Dear Family and Friends:
As 2003 comes to a close, our family is eagerly looking forward to the holidays. I’ll be taking several days of long-overdue vacation, Monica has already finished up her work at school for the semester and the boys have only to make it through one more week before the blessing of Christmas break is bestowed upon them as well.
	Mitch and Jake’s school choir gave performances this past week, first at a local retirement home and then at the school itself. This little ditty has been recorded to digital tape for posterity and potential blackmail later in life. Eventually I’ll transfer the recording to electronic media for easier distribution, but Monica’s computer, the only one that was fast enough for the job, burned itself out over the summer.
The twins are also in the chess club at school and playing basketball on a YMCA team. I am their team’s acting ringmaster and though we were badly out-coached Saturday, overall the Kings are happy about being 3 and 1.
	David is getting along well in 1^st grade. Dealing with school is much easier for him, I think, than fighting for his place in the family hierarchy against the bigger boys. He’s learning to read, despite the undue influence of Star Wars and Spongebob Squarepants, and played on a soccer team at the Y in the fall.
Monica continued to chip steadily away at the mountain of credits required to gain her teaching degree. This year she’s taken more hours than ever before, managed to keep a 3.5 G.P.A, all the while frying up that bacon and never letting me forget that I’m a man! By this time next year she will have graduated. When that glorious moment arrives, we’re gonna party like it was 1999!
	For my part, 2003 was basically the same story as the last couple of years: plugging away in a down market for my skill set and wishing furtively for the glory days of the dot-com era. My novel-writing experiment has been on hold since April as I wait for my associate to pick up the ball (hint, hint, buddy). In the interim, I’ve had some time to sharpen a couple of short stories using my dad as a sounding board.
We recently had the pleasure of hosting Halloween and Thanksgiving for Monica’s family at our house. Yesterday we celebrated Monica’s birthday, including a giant sombrero and a special serenade from the house mariachis at La Hacienda. Later this month the twins will turn 10. They have asked for boxing gloves. Yikes!
	Other highlights of the year included Mitch and Jake both receiving reading awards in May for their 3^rd grade efforts, Jake breaking 8:00 in the mile for the first time, and the family train trip to Indiana which we closed out with a hike up to the top of the Sears tower. Words to the wise regarding this mode of travel: coach is bad, private sleepers are very good.
From our family to you and yours, best wishes for the year to come.
Happy Holidays,
Marc, Monica, Mitch, Jake, and Dave