Dear Friends and Family,
Well, Spring Forward came a little earlier this year and we are just getting caught up. We hope 2025 was a great year for you and that 2026 is off to a great start. Our annual video starts with some highlights selected by our friend Lind Bruton who is the production wizard of the sights and sounds of each year’s video.
Sports & Entertainment:
After that, we start with the Fall of 2025 and Baylor’s historic 48-45 double overtime win against Top 20 ranked and 2024 CFP playoff team SMU (Alan’s other alma mater). We were lucky enough to have field passes for the game, so we got to see a lot of action from feet away on the field (as you can tell from some of the photos). It also gave us a chance to reconnect with fellow Baylor alums and longtime friends who live in Dallas, Debbie McIntire and Randy Wilson (shown later in our friends and family pictures). Next is a pregame on the field photo with Alan’s brother David and his wife Amy at the Baylor home game against Kansas State (that was also won on a last second field goal). Earlier in 2025 we followed the Baylor Men’s Basketball Team to Charlotte for the NCAA tournament and then enjoyed a Rockets playoff win against the Golden State Warriors including photos with the mascot and NBA Hall of Famer Calvin Murphy (the comfy floor seats photo are the seats we split with the retail brands of musician and actor 50-Cent). Later in the summer, in anticipation of this year’s World Cup, Houston played host to a few CONCAF tournament matches, with the USA making the final against Mexico before losing in a close match. And, back in February, Team USA was at it again in the 2026 Olympics. While we did not attend this year’s Olympics (the first Olympics that fans could attend that we have missed in 25 years!), we did get to see all the Team USA figure skaters before they headed to Italy in the US Figure Skating Championships up in St. Louis in January, joined by our friends the Nicholsons and including a dinner with the Kientzels. This section closes with some photos from some charitable events we sponsored and attended (Salvation Army, Girls Inc., including photos with some of Alan’s colleagues Tifany, Katie, Linda, Annie, Tyler, Nicole) and community non-profit leaders Hillary Hart (Theatre Under the Stars) and Laura Hipps (Chinquapin Prep). The final event photo is the Houston Rockets Clutch City Charity event at (now Ambassador) Tillman Fertitta’s home with a mix of Alan’s colleagues (Ambreen and Tiffany) and clients, as well as Rocket Fred Van Vleet and his wife.
Travel:
First up was a summer trip to Turks & Caicos; one of Alan’s UK partners and good friends David (and Debbie) Stern have long recommended this group of islands in the Atlantic and given our love for beach vacations, snorkeling, and (Alan) scuba, we finally were able to go. As you can see the beaches are sandy white and the water is blue. The Iguana Island was cool. We mostly traveled by electric bicycle and found another retirement option for Alan in a year or so (it already has the right name Big Al’s). Later in the summer, we got a break from the Houston heat up in Steamboat Springs with cool hikes, and then in the late fall we visited our friends Mike and Susan at their modern high rise in Oahu with great marina and beach views and easy walks to dining and shopping. We ended 2025 in New York City for New Year’s Eve, including seeing a play and two musicals on Broadway, and enjoyed live music and fine dining at the Mandarin Oriental with a Central Park view of the fireworks. A few additional photos of activities near our condo in Ormond Beach and Tricia getting some dance lessons in an authentic mediterranean restaurant.
FRIENDS & FAMILY:
Our family photo reel starts with Niece Vivian, Tricia’s sister Amy, mom Carolyn, brother in law Dan, then some friend photos with Baylor/Dallas friend Debbie (who was in our wedding), Baylor/Oahu friend Michelle, Halloween pictures from Alan’s office party, and dinner with Alan’s brother David, sister-in-law Amy, and nephew Jack, and Baylor/Dallas friend Randy during a visit back to Houston. Next up, Jackson Salters, the son of our friends Steven and Ambreen Salters (Alan and Ambreen are longtime business partners), firing the winning touchdown pass in a bowl game for Carnegie-Mellon (good one Jax!), followed by a fun photo montage of our now 2-year old cats, Lix and Lux – mostly at leisure, but including a pretty good play-wrestling match at the end.
Finally, we end with some scenes that give us mixed emotions – after 30 years in a house we had built in the style of Tricia’s childhood home in St. Louis area where we met 55 years ago (!), we moved! We traded a 3 1/2 story Victorian-style villa with a rooftop widow’s walk view of downtown from just three miles away, for a centrally located 4-story Italian-mediterranean style “palazzina” (aka, townhome) in a 150-home gated development where we face the community park and pool just a few miles farther from downtown. COME VISIT!
(This year’s soundtrack includes Bruce Hornsby’s “Rainbow’s Cadillac”, Edwin McCain’s “Get Out of this Town”, and recent Super Bowl Halftime Show and Grammy winning Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos -- Spanish for “I Should Have Taken More Photos”).
Tricia & Alan
Tricia: tricia.ratliff@comcast.net and 713.705.7422.
Alan:aratliff@stoneturn.com and 832.435.3535,
7539 Cuadro Lane Houston, TX 77055
