This is a holidays letter sent out about the family.
It's always hard to believe its holiday time down here (although we did have 3 snow storms last year - a record), and it seems impossible that another year has gone by already, but Elizabeth and Keith have definitely out-grown last year's clothes. The kids seems to be thriving in Texas land. Once they hear her Texas drawl, no one will ever believe Elizabeth was born in Boston. She loves her school-its fantastic. They teach 5-year olds Spanish, French (her accent in both is better than ours) art, ballet, and piano. She's the 1st one-front-tooth missing, sugar-plum fairy in the ballet class program's history.
Keith on the other hand refuses to develop a Texas drawl - in fact he refuses to learn to speak at all - at least in any intelligible language. His vocabulary is immense but generally limited to one-syllable grunts. He's a classical terrible two who is really adorable (when he's asleep).
Midge is still working part-time (3 days/week) for a marine engineering firm doing computer programming. She loves the work and especially loves getting out of the house. Other activities include tennis (she says she's ready for Bobby Riggs) and Greek folk-dancing which she's really getting down pretty well.
Jeff is still enjoying his work at M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute. The pace is exciting, and he has his own section now (chemotherapy) which leads to a lot of travel for speaking engagements. He's doing mostly clinical research-this involves a lot of writing and clinical programs testing new cancer drugs. His other time-consumers are bike-riding (early planning for the Energy Crunch) and singing with the Chorale of the Houston Symphony Orchestra which provides a great break and change of pace. Our program next year includes Britten's "War Requiem" with Robert Shaw conducting.
Our most exciting event this year was a 2-week, medical meeting trip in September to Athens, the Greek Isles, Istanbul and Lisbon. Our favorites were the island of Rhodes and the city of Istanbul, especially the Istanbul Hilton. The weather was glorious, and scenes, such as the Acropolis, the Minoan ruins on Crete and the Topkapi palace and harem in Istanbul, were so fantastic we got black and blue from pinching ourselves just to make certain we were actually there.
Our plans are to stay put - Texas may be the last state to run out of oil, and besides, we like it.
Hope your holidays are the happiest!
Midge, Jeff, Elizabeth & Keith Gottlieb
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