December 2, 2002 Twas a cold snowy eve in December.  Outside flakes gently patted the window giving assurance that winter had indeed once again taken seasonal residence.  Icy tendrils gripped the trees, whose branches laid heavy with the burden sheltering the ground below.  Leafy remnants of autumn lay huddled in corners of the yard holding desperately to their memories of lazy summer days and the warmth of the sun.  Don’t know where I’m going with this other than to paint a mood for this year’s Christmas letter.  It’s actually 55º and sunny outside with winter yet to rear it’s ugly head here in Seattle. March this year ended on a sad note for the Steffens family with my father suffering what would be his final stroke.  While brother Dave and I were in route to his hospital in Florida, Chuck appeared to be recovering, regaining consciousness and having a coherent day joking with the hospital staff and talking with my mother and brother Bruce.  Chuck’s recovery was short-lived however as he passed away peacefully the following morning with Mom and Bruce walking him through his final moments … Dave, Bruce’s wife Cathy, and I arrived a few minutes later.  With the family and friends all assembled in Appleton a couple of days later, we had a grand party for Chuck celebrating his life and how he touched all of ours.  We miss him dearly. Most companies have continued to suffer the effects of Sept 11th with dwindling profits and hefty “reduction-in-force” initiatives.  Both Nora’s company and mine had several rounds of lay-offs in which, fortunately, our positions were spared. Change is in the wind however, Universal Avionics (Nora’s employer) recently announced they would be moving their long time Seattle-based engineering facility to Tuscon, AZ sometime in 2004.  At Rockwell Collins, I just moved out of engineering (after 12 years) into the e-Business organization with my own budget and projects now.  I have become heavily involved in IT Security and e-Collaboration efforts with customers as well as playing IT manager for our small engineering support/marketing facility in Kirkland. Nephew Ben in Orlando, FL decided it was time to leave freedom behind and get married … the big date being June 22nd.  Does Orlando bring up any child-induced possibilities for a summer vacation?  Off to Disney World we went, staying at the Caribbean Resort there for 4 days, visiting Grandma in Punta Gorda, and then driving her to the wedding.  Ben’s been into music for many years playing in several bands and their wedding featured many of his talented professional musician friends, ending the reception with a recording of Aretha Franklin’s “Natural Woman” Ben sang the night before dressed in drag at a Karaoke bar.  Jeremy, you see, was just carrying on the Steffens family tradition of making the groom the target of practical jokes and public embarrassment.  I seem to recall stories of Jeremy (Ben’s brother) arriving on his honeymoon in Gatlinburg a few years back discovering to his dismay that Ben had carefully removed all the underwear from his suitcase the night before!    Summer projects encompassed most of July and August where we concentrated on finishing up the extravagant backyard landscaping plans.  Once again I took a one-month leave of absence to accelerate the process.  This year’s endeavors began with pressure washing, sanding, and waterproofing the cedar deck.  We followed that with finally having patios poured, an upper and lower one using a slate-textured green/dark gray colored concrete with a solid gray foot-wide border design.  In the process we had curved steps from the dining room to the upper patio poured to match.  We finished up the firepit area with log benches, stump end tables, and tiki torches having a couple of marshmallow-roasting bonfires with friends … gives you a feel for the camping experience without the long drive.  We began our planting projects with many cuttings and mature shrubs given to us by neighbors and friends.  Next year we’ll finish up with colored concrete flagstone paths created using a couple of templates I found for that, adding in some landscape lighting, and lots more planting.  We’re finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel in this 4-year long undertaking! My Mom visited this summer and we took her to a Cirque du Soleil performance one evening.  The “Cirque” is the French rendition of a circus with performers doing incredible feats of balance and strength to futuristic opera music with very unusual costumes, choreography, sets, props, and clowns (part circus, part performance art).  A very cool experience if you’ve never been to one.  The 2002 concert agenda was sparse this year seeing only “Yes” at the Paramount.  Nora and Shannon saw “Beauty and the Beast on Broadway” and “Toy Story 2 - Disney on Ice” with friends in November.  Nora also did her usual annual array of Ice Skating shows with Debi and crew. This is the year we hope to get Shannon up on skis … four is the magic age according to all my ski instructor friends with kids.  Once again I updated my old ski school’s website I made for them a few years back, so free lift tickets and possibly a lesson or two for Shannon should lessen the sports impact on our pocketbook.  This is all contingent on if it ever snows here this winter, the mountains are still bare in the beginning of December (usually there’s a couple of feet of the white stuff by now). Shannon has grown into a fun-loving, curious, and (shortly after turning 3) a potty-trained young girl.  Glad to have made that hurtle!  Last weekend we celebrated her 4th birthday and now have a house officially filled with Barbies and Disney videos.  If this trend continues we may soon need to add another couple hundred square feet to the house dedicated to the little foot tall blondes who have taken over here.  Shannon continues her love of dancing (obviously taking after her mother there), well into her second year of ballet classes at preschool with no wane in enthusiasm.  She’s now honing her bike riding skills and learning to cut her own hair playing “beauty shop” with the neighbor girls … much to our dismay! We sincerely hope you have a joyous Christmas and a new year filled with prosperity fueled by an unprecedented rise in “tech” stocks.  Oh wait, I guess our desires made it into that last sentence!  If your year’s exploration finds you in the Pacific Northwest, as always, you have a standing invitation to stay at our Seattle-based “bed and breakfast”. Only one catch there, you have to cook us breakfast!  Also, you should be prepared to share your bed with a few Barbies … they can magically show up anywhere! Don’t be a stranger, and for you out-of-staters … drop us an e-mail and let us know what you’ve been up to lately (new house, children, getting out of prison, etc).  Merry Christmas 2002!