Is the tree small enough to make thinning the fruit a practical option? Also judging by the fruiting in November you're down under. Have you had a drought?

OP is in Houston, TX which I guess could be considered 'down under'......at least as far as the rest of the US is concerned :-) But floral's comment makes a certain amount of sense - most pears in the US would be ready to pick in late summer to midfall. Nov & Dec is really late to be producing fruit in the northern hemisphere and even more so if the fruit was not yet full ripe and the dropping was due to the tree self thinning the immature fruit. Even the so-called winter pear varieties are typically harvested in mid to late fall and then stored for a month or more before they are fully ripe and ready to eat.

It would be helpful to know what kind of pear it is. That could help to explain this unusal timing and what may be happening.

I am not sure whwwhwhat type it is, I had posted a few years ago and someone said it was a sugar pear? They are small, brown with a bit of red and really sweet

No drought...Houston is mostly wet. Water doesn't log either..

'Sugar pear' is a common name for a Seckel pear, whch is a small and vey sweet winter variety. But the typical harvest period for these is mid to late fall so still a bit on the late side although I have never gardened in Houston and have no idea how that climate would affect fruit production and harvesting.

One thought may be that the pears are now overripe and dropping naturally. Winter pears are typically harvested while still quite hard and unripe and firmly attached to the tree. They are then stored to ripen off the tree - in cold storage for up to 5 months or for several weeks if at room temp. If you leave a winter pear to ripen on the tree, by the time you harvest it - or it falls/drops naturally - it will be too ripe to eat and just be brown and mushy inside.

The pears that dropped were hard as rocks and only about an inch or so. A couple years ago, we got some decent ones that were about 3" and they were ready around the beginning of December if I recollect right

One of 2 things happened. Either you reached the chill hours for the pears, and the warm weather caused them to bloom way to early. Happened on one of my peach trees.

Or, with the heavy rains we have been having the tree was stressed, and that caused them to bloom. The bad part is the 2019 crop will probably be lost. It has been a strange year in SE Texas, very cold in Mid October and November, then warming up in December. Now we are back to normal, with cold temperatures.

Really strange...I can't figure out what happened. But now what..is there anything I can do? Any fertilizing regimen? We get enough rain that we don't water...

The city I live in is called Pearland...

After reading your post again, since it bloomed in Nov/Dec, it would have been chill hours causing it to bloom early.

You have a low chill pear, which in normal years is good. However, this year we got 300 hours of chill (temp between 32 and 45 degrees). Then we had a couple of weeks of highs in 70's, lows in 50's. This fooled the tree into thinking it was spring.

If you had a higher chill hour pear, it would still be dormant but in normal years would not get enough chill hours to break dormancy in time for the tree to produce viable blooms.

I would not change the fertilizer regimen. Too much nitrogen can cause disease problems. Not really anything you can do but hope for a normal winter next year.