Christmas Letter 2008

Christmas Letter 2008                              Dec 7, 2008   Hi everyone!  We hope that you have had a wonderful 2008 and a relaxing holiday season.  Here's a little update on our continuing adventure overseas in Stuttgart Germany ... We started off 2008 with a lot of skiing, enjoying the finest of European "après ski" in Zell am See, Kitzbuhel, and St Anton.  We also visited Rome , where Theresa served as the experienced tour guide.  We were also busy acclimating our new addition to the family, Kaiser, a male eclectus parrot!  At first, Kaiser was a neglected, raggedy, psychotic bird, who has since transformed into a healthy, robust, and handsome green companion to our other psychotic parrot, Hina!  Hina has been sporting the latest in avian fashion this winter with multi-colored sweaters to deter her from plucking her chest and keep her warm.  As spring turned to summer, Theresa retired after a 20 year naval career and transitioned into a great GS job at European Command here in Stuttgart overseeing US personnel manning for NATO.  She had a traditional retirement ceremony, including a walk through honorary sideboys and a Bosun piping her into the civilian world.  Theresa enjoys many aspects of her NATO job, including traveling to Brussels and always brings back an assortment of Belgium beers and chocolates to share with our friends....plus she looks much better in business suits and dresses instead of her cammie utilities and combat boots! We had some challenging and enjoyable races this past year.  We started off the season by completing a harrowing mountain bike "marathon" up and down the mountains in Garmish, and participated in several Sunday "RTF" club rides through charming German towns and the beautiful local countryside.  Marty had a little scare on one of these club rides as he collided with a VW driven by a little old lady; he escaped with no major injuries but had to retire his faithful Trek 5900 bike.  Theresa had a great year bike racing, as she won both the European Military road and mountain bike championships!  Our first triathlon was Xterra Czech Republic in June, a nice race, made even nicer by drinking Budvar lager beer with our Xterra friends from Hawaii .  In late July, we drove down to the French Alps to do the Alp d'Huez triathlon.  We stayed in a lovely chalet, enjoyed gourmet cooking, and even enjoyed racing up the 21 famous Tour de France switchback turns of Alp d'Huez.  T won another age group trophy, and we had such a good time that we immediately decided to return in 2009 to do the "long course" triathlon (Gwen and Mike will be traveling from Hawaii so that Gwen can race too!).  We competed in several local races and then completed the season with two half-ironman triathlons, 70.3 Germany , and 70.3 Monaco .  We finished our long racing season by flying to Athens with a local running club, where Marty ran the original marathon course which finished in the first Olympic stadium -- and says he has now officially retired from marathons.... Marty had a busy year as fitness coordinator for the Army garrison, directing several running and two bike races, and keeping the sound systems working in 4 fitness centers… Thanks to a team effort and a great staff, the Stuttgart Sports and Fitness program was recognized by the Army as the best large installation program in the Army for 2007-2008!  One of the highlights for him was directing a half-marathon race which was dedicated to the memory of fallen soldiers from our military forces here in Germany . Marty and T both ran on the Stuttgart Garrison Army 10-mile team, and we both got on the podium and helped the team win the European 10-mile championship. As much as Marty enjoyed going to work in sweats for the past 2 years, and micro-managing some 20 female fitness instructors (after a lifetime of working with men in submarines), he decided to give up his private office overlooking the weight room and accepted a position as a "defense contractor" in the Joint Training and Readiness Office of EUCOM... so no more free race t-shirts and other swag from him!  He has no idea of what he'll really be doing, but he's sure his work colleagues will not be nearly as cute and athletic…   2009 will no doubt be another busy year for us as we continue to experience the fun and challenges of living in Europe , along with our new jobs.  Please try to come over and visit if you get the chance – we have plenty of spare bedroom space and extra mountain bikes!                                                        Love and Aloha, Theresa and Marty