2007 was a banner year for the ol Bethancourt family.
Chelsea is rapidly approaching graduation from LaPorte High School. Her grades are waaaay better than ours were; probably better than yours too. After graduation, Chelsea will likely pursue a Psychology degree with an eye towards law school. She will attend one of four schools: Texas A&M, Rice, the University of Michigan, or the University of Texas. We’re thinking Chelsea added the last school on the list in order to irritate us. Surely she won’t go there… surely.
Sam is doing what Sam does. School, sports, sleep. School, sports, sleep. Rinse. Repeat. What did you do when you were ten years old? Sam is an engaging and attentive child, admired by his teammates and treasured by his family. If we could get him to clean his room and bathe regularly, he would be perfect.
Despite often skipping work to race sailboats, Dana and David both still have jobs. Our respective companies have been good to us. Fair and rewarding. Bet you don’t hear that very often.
We raced more than ever this year, and raced at a higher level. David was heavily involved with three different campaigns, while Dana and Chelsea recently punctuated a year long odyssey by sailing the family J/22 to a 10th place finish at the Rolex International Women’s Keelboat Championship. We are fiercely proud of them.
In February we added a new member to the family; a 1993 Caliber 40 sailboat that we intend to rename “More Cowbell.” The boat is a floating condominium. Not very fast, But all the comforts of home. Some day soon, we will sell our stuff, jump on the boat, and cruise until it’s not fun any more. Or until the money runs out. Whichever comes first. With any luck at all, next year we’ll be typing this letter from some deserted island in the Caribbean.
Rest assured that, even if we didn’t see you much this year, we still tell stories about you. The stories get better with age. And we miss you dearly. So when you have that first glass of egg nog on Christmas Eve, you know the one, with that little nip of Jack Daniels in it; then think of us. Tell one of those old stories.
Let us be the Jack in your Nog.
Merry Christmas,
The Bethancourts
Update, 17-Dec-2007 Dana insisted that I show the picture that went with the letter, above.
Just your average family. Obviously. No frivolity here. Move along. There was some talk about naming the new boat Dogpile. Probably because of this picture. However we discovered that many people do not know what a dogpile is. Some 80% of the adult population (in an informal poll) thought that the word, dogpile, was a term for doggy doo doo.
Go figure.
And for those of you that are in that 80% bracket:
Dogpile
1. A rambunctious occurrance in which all people in a group who are rowdy and socially adept enough to perform it all throw themselves onto the ground in a big laughing pile.
2. A less rambunctious occurance in which one unwilling participant is buried in hundreds of pounds of human flesh.
3. A shout which precipitates either 1. or 2.
