Christmas – Clear Lake Area National Space Society & Moon Society Chapter

‘Tis the season! While we still mourn the loss of our long-time Chapter hostess (and NSS CEO!) Anita Gale, our holiday tradition continues. Ken and Nancy Bowen have graciously volunteered their home to host our Christmas social on the evening of December 7th beginning at 5 pm.

We’re planning a low-key evening with finger appetizers, Subway mini-sandwiches, and Nancy may just cook up a batch of her nearly-world-famous chicken & dumplings! She’s also a virtuoso at the piano, so be prepared for some Christmas carols at the fireplace. We’re also planning to have some videos such as “From the Earth to the Moon” playing in their study, and it will be a good time for conversation. Those of you who were looking forward to hearing Ken, a veteran of Project Apollo and the Shuttle program, before we had to cancel November’s meeting due to illness will have the chance to engage with him in person!

This is a big Chapter outreach event, and guests are welcome. We’re especially inviting the members and friends of our North Houston Chapter to join us down in Pearland Saturday evening. There’s no charge to attend, but if you’d like to contribute a side dish and/or dessert, or a small financial contribution, we will accept with thanks.

Ken and Nancy live in the Green Tee subdivision of Pearland, about five miles west of I-45 at Scarsdale Boulevard. We really do need to have some idea of how many of you want to come, and they’d prefer not to have their home address published on the Internet…but if you RSVP to info@nss-houston-moon.org we’ll send their address along with detailed directions.

Again, we’re looking forward to more activity in 2025, and so we’d love to have you join us and bring along some new faces. As of right now our meeting dates for 2025 haven’t yet been scheduled, but we expect for our first meeting to be held in mid-February.

See you Saturday!

Anita Gale is hosting our Chapter’s November “Movie Night” in her home at 18506 Upper Bay Road in Nassau Bay, across NASA 1 and down the road just a few blocks from the Space Center on Saturday, November the 19th from 3:00 p.m. until we’re all drowning in Tribbles! This year’s get-together will feature a “Space Station” theme…what goes right, and what might someday go badly wrong!

We’ll have a few minutes for snacks and conversation after doors open at 3:00 p.m., but by about 3:30 we’ll be ready to start with our Science Fact entry, the 2002 IMAX Space Station movie, filmed by the astronauts themselves and presented on Anita’s big-screen TV in Blu-Ray! You’ll love the scenes of weightlessness and the ever-changing view as the early modules of the International Space Station are jockeyed into place!

We’ll have a dinner break with hot dogs and fixings, chips, and maybe a few homemade chocolate chip cookies, and then we’ll get into Tribbles for the rest of the evening! We’ll start, of course, with the original Star Trek second season episode “The Trouble With Tribbles” as written by David Gerrold. That will be followed by the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine follow-on tribute episode, “Trials and Tribble-ations”…if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s good! Finally, as a nightcap, we’ll have the animated series episode “More Tribbles, More Troubles” on tap for the die-hards!

The popcorn machine will be there and popping; Anita will have her legendary spread of adult and soft beverages; and you’re all invited to bring along your leftover Halloween candy! Other contributions, both food and funds, are welcome as well. We’re expecting an intimate turnout for this event, but still we would appreciate an RSVP email to info@nss-houston-moon.org so that we know how many to plan for. No charge for the event, but voluntary contributions towards the refreshments will be accepted with our thanks. These shows are all child-friendly!

Finally, we’re also giving advance notice of our Chapter Christmas party, currently scheduled for the evening of Saturday, December 17th. Hope to see you there!