Friends and Family >>>
I feel bad for breaking tradition and not sending out a letter last year, but as some of you know, the Snyder Family had a bad fourth quarter in 2001 – actually, the whole year sucked – but what are you going to do?
As Bob Dylan once said, “You just keep on keepin’ on.”
For those of you who don’t know, my mom died two days before Sept. 11 and my sister, Joyce, died two days after Christmas.
It is with a tremendous amount of sadness in our hearts that we have pushed forward.
*****
So on to 2002 … what’s new with the Rocky Mountain Snyder Family? Well, unlike 2001, both Rose and I are working; we’re both back in the Olympic Movement.
Rose
Rose works at U.S. Figure Skating as the Senior Director of Membership Development. Rose has spent some weekends consulting for both figure skating and swimming clubs on improving administration, communication and development. Rose enjoys her job in the office, but she flourishes on the road in front of a large group, solving problems that took years to develop, like magic, in one quick and easy weekend. She is the Dr. Phil of youth sports. On Oct. 17, my lovely bride and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary.
Charlie
I produce usolympicteam.com for the U.S. Olympic Committee. I had an “infinity” pass at the Olympic Winter Games; went to the White House with the team; shook hands with the President on the South Lawn; and interviewed some of the greatest names in sports, like Carl Lewis, Eric Heiden, Mark Spitz, Nadia Comaneci, Michael Johnson, Bruce Jenner, Kurt Angle, and Mike Bantom, a member of the 1972 U.S. Olympic basketball team. For one of my “other duties as assigned,” I’m producing a web site for the dreamy speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno.
Carli
Carli turned seven in March and is in second grade. She trains with a swim team three nights a week. She’s got a great coach … Rosemary. In her very first race in her first meet, Carli false-started and was disqualified. What kind of sport is that? She went on to win all of her other races. Carli sings in “special” choir, whatever that means, and goes to gymnastics once a week. She loves reading and ran 11 laps for her school’s “Spirit Run.”
Gina
Gina turned four in May and goes to pre-school. At her parent-teacher meeting, Rose and I were very proud to hear that Gina can be the bossy one in her class … she also helps the younger kids put on their jackets and hats and makes friends with new students when they join the school. Gina does a great job of using many different colors when she draws. She loves Dora the Explorer, chewing gum and jumping off the swinging rope into the big pit of spongy cubes at gymnastics.
Sam
Sam turned three in August and is easily the best kid we’ve got. I realize you’re not supposed to have favorites, but really, it’s not even close. He’s funny, brave, handsome, athletic, creative, and thoughtful, but his breath smells really funky in the morning. I mean it smells pretty unusual. He loves Peter Pan, Star Wars; any movie involving swords or light sabers. Sam is equally comfortable playing either Obi-Wan Kenobi or Darth Vader.
Sam and Gina will not go to sleep until someone sings them the theme from “Gilligan’s Island.”
Etc.
We didn’t take any vacations to Hawaii or France or anything like that this year. I had a conference in New York City; stayed in a hotel right on Broadway in Times Square. That was a cool trip. We moved into a new home, picked up one of them vans with the fancy automatic side doors. We had fun on our anniversary, thanks to our nice friends, Angie and Gina; we had dinner at the Black Bear Restaurant in Green Mountain Falls. That was a high point. A low point came when our close friends, Audrius and Rose, moved to Los Angeles.
We plan on visiting them soon.
Merry Christmas to you and yours and may you have a happy, healthy New Year!
Charlie and Rose Snyder
| Commenting on our youngest child, Sam, I said that he was “easily the best kid we’ve got.” Obviously, I was joking; all three of our kids would be tied for that honor, not that we have an annual contest or anything. I was not kidding about Sam’s morning breath however. |
