December 1998

Dear Family and Friends,

Another year has passed and we want to update y’all on what’s been going on with the Gwinns in 1998. This past year has been a busy one for us, and we’ve enjoyed every minute of it. We spent last Christmas in Dallas, allowing ourselves to participate in lots of holiday musical events at church, and allowing Kelsey to experience her first Christmas of memory here. We had to put a large baby gate around the Christmas tree to keep her from grabbing all the ornaments.

We‘ll begin with Trey. Now 5 ½, his year has been a busy one. In March, he and Allen went skiing in Breckenridge with Allen’s family. Other highlights of the year include starting Kindergarten at Hexter Elementary in August, and joining the YMCA Indian Guides program with Allen. They have already been on a father-son campout in Oklahoma. Trey enjoys going on field trips with his class, watching Blue’s Clues on TV, singing in the kids’ choir at church, playing with Kelsey, doing art work, running his model trains, and riding his bike.

Kelsey, now 2, has long blond straight hair, loves dollies, talks a lot, loves to color, experiments with Mom’s makeup but is very much a Daddy’s girl, climbs everything in sight, plays with Trey’s trucks, loves the Teletubbies TV show, and is trying to potty train. Her biggest achievement this year was giving up (involuntarily) her pacifier. Her speech is quite good for her age. She moved up to the Toddler class at SMU Preschool in June where her "boyfriends" are numerous.

Allen is still working at SMU and still loves it. He continues to "moonlight" as a private networking and paging consultant, and worked at InterOp in Las Vegas in May. In October he earned his MCSE certification and has been attending MCSE classes all semester. Allen and Trey enjoyed fishing at the Indian Guides campout. Trolley driving, United Methodist Men, and hosting a list server for the "Bible Codes" researchers are some of his volunteer activities. Allen also put in a great deal of time working on his 20 year high school reunion committee. Next year he will be President of our homeowners’ association.

Terri is still working part-time in the ethics center at SMU. Many of her other activities were church-related--handbell ringing, typing and editing a UMW Cookbook, planning and organizing a fundraiser luncheon, serving on the Finance, Stewardship, and Nominations committees, and being a UMW circle leader. She also was involved with PTA, being a Kindergarten Room Mother, and designing and maintaining our household’s web site at www.gwinn.org

We took three minivacations this year. Over the 4th of July weekend we went to Galveston, TX (great fireworks) with Allen’s family. At the end of July, Allen, Terri and Trey went to Las Vegas for a friend’s wedding and of course, to see the sights. Especially memorable was a hardhat tour of Hoover Dam. The next weekend, all four of us went to Eureka Springs, AR. Allen and Trey also took a weekend trip to Augusta, Georgia in October to see Allen’s brother Dan and his family. For the first time, Trey travelled without either parent (but with grandparents) to Allen’s second cousin’s wedding in Tennessee.

Terri’s parents were here briefly in May on their way back from Oregon. Allen’s Internet prowess led to the finding of a longlost relative, Uncle Harvey, who is Allen’s mother’s biological half brother. We spent a Sunday in September attending a family reunion in the Texas hill country, meeting the rest of the longlost clan. Dan Gwinn and family were in town for Thanksgiving where we once again enjoyed eating a fried turkey; Uncle Harvey was here as well. Terri’s brother Mike Knupp came for a few days this summer after graduating from a police academy in Tennessee. All of us survived Dallas’ long, very hot summer of 1998, wishing we had a pool!

This Christmas marks Terri and Allen’s 12th anniversary. We hope your year was as fulfilling and blessed as ours was, and that 1999 is even better. Happy Holidays from us and our 11-yr-old cat Mitzi.

With love,
Terri, Allen, Trey & Kelsey Gwinn