Well, this is my first year sending my own Christmas letter to all of you! Instead of putting pictures in this letter, I have created a web page with pictures from last year which you can find at http://www.stevehandel.com.  I guess a lot has happened this year so let's start in and go through this chronologically:

School. I graduated in June with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cedarville College. I had a good senior year with a little bit of studying and a lot of fun. Exit school, enter work . . .

Work. I got a job with BFGoodrich (BFG) in Troy, OH. This is their Aerospace division where we design and manufacture aircraft wheels and brakes. And just in case you don't know, BFG does not make tires anymore. They haven't for like 13 years: Michelin carries the BFGoodrich brand. Now if you ever need that for a trivia question you'll be prepared! I am in the engineering trainee program there which is a great deal for me. Basically, I'm there as a full-time engineer, but I get to rotate around to different locations within the company every 3 months for up to a year and a half. This way I can see different areas of BFG, see what I like and what I'm good at, and hopefully choose my favorite location at the end of the trainee program. The first rotation was in the Regional, Business, and Military (RBM) Design Group. Coincident with my arrival, was the departure of one of our secretaries so I basically did her job for two of the three months until we got another one. I'm a master at the copy machine! My second rotation was a "special" assignment to finish up a parts database which was programmed in Microsoft Access and then create a database for time and materials tracking. I volunteered since I wanted to learn Microsoft Access anyway. I'm kind of getting a reputation for being a competent computer power user for pioneering the use of automatic schedule updates in Project 98, finishing up a big chunk of the parts database, and whipping up a departmental web site last week. Work is going well, who knows where I'll be in a couple years . . .

Home. I am living in what I'm told is the largest two-bedroom apartment in Troy. I have reservations about the accuracy of that statement, but regardless, it's plenty big enough for me. I had two lady friends from college help decorate the apartment. We spent three hours in Wal-Mart picking out decorations, then I treated them to a quality dinner (that means we ate out ), then we decorated until 2:30 A.M. I was SO tired but I figured if they were going to stay and decorate I would stay awake and let them keep decorating. The place looks incredible, I don't know how they did it. 

Wife. Nope. Hang on to those wedding shower gifts, you'll need them some year! Currently I'm not dating anyone, nor do I have any prospects, but I have plans to change all that someday. All I need is time and the right lady.

Internet. Over the past few years I have picked up website design as a hobby. Feel free to check out some of them at SumnerWemp.com; Nwbible.org; and Koinos.net.  Nwbible.org and Koinos.net are both church web pages. SumnerWemp.com is for a gentleman in Texas. Be sure to go to stevehandel.com and view the pictures from graduation, my apartment, etc. 

Well, I wish you all a wonderful year 2000! Take a second to realize Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus, not just a seasonal holiday where people give gifts. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!