To Our Dear Friends and Family:

We wish you a most joyous and truly wonderful Christmas, and a successful, prosperous, and happy New Millennium!

Blessings and Best Wishes for

Peace, Love and Joy!

Patrick, Arlee and Jeshua

Christmas, 1999

Christmas Picture Album

 December, 1999

Dear Friends and Family

This is the electronic version of that traditional xerox holiday letter that accompanies many regular Christmas cards. We hope this season finds you healthy, happy and fulfilled. We are, for the most part -- though it is a challenge to stay completely healthy for any extended period of time with the quality of air here in the city.

We will be spending the holidays in Grants Pass Oregon; we fly out of Manila on December 18 and return on January 8. During that time you can email us at our alternate address pgross@usa.net but we don't promise to check it every day.

This is our second and last year in Manila. We love International School Manila, and are both a little sad to give up our teaching jobs here, but the air pollution is driving us away. We want better for Jesse's growing lungs. It is an exciting but unsettling time, as we explore options for next year. We would love to go to Europe or the Middle East (in fact Saudi Arabia would be our first choice) if we find the right combination of jobs and environment. Grad school or just a year off as a family remain options. Where we want to go most changes every day. We are going to a job fair in London in February, and will know a lot more about how we feel, and what our real options are, after that.

We have enjoyed our time here though. I'm teaching International Baccalaureate Music which is stimulating, as it is a very high level course in music history and theory -- in fact many colleges grant credit or advanced standing for students who score well on the exam. The kids here are wonderful; the bands have made great progress, and I have some great colleagues to work with. I'm also having a good time and challenge teaching Humanities, an integrated arts (music, art, drama, film) course.

Arlee is teaching seventh grade and finds she LOVES the middle school kids. She just finished leading an Ancient Rome week as a culminating activity for a quarter-long study of the topic. Most of her free time right now has been taken up with rehearsal: she is playing Anne Sullivan in a community production of The Miracle Worker." Jesse is learning to spell in the finger alphabet for the deaf, from all her practicing at home.

Jeshua is growing up! He has much to say these days. The other night, in his prayer, he said, "Thank you for talking. I love talking." He has a phenomenal memory and likes recounting events from over a year ago now that he can describe them in words. The picture above is from the huge poinsettia-encircled Christmas tree in front of the Starbucks where we like to go on Sunday mornings.

We hope to see some of you in Oregon, or better yet, come visit us in the Philippines. We are still here for a few more months, and have a huge house with plenty of room. The diving is great. Or you can get laser surgery on your eyes for about half of the US price.

Keep in touch!

Check out our web page, and some of the school pages I have put up.

Peace!