Welcome to our 1999 Christmas Website!


Buddy wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a prosperous Y2K!

Welcome and our heartfelt holiday wishes to all of you! It's been a fine year for us and we felt that the best way for us to share it with you would be to create this "virtual newsletter". In the text of the newsletter, we have embedded numerous links to websites and pictures which we have created thoughout the year, so bookmark this page now so that you won't get lost!

We'd love to hear from you all a lot more than we have been! E-mail is a great medium for communication, so send us your E-MAIL address and let us know how you are. You can reach us:

Ted is tngray@nautiloid.net.com , Karin is Karin@karinsworld.com, Hannah is hannahgray@gmail.com and Nathan is Fishergray2000@yahoo.com.


Winter

In February, we vacationed in Mexico again. We needed it BAD as each year, our business keeps growing and growing. Marilyn and Thackery (Ted's mom and his eldest brother) joined us for part of the time, really enhancing our enjoyment of the trip! We took alot of pictures which you can see here --> Cozumel!.

The rest of the winter was pretty much winter after that.


Spring

In early spring, Karin and Ted took advantage of a business trip in Nevada by driving up the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains to Reno. The leisurely drive through the snow covered mountains was spectacular, highlighted by a stop at Mono Lake and a romantic weekend in Lake Tahoe.

Jeff (Hannah's friend from Canada) came out over spring break for a visit. While he was here, we took a scenic drive up the Big Sur coastline to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to provide them with some cultural enlightenment. The jellyfish display is a truly amazing.

In May, as a sophomore at Morro Bay High School, Hannah entered the California State Science Fair, being the only entry from her entire school district. Ted was unable to attend in person but was able to watch the awards presentation over the Internet as Hannah took home 4th place in the senior's division of Zoology. She is already planning her next entry.

Spring was brought to a close with news that another member of the Gray family was imminent. Nathan and Amy announced that a baby boy is due on January 3rd, 2000.


Summer

Summer starts around here with the Great Western Bike Rally, an annual father/daughter event for Hannah and Ted. About 2000 bicyclists from all over the west coast converge on Paso Robles for a long weekend of riding and hanging out. Hannah and Ted put about 75 miles on the tandem that weekend.

As the summer progressed, we were invaded by family visitors and of course, Jeff! Ted's Dad, both of his brothers and a friend of his brother Tim all came out for a week or two in July. Phew! They did what guys do and golfed a lot! And the event of the summer...... Hannah got her driver's license! After a very brief and harmless encounter with a ditch - she's been enjoying her newfound freedom and is a very responsible and safe driver.

Ted and Karin became involved with a small group of hobby wine-makers and have enjoyed learning the wine making process in an up-front, personal and LABOR INTENSIVE way. We spent several weekends working the crush, the pressing and the bottling.


Fall

Fall has been really busy for all of us - Hannah works extraordinarily hard at school (with excellent results), Ted was out of town on business much of the Fall. Karin does what she always does.... Karin also has kept up with Rug Hooking, a really fine Book Club, is still breeding African parrots, has taken some knitting classes and filled in for Ted on the Fall wine crush and press. (Ted mumbles something about Bird Brains, Bookies, Hookers and now Winos......)

Our grandaughter, Jessica, played on a soccer team, Tiger Sharks. They didn't win much but they had a good time. And speaking of sharks, Nathan the fisherman, reeled in a big one while fishing the back bay. And that was just the beginning of the fun with Sharks.

In October, Ted and Hannah made their annual pilgrimage to the national Hot Wheels Collector's Convention, held in lovely Detroit this year (and yes, they actually paid money to go to Detroit!). Jeff took a charming Greyhound bus ride from Toronto to join them - which may have had something to do with Hannah's enthusiasm for the event this year!

After Thanksgiving, we flew to New Orleans for six days on business trip, where we set up an exhibit booth at the Power Gen Trade Show. It was our first time at a trade show but not our first time in New Orleans, the fine dining capital of the US. While dining one eveing, Karin had the opportunity to meet Emeril LeGasse, the famous chef.

This Christmas we will stay at home. Thackery and Tim will join us as will Jeff (does this group sound familiar to you too?) through New Year's. We always go on a beach walk for Christmas Eve. Christmas day is at our house again.

We're planning to spend New Year's eve as we did last year - renting a campsite up at Montana de Oro (a State Park on the coastline just on the other side of Los Osos from our home). All of us and a group of friends and our kids and our dogs gather around a big bon fire with our potluck dinner and our champagne - wishing ourselves and all of our friends and family - nearby or distant...

Happy New Year!

In closing, we should note that Ted and Hannah both have ongoing websites: Ted chronicles many family adventures and personal interests at Nautiloid.Net and Hannah continues to update her pages at http://www.fix.net/~hgray. So stop by these sites once in a while and see what's new.

Winter | Spring | Summer | Fall



Back to: Grayvine | Nautiloid Network