- Marilyn Monroe- for a special birthday song.  In September Bret and Terri went to New Jersey for a weekend to visit Grammy Sabol.  In October, our niece Rose had her 1^st birthday.  In November, Bret experienced an intense 2 week on-base exercise preparing for an upcoming Wing inspection in April.  Terri turned 30 and we celebrated our 5^th wedding anniversary.  For Thanksgiving, we visited Andre and Glenda in Mt. Pleasant.  They have their own family reunion with around 25 people every Thanksgiving with the head of the family, Bret’s grandmother, Bea (who just turned 98 last month).  Grammy and Uncle Tom came to Texas for a visit.

 

Our hobbies still include going to the movies, eating out, napping, and planning for the next trip.  We also got season tickets to the Broadway Series and TUTS Series in Houston, along with most the family.  This year we saw Flower Drum Song, The Producers, Brigadoon, Jekyll and Hyde, 42^nd Street, Oliver, Oklahoma, Hair, Hairspray, Singing in the Rain.  It’s not quite the same as the whole New York experience, but it’s a pretty good and much cheaper alternative.  Bret has started golfing with family and friends a little more regularly and even has his own clubs now.  Terri continues working out regularly and doing karate not as regularly because of scheduling.  Though she is a blue belt now working on her purple belt.  Terri has also been taking belly dancing classes all year.  Her class had their first ‘performance’ a couple weeks ago.  This fall Terri finished the 3 semester church class, along with her parents and Scott.  Now they need to work on all those summary tests.  Our daughter, Abby (the tortoise-shell calico cat) is also doing well.  She will turn 8 in a couple months.  We also added a new addition to our family, a new car.  Our two previous cars had a combined 350,000 miles, so it was time.

 

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)