Welcome to SCSC 2009! We have a couple of great activities planned for January so put these on your calendar between ski trips. A Sunday afternoon of bowling at the Palace Lanes in Bellaire is a great way to catch up with friends in the New Year so join us on January 11th for a fun afternoon. If you have not signed up for this activity and are interested please drop me a note to assure we can accommodate a change in numbers. No reservation necessary however to come and share your new ski tales with us at the January 29th Happy Hour at Champp’s at Uptown Park.

February wouldn’t be complete without Galveston Mardi Gras! Steve Giesler and Rick Jaeger are once again organizing this great event and as I have said before this is a great opportunity to give Galveston a shot in the arm! We are trying a place new to some of us for Happy Hour in February, Firkin & Phoenix on Westheimer. It is a great central location and, as I recall, a great assortment of brews and elixirs.

Saturday, March 7th, Craig “Cowpoke” Campbell will be herding us to Rodeo Houston. My sources tell me that they think this first Saturday of Rodeo will have a much sought after entertainer, so best secure a ticket early. TSC Bid Fest will be held again in Dallas, April 17th to 19th. Come and make your voice heard for the 2009/2010 ski season and enjoy a “mini vacation” just a short jog up the road. Sandy Wellhausen is hoping to put together a “Zipline” adventure in Wimberly in May pending EX-COMM approval. This will be after ski season so no worries of injuries affecting your next ski trip!

We still have many more happy hours to plan and the AIA Sandcastle Competition and Volunteer’s Party in June to keep us in touch over the summer. Enjoy your ski trips, but don’t forget you can have a blast with your bowling shoes or flip flops on too!

Two of our 10 trips have come and gone from the Colorado Rockies and a good time was had despite Mother Nature not providing as much snow as we would have liked in Winter Park and Vail. But as I write this I have received two personal reports on snowfalls of 12 – 24 inches over just a few days in Steamboat Springs and Summit County. In fact most of ski areas are reporting snow and more snow. And lucky you - we still have room on most of our remaining 8 trips for those of you that want to ski this season.

Steamboat will be departing just days from now so that one is probably out for this year if you aren’t already one of the lucky 52. But Lake Louise and Big Sky have quite a few openings and as you may have seen in the email blast they both have had a price reduction! We now have 3 openings for Powder Mountain, Utah. For about another week, Japan could still work for you late holdouts. Breckenridge is full but we might be able to get a foursome added. As you may have seen in an email blast a few weeks ago, we are trying to fill a couple specific rooms. Well those emails work! We have filled the Snowmass spot. We still need a single male for Three Valleys. On December 8 they already had 4 feet of packed snow - the best early season conditions in 20 years or more. If you are a ready made foursome or a pair we can probably still add you on Snowmass and Three Valleys, respectively. But don’t wait too much longer. The TCs can only handle so much last minute work. They have already been doing an excellent job of managing constantly fluctuating trip sizes!

So check your calendars and take your pick. We would love to add more to our fun-loving ski groups. And if you already have your ski trip plans in place, you might want to start planning a summer vacation. We have a great trip to Panama for your consideration. Read Vicki’s article in this issue (page 4) or contact her at Vicki.Faulkner@shell.com.