John.Westhoff.Net Family
"No success can compensate for failure in the home."

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