Christmas 2005

 

 

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Well, usually most of you are updated on us through the website, but it’s been such a busy year, so 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”.  Though it has become a part time business with Terri’s acting taking off and Angela having two children under three.  Bret is still an Intelligence Captain at Ellington Field here in Houston and is a Traditional Guardsman in the Texas Air National Guard.  He also still has his job with Tybrin, providing Flight Planning Services for the Air Force’s array of mission planning software suite.

 

In January, our sister-in-law Lucy became a massage therapist.  Terri is her number one client.  In March, Bret had his annual Tybrin convention in Las Vegas and we went a few days early to enjoy the city.  Terri went to the Bahamas (first time to any part of the Caribbean) for a girls’ trip with her acting buddy Laurie and several other friends.  But she didn’t make it back to Houston in time to join Bret, Mary, Craig, Scott, Lucy, and a few other friends who went skydiving… and lived. For Easter, Angela’s daughter Emma (two years old at the time) was invited to the annual White House Easter Egg Hunt.  In April, Terri’s workout trainer, Carol, opened up a private workout studio in the Galleria area.  Later in April, we joined our mothers in Italy spending 5 days in Rome, right after the new Pope was elected, and 5 days on the Amalfi coast, including a tour of Pompeii and the Isle of Capri (not the casino). Afterwards, Liz and Terri went to England to visit some relatives then they joined Bob in London for a few days.  In June, we went to New Jersey to visit Grammy and relatives including a side trip to Philadelphia.  Also, Bret’s mother, Mary, bought a home a few short miles away from Bret & Terri’s house.  So when she’s not in Hawaii or traveling the world, she’ll be close by.  And when she is not in Houston, her place makes a great place to have parties.

In July our normal day to day life as we know it got turned upside down.  Terri went to LA to pursue acting full time for 3 ½ months, while Bret served a short tour of duty in Iraq.  If you missed any of our emails detailing our adventures, you can read them on our website.  Bret was able to help drive Terri out to LA and help her get set up, before flying back to Houston to deploy to Iraq.  Terri then flew back to Houston to welcome home Bret from Iraq just as Hurricane Rita was bearing down on Houston.  Luckily, the Hurricane spared us.  After a quick reunion with each other, Terri flew back for another month in LA.  Bret took a guys’ trip with Craig, Rob, Mike, and Brad to Vancouver, Canada and then Seattle to watch the Texans football team lose miserably. Bret immediately flew to LA to spend a week doing touristy things, including being in the audience of The Price Is Right, where Terri got to speak with Bob Barker.  The last couple months of the year were spent catching up with each other and with friends and family back home.  We even escaped to Las Vegas for a few days right before Christmas.  It was more of a mileage run to maintain our Elite status with Continental.

 

It’s also been another big baby year for many friends and family (but not us! J).  Charlotte and Seth had Sam in August, Angela and Rick had Sam in September, Angela and Mark had Ella in October, Danielle and Fabien had Zoe in November, Jen and Craig had Ally in November, Barbara and Adam are due in a few weeks, and Robert and Rachel are due in March.

Our hobbies still include going to the movies, renting from Netflix, eating out, napping, and planning for the next trip.  We still have season tickets to the Broadway Series and TUTS Series in Houston, along with most the family.  This year we saw Little Shop of Horrors, Anything Goes, Les Miserables, The King and I, Movin’ Out, Peter Pan, Wicked, Cats, and Evita.  It’s not quite the same as the whole New York experience, but it’s a pretty good and much cheaper alternative.  Bret still golfs occasionally with the new clubs Terri bought him last year.  Terri earned her purple belt in karate, but it will take awhile to get brown belt with her schedule.  Our daughter, Abby (the tortoise-shell calico cat) is also doing well.  She will turn 9 in a couple months.

 

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 J)