Advent Time
This is our annual letter to our friends.
Dear friends!
Once again we celebrate
first Advent with snow and days getting shorter and now it is
already the eighth New Year that we will celebrate in America.
In addition to the many trips, every year has given us something special:
as announced in the last annual letter, Annemarei and Barrett
married on June 29, 1996. Like all weddings, this too was with
a lot of excitement and preparation.
The bride and groom managed a big part of the preparation themselves, because the marriage place is located near Gettysburg, about halfway between Hershey and Baltimore where both lived respectively. This location for their festival offers an ideal Framework for the wedding ceremony that Annemarei and Barrett had in mind.
Two points regarding the celebration were essential to both: It was important that the dearest friends and relatives came to whish them happiness along the way. This is true especially regarding their grandmothers Ruby, Lona, and Grandma Liesel.
On the other hand, the ceremony should happen in nature, that both feel so connected and take place between trees, under the open sky, over water; all things that symbolizes life.
So Henry Rosemont, Annas and Barrett's Philosophy professor, was chosen to dedicate the ceremony to nature and life honoring all major religions and cater
Bride and groom with wisdom from Taoism and Judaism, the Enlightenment and Christian religion leading to their togetherness , and at the same time referring g back to the power of Earth and water.
Many guests have afterwards
said it was a very romantic celebration. With
Three musicians accompanied us through the meal to Irish folk music.
We would have liked to hear more from them, but contrary to everyone else
According to hourly weather forecasts, it started at 9 a.m. at 25 C
It was raining tropically, so we unfortunately had to go out on the terrace
and couldn't dance anymore. That was actually a real shame
but Annemarei and Barrett enjoyed their wedding celebration very much
enjoyed, Barrett especially because Anna is not just one
Homemade wedding cake based on an old American recipe
and decorated it, but a chocolate cake especially for Barrett.
The morning after the wedding the sun shone again
Temperatures rose to 33 C, according to most guests
headed home after opening presents. The young bride and groom
spent the afternoon with his closest friends in the stream, above
whom they had married and perceived this as a conclusion
special rounding off of the ceremony. Three days later, Annemarei flew
and Barrett to England to cycle their honeymoon
spend: six weeks in England, Scotland and Ireland. Since the end
In August, both of them are studying very hard again, but unfortunately they are still living
always separated, something they complain about more and more often. Her
They share an apartment in Baltimore, where Barrett is studying law
and Anna travels with him once during the week and on weekends
Drive there from Hershey. Now Anna hopes that she will be in her third year of study,
i.e. on July 1, 1997 to the University of Maryland in Baltimore
can transfer to finish their medical studies there.
We parents now live half way
Ways between Baltimore and Denver, so no wonder ours
Telephone bills reach astronomical levels. While Anna and
Barrett spends their valuable time either with each other or with their studies
are with Mark and Lisa through the lively little Fritzi
Real family relationships have already arrived and of course you can hear them
We particularly enjoyed talking about Fritzi - and
Experience progress. She now speaks complete sentences and
He understands everything in German, and has been with them since September
Au pair girl from Germany lives with our granddaughter
speaks German. This leads to conversations like yesterday
the walk in the park. Mommy, where are all the flowers? Fritzi, what
do you mean? Oh! I mean all the flowers!! Lisa has this month
Half of her specialist training is behind her and she is seeing the end
with joy. In addition to his job as a surgeon, Mark has another job
Job-like hobby: he builds the cellar in his free time
out, and he is under pressure because she often visits him in his sleep
and by the time we get to Christmas at the latest, the cellar will be one
should resemble a new living room. At least an old one is correct for him
German surgeon wisdom says that the surgeon is also a good one
Must be a craftsman. Fritzi also loves working with us
Screwdriver and paint brush. Last week Mark said he had to
Quickly go to the hardware store, whereupon Fritzi asked, Daddy, do
we need another screwdriver? And of course - to Mark's chagrin
The daughter had to choose the nail.
Our children live too much
far away from us and of course have little time, but they are
everyone happy with their lives.
We have it again this year
traveled together, but also did some things independently
from each other. At the end of February we closed again
on our annual ski vacation, in which we are very happy
North, moved to Grand Targhee in the state of Wyoming. The landscape
is very attractive, the slopes are beautiful and the ambience has it
More Canadian than Californian character, which suited us well
liked. But the days were as short and cold as in Canada. Us
I like the southern Rockies in the winter because of the good weather
probably better.
Since we have the children in on the return flight
When we visited Denver, we only had 5 days to ski, that was
a bit too less. We'll do it again in 1997 in Snowbird, Utah. In the
In March Heidi's visa expired again and she flew for ten
Days to Hamburg to visit my mother and friends. Dietmar
was already very intensive with the preparation at this point
Surgical Infection Society meetings busy here in Milwaukee.
The entire organization was in his hands and after the four days
At the meeting he was congratulated on a wonderful success.
We
concluded the meeting on April 27th by welcoming all foreign
Surgeons were invited to our house for a cocktail and dinner buffet. A
We still had one day left for the final travel preparations
for a three-week stay in Europe, which included a flight to Paris
on April 29th started. We only stayed there for a day and then went to Leipzig
to fly on.
After many years we finally came
back to East Germany, to the former GDR and were very surprised at how they turned out
city and its people. Of course we were very excited
from the new exhibition center, from the renovations in the city center
and the service at the Interconti Hotel. We had a little problem
with the behavior of some taxi drivers in the city
The term service still caused some problems. Our entire
However, our stay in Leipzig was characterized by a hospitable atmosphere
young lady, Jule Damm, daughter of good old friends from Hamburg
had completed his internship with Dietmar in the clinic in the spring and now everything
made amends several times: she was the city leader,
Restaurant guide and got us tickets for that
Cabaret Gugglmusch: we've been feeling the Saxon spirit since that evening
Dialect endearing, it was one of the most beautiful cultural ones
Events of the past few years. Thanks Jule.
I flew from Leipzig
to Hamburg and Dietmar to a congress in Nice, and afterwards too
to be in Hamburg for a few more days. We flew out on May 11th
Hamburg to Antalya, on the Turkish south coast, where on May 16th. the
Turkish surgeons' congress began and we still have five days left
were granted a real vacation. The day of arrival was special
nice: it was my birthday and many dear friends and relatives
had given me gifts that I received the evening after one
I had a lot of fun unpacking a romantic meal for two. The
The following days were filled with trips into the city and beyond
the excavations, with swimming in the sea and after two days remained
Even Dietmar spent several hours in a deck chair without doing his work
miss. Other friends from Europe also attended the congress
and USA were invited as speakers, so we were a happy group
and had a lot of fun.
With these wonderful vacation days
I was well rested for the final wedding preparations
where Anna and Barrett came to Milwaukee. However, Dietmar flew
At the end of May again to a congress in Paris and then onwards
to Hong Kong and when he came home, Anna and
Barrett drove back to Baltimore, but that was what they were for
The first wedding guests arrived at our house. In this context
It's just taking the entire family travel company too far
This summer, many of you were there anyway. The
The end of this family summer was a four-day car trip
through a small part of the Rockies, where we took the gondola
4000m, and even Lona, at 81 years old, drove for three weeks
Missed until her 82nd birthday, the high one handled it well.
Participants in this unusual group were Lona, Ingrid, Heidi,
Holger, Liliane and Marie-Louise.
In mid-August we thought it was
now peace enough to process the past few weeks in the form of
Films and photos and of course some clean-up work. But
We received the news that Anna and Barrett's Jetta had died
had given up and of course they needed a car. In addition
At that point we had already decided, Mark and Lisa
to give me my Audi and I wanted to buy a new car.
So Anna and Barrett got the Grand Voyager, which they bought on September 2nd.
picked up, we then brought the Audi in the following two days
to Denver, where we stayed for three days. Dietmar flew from there to one
Meeting in Korea and I in a still not tidy place
house
China.
Dietmar was hardly there for a day
The trip was back when I was sitting on the plane to Hamburg again.
The process of selling the house had to be initiated in Hamburg
the last belongings were shipped and
Christmas shopping is done. Plenty of work for ten days
in Hamburg, you see, there was no time to call you all or
even to visit. But Hamburg had one
There are a few surprises in store for New Americans who are spoiled for service:
Post office counter without glass paneling, friendly officials behind it,
Shopping all the time and then until 8 p.m. and thus equalization
in rush hour traffic: only 45 minutes through the city center during rush hour
from Blankenese to Sasel - if that's not progress!!! For that
The weather was really November in Hamburg, but for that
Nobody can do anything. It was still nice with you all again.
Dietmar still has a trip ahead of him and then we will fly with Anna
and Barrett to Denver, where we met Mark and Lisa with ours on the 24th
new family, including Barrett's sister Carolyn and her
husband Eric, who also lives in Denver.
Celebrate Christmas Eve
and on the 25th there will be one for all of us at Carolyn's
American Christmas. And of course we take our skis
with you, because in 40 minutes you can be in the most beautiful snow. Eventually will
It's about time Fritzi got on the boards.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year
Heidi und Dietmar
Dear friends!