December 6, 2004

It’s 6:20am Monday December 6th on a cold day in Chicago’s airport as I sit awaiting my connecting flight. Shannon’s 6th birthday party was yesterday ending at 4pm and I was expected in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for an all day meeting this morning at 7:30am. The meeting request came late in the week when I was asked to represent all of the western region Rockwell Collins sites at that meeting. For me that meant a red-eye flight from Seattle to Cedar Rapids and an apology to the meeting coordinator for a 9:30am arrival (2 hours late) to the meeting. Family comes first and that’s the best I could do. So describes Nora and my new life with 2 children and 2 jobs. We have a friend who came from a family of 19 children, all born from the same parents. Why they’d do that and how they survived, kept their sanity, and raised the entire herd to be successful caring adults serves as a constant source of inspiration and perseverance.

Shannon took 6 weeks of ski lessons in January and February this year and was skiing gates (between poles in a race course) by the end of it all. Amazing what a difference one year makes, factoring in peer pressure and taking the parental units out of the equation in her progress. Her instructor Laurie was awesome and Shannon’s really looking forward to year 2 of ski lessons coming up next month. We need some more snow up in the mountains though, it’s been a really mild winter so far without much of a snowpack base built up.

We vacationed in early April this year to Palm Springs, opting for something close and simple with Nora in her final trimester of our pregnancy. While there, we took the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway up to the top of mountains overlooking Palm Springs for some nature hikes and a bird’s eye view of the city. Shannon loved Knott’s Soak City, a huge water park with a wave pool, basking in the sun with temps in the low 90s, getting drenched occasionally in the “water tower”, and tubing around the river surrounding the park. She’s already getting into tattoos (temporary ones so far) getting a big colorful butterfly on her tummy at the water park. We did up several of the artist fairs there, Shannon did an Easter Egg hunt put on by the Palm Springs Fire Department at a local park, and I snuck in a lone 18 holes of golf to round out the trip.

Hailey Elizabeth Steffens entered our lives on June 30th at 9 pounds 4 ounces at around 5:22am to an exhausted Nora after an extremely rough painful labor. Once again we have been blessed with a beautiful, mellow, fun-loving child who’s only complaint in life seems to be when it’s time to eat, sleep, or cut teeth. Shannon is a wonderful big sister entertaining and sometimes feeding Hailey, taking it all in stride and laughing at some of the things that crop up in Hailey’s development. No success talking her into changing Hailey’s diapers yet … even with bribes. Nora took a 4 month maternity leave which ended on November 1st and since then it’s been an endless parade of daycare, kindergarten, dance class, gymnastics, soccer, school events, and birthday parties. My nephew Jeremy and his wife Melody beat us by 1 day and made my oldest brother Bruce and his wife Cathy the first grandparents in the clan on June 29th. Halle Nicole joined the human race at 5 pounds 5 ounces, 6 weeks before term, but strong and healthy. There’s something inherently cool about having the title “great” uncle.

I spent most of my portion of the maternity leave (3 weeks for me) stripping, sanding, and staining our deck. It looked great after it was all done, but I probably could have rebuilt it from scratch in less time. We did a lot of interior painting this year (hallways, entrance way, stairway, etc) and only have a few “white” walls left. Lawn edging was added to the backyard to speed up the weekly mow time and to clean up yard’s look. Bamboo, a few more trees, shrubs, and perennials finished off the backyard landscaping job. After 4 summers of working on the backyard, next year we only need to sit back and relax, finally. Well … maybe we’ll add some landscaping lights in the yard, finish off the flower bed around the shed, oh, and do something with the fake riverbed area …

Puddle of Mudd, Brodie, the Corrs, Alice Cooper, and Van Halen rounded out the music scene for us in 2004. Alice is still quite the showman, and Eddie (while looking pretty burnt out) can still 10-finger the guitar fret and crank it out like no one else on the planet. Nora and Shannon went with some friends to Disney on Ice (Monsters, Inc theme this year) and Nora has made the Champions on Ice Tour an annual event. The University of WA Huskies paid the ultimate price for firing their head coach right before the season started finishing with a 1-11 record … the worst in 40 years. Most of our season’s tickets were given to friends or tossed as we attended only two of the games. The Seattle Mariners didn’t fare much better than the Huskies, the Seahawks despite great hopes are mediocre again, but the Sonics are unexpectedly showing much promise this season. I found time in spring and summer to play in a number of softball leagues and golf a half dozen times with “Big Jim”. Nora went once again on Jodi’s “Whistler Girls Weekend” and continues to meet somewhat irregularly with a few other groups of her female acquaintances.

My brother Dave and his wife Nan moved to Orlando in early summer … now both my brothers live there. Florida shortly after that was hit by 4 major hurricanes in about a 6 week period. Welcome to sunny Florida, big brother! My mother’s “winter” condo in Punta Gorda, Florida was slammed by the first one, Charley, ripping off the roof, deluging the interior and contents with weeks of torrential rain, and destroying her car also in the process.

Shannon started kindergarten in September. She continues to add to her circle of friends and the sports she’s interested in playing. I’ve been helping coach kids sports through the YMCA that I’ve never even played! Time is flying by and she’s growing up so fast, it seems like yesterday I was changing her diapers … wait … it was yesterday and it was Hailey’s diaper I was changing. It’s all a blur!

It has not been a stellar year for my energetic, active 79 year-old mother as she suffered a stroke during a knee replacement surgery in the beginning of November. I flew out the following day to spend a week with her as she began what is looking to be an extremely long recovery. Both my brothers followed with extended visits to the hospital and she’s now at an extended care facility specializing in occupational and speech therapy. Trying to see the silver lining, my brothers and I have gotten much closer with each other and our cousins, uncles and aunts in Wisconsin as we regularly discuss my mother’s medical, financial and house/condo maintenance needs. I’ve tacked another visit to her in Wisconsin onto the end of this week’s business trip to Iowa. The pride I have in both sides of my family in their concern and care of my mother can’t be expressed enough in words. It’s a testament to how acts of kindness during a lifetime are long remembered and what strong family ties originated and remain in Wisconsin.

We just took Shannon and Hailey to see Santa a few nights ago and Nora has “Warm 106.9 FM” playing Christmas music constantly at home and in the car. I opt for XM stations and hover in the rock and jazz areas of the dial. This letter is getting finished at 31,000 feet on my way back to Seattle from Appleton very late on December 12th after spending a long weekend visiting my Mom. Nora and I still have some shopping to do, the family gifts to wrap and mail out, and the Christmas letter to finish up and distribute yet before we head off to Orlando for Christmas on December 23rd. Leading up to the Christmas holiday is usually a pretty frantic time in our household! All of my brothers kids will be in Orlando visiting as well, so it’ll be a mini-family reunion and time to introduce Hailey and Halle into the fold. Disney World (of course) is on the agenda as well as a few water parks if the weather cooperates.

Here’s hoping you avoid the strong winds and rain, weathering out all the storms and detours that life throws your way in the upcoming year. May you all enjoy and celebrate a Merry Christmas 2004! Seattle and our burgeoning household awaits if your travels aim you in our direction in 2005. Bring your sunshine and warm weather with you! Hey, and don’t forget to stop by Costco for some diapers, wipes, burp rags, and formula on your way over … we’re always running out!

Love …







The website’s been updated with this year’s pictures, several biographies, lots of family tree branches, dozens of old heirloom family pictures, and an updated fridge gallery.  Check it out at http://www.digital-vision.com/alan.