December 2015
Greetings from Friendswood, TX
Hey look it that, another year has past and it's time for another holiday letter.
Phelan just celebrated his first orbit around the sun, and while he's not walking just yet, [He's starting taking unsupported steps in the last weeks as this letter was being composed] he's climbing everywhere and pushes his favorite toys, boxes and stools around. He is of course completely and totally adorable and smiles and waves at most everything. He's really enjoying the festive holiday lights up around the neighborhood.
Megan is now 8.5 years old and still very interested in cat and dog breeds. She continues to be a voracious reader, and has recently started reading the Baby-sitters Club series of books. And has starting taking piano lessons at Friendswood Music and More and she just performed in her first piano recital and did very well.
Our cats Pepper and Pakhet having just turned two have decided to divide up the house, Pakhet is mostly upstairs, and Pepper is mostly downstairs. That doesn't seem to prevent, or perhaps it's because of it, literal cat fights with chases up and down the stairs in the middle of the night.
It's only taken us 12 years but we finally decided to get a doggie GPS system for Hunter. It's actually a radio tracking collar called Marco Polo, that can directionally locate Hunter in a half mile radius, and beeps to let us know when he's away from home. Hunter still escapes with alarming regularity and he knows more of our neighbors than we do, but his age is starting to show.
Julie spends the majority of her time looking after Phelan, managing Megan's homeschool group, gardening and wondering why she's doesn't have enough time.
Winston is still working for Boeing on the Space Launch System (SLS) program, the heavy lift rocket he's helping to design is scheduled for a first launch in 3 years. He still traveling a fair bit but less than in years past.
Our once new house now at 12 years old is hitting its repair and maintenance age. We needed to have the roof repaired this year after rain started dripping into the bedroom. We also needed to replace all the smoke detectors as they wouldn't stop beeping when they should be quiet.
We rebuilt our raised bed in the back of the yard, and grew greens, garlic chives, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, basil, okra, string beans, kohlrabi, and squash. Our lemon tree is once again festooned with numerous yellow globes, and we've started to get tangerines on our orange tree. Winston built a bird net frame for the Blueberries this year, and that helped increase our yield. And we had our first good harvest from our Asian Pear tree, until the beetles ate the rest of them before we could devise a good way to pick the high hanging fruit.
Travelwise we made two major trips this year, both were partially in conjunction with a business trip. In April our first trip started with a drive to Florida, where we saw highest waterfall in Florida (100 ft into a sink hole!) and Uncle Vinny. A couple of days in Cocoa Beach Florida where Winston attended meetings and visited the Columbia Accident Investigation room as well as the Space Shuttle Atlantis Exhibit at Kennedy Space Center. The former was sobering and the latter was nostalgic. Meanwhile Phelan and Megan got to play in the hotel pool and the Atlantic Ocean. From Florida we took the Amtrak Auto Train to Washington DC, where we met Jeff, Zoë, Jasper and Irene on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial during the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was both very crowded and very pretty. We then met Julie's Cousin Regina and her son Louis, at Winston's Grandmother's house in Ellicott City where Phelan got to meet his paternal grandparents (Ah-Gong and Ah-Ma) and his great grandmother (Ah-Zhou) for the first time. Then we drove down to Virginia Beach and met all of Julie's brothers and their families and Amanda and Amelia as well. We visited the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center. One special treat was a Bald Eagle nest with two eaglets a couple of miles from Joey's house. We then drove across the state to see Casa de TJ, (more commonly called Monticello). We spent the night at Billie and April's house, and then went to Shenandoah National Park where we finally completed section of Skyline drive we'd previously missed on prior trips. We then spent some time in Ferrum visiting Nancy, Brew, Kala and Emma, Dr. Wolff, and Dr. Bier. From Ferrum we drove south along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, before entering and crossing Great Smokey Mountain National Park. We then went down to Huntsville, AL where Winston put in a few days at the Boeing offices there, and then we headed home via the Natchez Trace Parkway and Vicksburg National Military Park.
Our second trip was in July when we spent a week in Huntington Beach, California. Julie, Megan and Phelan spent a lot of time at the pool and in the Pacific Ocean, while Winston was at work. We got to visit with Uncle Jeff and his family, Aunt Christine was in town at the same time. We did visit Crystal Cove State Park one morning, and the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium on the way to LAX.
For Thanksgiving this year, we had a Family reunion here in Texas. All of Winston's Father's Branch and Uncle Frank's Branch of the Wang family gathered for a week of fun. Children's Museum (Houston and Galveston) Bayou Wild Animal Park, Moody Gardens Aquarium Pyramid, and the Houston Party Playland were some of the highlight activities. As well as just getting Sheng generation all together.
For Business Travel, Winston also made separate trips to Huntington Beach, CA and Everett, WA by himself. And was able to visit Samantha in WA and Cousin Doris in Cali.
We had the opportunity to volunteer several times this year helping clean our waterways and plant prairie grass and make oyster beds.
For Phelan's first Halloween, he was a ladybug that Julie made, and since he was an insect, Megan decided to break out her old Cockroach costume from 4 years ago. She's obviously a lot taller now, but it still worked really well. Winston carved Megan-O-Lantern XI and the Phelantern I. Phelantern I was entered into the Boeing Houston International Space Station Pumpkin carving contest and earned "Cutest pumpkin" award. {Mostly due to how cute Phelan is that how well the carving turned out, but an award is an award} Megan carved a Howling Wolf all in one sessions by herself this year.
Megan setup the Christmas tree all by herself this year, and enjoyed a bountiful haul. Phelan also received quite a few presents but prefers coveting whatever his sister is interested in.
We're spending the break between Christmas and New Year's writing this letter and playing Mice and Mystics. (a cooperative storytelling role playing adventure game) And so passes another year here in Texas, where we're thankful for our health and happiness. We look forward to next year, and wish you and yours the very best.
With Love, Winston, Julie, Megan, & Phelan
2015 Year in Review Photo Gallery
P.S. As always, we will try to post more photos at http://basil2.homeip.net/~basil/Photo.html