Christmas Letter 1996
Dear Family and Friends,
Merry Christmas and Joy to you all!!! The big news in the Westhoff family
this year was the advent of Zachary Rackham Westhoff, little brother of John
Dunnington Westhoff.
Zack was born at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland* on
October 1, 1991. He has been a wonderful baby from the start--pregnancy was
great and ended with the kind of delivery that Natural Childbirth zealots rave
about. After a brief re-admit to the hospital to bask in the anti-jaundice
"miracle-grow" lights, he is now a fat little 14 lb., pink-cheeked
wonder who even sleeps at night for 6 hours straight. (kinda sorta...)
Dunn has adjusted remarkably well to having been ousted as the reigning
tyrant of the household. He loves his "Baby whack" and is forever
kissing, squeezing, and patting him despite (or because of?) Zack's vociferous
protestations. Dunn adores all things choo choo or school bus related and has
discovered the linguistic power of "Why?". We spend much of our day
contemplating the great questions of life..."Why does Baby Whack like to
suck on his binky? Why can't I walk outside in the rain in my wippers
(slippers)?" and so on. I am constantly amazed at how much one two foot
tall guy can effect a household.
My life is a never ending battle against the forces of entropy, so far:
Entropy 1, Rachel 0. I'll keep you posted but I have a sinking feeling I know
how things will turn out.
*If the Maryland part of the second paragraph was news to you I will briefly
sum up our life post BYU. John decided is now a second year medical student at
the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, affectionately known
as USUHS. USUHS is a medical school set up to train physicians for service in
the Army, Air Force and Navy/Marine Corps. We are living on post at Fort Meade
and I find I am slowly gaining proficiency decoding the rank and branch
insignias on uniforms as well as making sense of the alphabet soup, acronym
laden lingo my neighbors use.
John is surviving Med School very well. It is a lot of studying but thanks to
the Army side of the deal he does have the opportunity to do some pretty cool
stuff when he's not hitting the books. Last summer he spent six weeks observing
Ranger training in progress and got to ride in various helicopters and an
amphibious assault vehicles. I gathered it was kind of like advanced Boy Scouts
with a really big budget. He is very much looking forward to his third year when
he'll spend most of his time in the hospital.
That sums up things in our part of the world. Which, by the way, is about 15
miles south of Baltimore and 30 miles north of Washington, D.C., so if any of
you are ever in the area and need a place to stay while touring, road tripping
etc. please let us know. We hope this letter finds you enjoying the spirit of
this the Christmas Season.
John and Rachel Westhoff
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