Our season’s greetings continue to come from sunny Mumbai as we enjoy our third year living and teaching in India.   Dave’s blog, facebook posts, and our webpage keep the world up to date on the Stutz family as we meander through the year, so we thought a more itemized presentation of events would be appropriate for our annual greeting.

Let’s try this:

	Sun:  We began 2009 in sunny Thailand with a week each in Bangkok, Chang-Mai and Krabi.  Favorites included the open-sea snorkeling, elephant rides, and temple hikes. We are anticipating closing out the year with a visit to the tropical paradise of Bali. Between those bookends, we also had the chance to visit Egypt and see all those sun-bleached ruins we’ve heard so much about.
	Time:  Summer 2009 was a time for family; we enjoyed our time in Montana learning how to playing mission and in Minnesota teaching everyone how to play mission.   We treasure our time in Montana around campfires and in Minnesota around tables (at the cabin, at El Loro’s, on our new 18666 Kalmar patio, and the ever-under-construction ensembles in St. Paul).  Our Minnesota and Montana connections keep us going throughout our year in Mumbai - thank you!!
	Underground:   Spring break found us in Egypt, where we toured Giza, the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, and Coptic Cairo.  In all locations, we spent a considerable amount of time underground in royal burial chambers, secret passageways, archeological excavations, and caverns (where Mary, Joseph and Jesus reportedly lived during their time in Egypt!).
	Teach:  How can we forget that it is our love of teaching that keeps us overseas enjoying this amazing lifestyle!  Dave continues to keep 7th graders flush with mathematical thinking (his daughter included!) while supporting volleyball teams, organizing his grade level team, sponsoring MathCounts, and generating reasons to party (Oktoberfest, White Elephant, and Fantasy Football to name a few).  Susan continues to be amazed by how much fun it is to learn with 1st graders.  She now knows 1) that Anacondas have a special hole they breathe through while they swallow their prey, 2) how to write her name in Hindi, 3) there are volcanoes on Antarctica.   Alea and Breck continue to benefit from the amazing teaching they receive at ASB.  Alea has forayed into drama, and we look forward to On-line, an Internet Fantasy, next week.  She still plays the sax, has blossomed as a digital artist and reads voraciously.  Breck’s newest things are floor hockey and learning about the Word Wars.  He is becoming quite the history buff and looks forward to our time in Amed, Bali when we get to snorkel around a sunken US aircraft carrier.
	Zen: We spent a fabulous week in November up in the Dhauladhar Range of the Himalayas.  We learned much about Tibet, Buddhism, life in exile and the Dalai Lama’s pursuit of world peace.  We hiked to 9,500 feet and enjoyed expansive views of the mountains, a surreal experience compared to our usual Mumbai skyline.

We hope this greeting finds your family well and enjoying the holidays as much as we are.  We are in Mumbai next year, but our itchy feet have won out and 2010-2011 will be our last year here.  We haven’t had any visitors, so please consider this an open invitation!  With all our love and best wishes for a peaceful 2010 -