Holiday Newsletter – 1984

In 1980s by Steve Sliwa

Merry Christmas!

We hope these season’s greetings find you healthy and happy. We Just wanted to share some of the new developments in our lives since last year. My Job at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton continues to be challenging and rewarding. I was able to spend a week in San Diego this past June presenting a paper about my research at the 1984 American Controls Conference.  I also had a wonderful time there seeing the sights and visiting friends.

Since September, we have been living in Philadelphia while I attend graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania.  It is a tremendous amount of work, but we have also had the chance to see many of the sights and to enjoy the cultural benefits of the big city.  My sister Jan, a long-time resident of Philadelphia, has been a big help in making the transition.  We still make monthly trips back to Virginia to keep up with everything there.  Some friends are renting/caretaking our house for us, and we plan to return home next June and resume our former routine.

Tabitha, or Tammi as she is now known by her schoolmates, has been growing steadily.  She spent an active summer that included Girl Scout camp, extended visits with friends and relative, and several weeks at her grandparent’s cabin in Tennessee.  She is now in fifth grade at Philadelphia’s Albert Greenfield School, an excellent public school where she takes Spanish and computer lessons in addition to normal classes.  We also live close to the local YWCA, where she has been taking gymnastics and swimming classes after school.

This past winter I was able to do a considerable amount of skiing with friends:  a week at Mont Tremblant in Quebec and a week at Sugarloaf in Maine.  This winter we hope to get to Camelback for skiing several times; since it’s close to Philadelphia.  Unfortunately, I was unable to do as much sailing this past summer as I would have liked, but I hope to remedy that situation next summer.

We have a new addition to our family:  Tabitha’s Christmas present last year was an adorable fluffy orange kitten, who is now a gorgeous fluffy orange cat, that we’ve renamed ‘Kitten Kaboodle’, or Boo for short.  He can try my patience sometimes, but he is unusually playful for a cat, and good company for Tabitha.  She handles (most of) the chores for taking care of Boo.

All in all, this year has seen some exciting changes, and we are looking forward to all that the New Year has to offer.  We hope that your holiday season will likewise be joyous and fulfilling.

Love Always,

Nancy & Tabitha

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