Merry Christmas! 1996 has been another eventful year for the Chattaways. Here are some of the highlights. Send us some of yours! And if you have a Web connection, visit us at http://www.chattaway.com/

Last Christmas we were preparing to move to Germany early in the New Year to start a new office for Aspen Technology. Our preparations were well under way when AspenTech purchased one of its biggest competitors. As they already had offices in Europe, the proposed German office was scaled back and Alan remained in Seattle.

Alan has been working hard ever since, with most of his customers in the Eastern US and Canada. He picked up enough frequent flyer points to send Kathy to Germany this summer. He also managed to attend both the Seattle and Vancouver conferences of Promise Keepers.

The highlight of Kathy's year was her visit to her Dad and family in Germany. She will always remember the day she and her sister Anna went for a walk with their Dad. While in Germany, Kathy developed a special taste for German tea and chocolates. There just isn't anything like German "Fruechtetee" in Canada.

This year, Kathy has been learning Spanish. She is on the "worship team" at the Iglesia Hispanico del Surrey, where she uses her musical gifts in many ways, mainly by playing keyboard for their Sunday services and some of their weekday activities.

Peter is taking a few more courses at the University of British Columbia, while continuing to do an excellent job as the culture editor of the student paper The Ubyssey. He also freelances for Christian Info News and Christian Week, usually writing about the interface between faith and culture.

This year Monica received her B.A. in English Literature from the University of British Columbia. She is now studying part-time at Regent College, as well as working two part-time jobs. In her leisure time she plays violin and organizes dramatic readings with friends. Peter obtained the script for a particularly droll episode of "Fawlty Towers", and Monica's group will be performing it at Regent College.

Paul works part-time for an electronics wholesaler. When not working there, he helps a lot of people out of their computer problems. He has done computer upgrades that even the manufacturers of the computers said were not possible! He is also an expert on computer graphics, digital photography and the world-wide web.

On our 27th wedding anniversary, Alan asked Kathy to meet him for dinner in Bellingham, part-way between our home and his office. But unknown to Kathy, he had made a few "arrangements". As we left the restaurant after a romantic dinner, Alan pointed out that Kathy's car was missing! We found it at a nearby hotel where, to Kathy's surprise, Alan swept her past the check-in desk straight to a cosy room with the lights on, the TV tuned to "classic movies", and fresh flowers.

This summer we tagged along with Kathy's brother Jake, his wife Linda and our niece Katja and nephew Viktor from Germany, to a lakeside hotel in the resort town of Osoyoos, British Columbia. It was hot and sunny, so we spent our time on and around the water. Alan lured Kathy into Jake's canoe and then rowed her out of sight of our hotel, scaring her to death (though Alan says he could touch the bottom of the lake with his oars all the way).

We all live off his generous bounty,
     gift after gift after gift.
We got the basics from Moses,
     and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
This endless knowing and understanding-
     all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
No-one has ever seen God,
     not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
     who exists at the very heart of the Father,
     has made him plain as day.