Christmas 2008

 

Dear Family and Friends,                                                  

 

Bret is still a full-time Intelligence Captain at Ellington Field here in Houston.  This past year, his unit made the switch from a Fighter Unit with F-16s to a Reconnaissance Unit with the unmanned Predators.  Bret kept very busy at work this year.  He spent four months in the desert, but this time is was only in Las Vegas.  Bret and many of his members from his unit headed to Vegas to work the Predator mission while the facility at Ellington was being completed.  In July, his new Reconnaissance Unit was up and operational.  This was great news for Bret because this means he ‘should’ permanently stay at Ellington now.  Which leads to…

 

Terri had a major career shift this year.  With Bret’s job staying in Houston, it seemed like the perfect time for Terri to go back to teaching.  She’s working at a great school, Commonwealth Elementary, in the Fort Bend ISD public school system.  After a seven year sabbatical, it was good timing for her to revisit her first career.  She’s even back in 2^nd grade, her favorite. She also continues working part-time in the summer teaching Xplorations week-long camps at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, which is a very fun alternative to the test-based curriculum.  She and Angela have just put Faux du Jour on hold as we see how teaching goes and how the economy evolves.  In acting news, Terri is in the middle of filming several short projects locally in Houston.  She also is the spokesperson for an online website about a new brain learning technique program (www.theultimatelearningprogram.com).  She is still keeping up her screenwriting and hoping to be able to submit to several festivals next year. 

 

Traveling was a little light this year, with Bret’s 4 month stint in Vegas and Terri working full-time on someone else’s schedule.  Bret barely made Silver Elite with Continental and Terri didn’t make any elite level for the first time since last millennium.  (We know, no sympathy.)   In March, Bret, Terri, and Mary went back to Colorado.  This time, we even went skiing.  This was Terri’s 3^rd time to attempt skiing.  The jury’s still out if she likes it.  In April, Terri went to Vegas to visit Bret.  She then did a side trip to LA (you can’t keep her away) to visit friends.  She and Caroline did a short cruise out of LA to Catalina Island, San Diego, and Ensenada, Mexico.  In July, Terri had a really nice visit to New Jersey, visiting her Grammy, Uncle Tom, cousin Sue, and cousin Ashley.  She also got to visit with our good friend Barbara and her family.  Terri flew straight from New Jersey to San Francisco to meet up with Bret and her family for the annual summer Sabol family vacation.  In October, Bret went on his annual football trip.  This time they decided to do an away Cowboys’ game in Phoenix with a side trip to the Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater.  In November, we celebrated our 9^th anniversary with a trip to Hawaii, staying 5 nights in Oahu and 3 nights in Kauai.  We stayed at military bases in bungalows right on a private beach.  Straight from the airport, we went to Mt. Pleasant for the annual Brogoitti Thanksgiving.  We look forward to spending lots of time with our families over the Christmas holidays.   

 

Weather-wise, we survived a couple major events.  First Hurricane Ike blew through Houston.  We and our families made out pretty well.  Mainly we have learned to really appreciate electricity, water, and cell service.  Also, on December 10, the strangest thing happened… it snowed!  And it was wearing shorts kind of weather the day before (and many days since).  We went to see the musical White Christmas that night.  The guy introducing the show said he never thought he would introduce a show call White Christmas, in Houston, with it actually snowing outside.

 

Our hobbies still include movies, but we seem to watch them more from Netflix now than going out.  We still love eating out, and with our long hours now, leftovers are ideal. We also seem to be playing Texas Hold ‘Em poker more and more.  Terri still has season tickets to the Broadway Series and TUTS Series in Houston, along with most her family.  Bret still golfs occasionally, including a recent Texas A&M tournament with Bob, Robert, and Scott.  Terri had to adapt her exercise routine to her inflexible schedule so she now does a boot camp several times a week as well as Latin dancing aerobic classes, but looks forward to incorporating pilates and yoga too.  Our daughter, Abby (the tortoise-shell calico cat) is also doing well.  She will turn 12 in a couple months. 

 

And for all you computer people, please Facebook us.  You can find us under “Bret Brogoitti’ and ‘Terri Sabol’.  If you don’t know what Facebook means, then please disregard this paragraph. J

 

Love,

Terri and Bret Brogoitti (and Abby J)