Christmas 2007

In front of the hearth at the lodge in Vail, Colorodo on our last day.

Santa came twice this year.

The night before we left for Colorodo, I took the girls to "Old McDonald's Play Land" as Julia calls it while Eva put out all the presents and set up the big family gift: a "Princess" jumping castle. The girls were delighted to see a room full of presents and a huge inflattable bouncing structure. They loved their princess make-up kits and toy computers most of all. Eva got a new digital camera. I am the proud new owner of a Makita air compressor.

We left for Colorodo the next day. It was a beautiful drive from Denver to Vail. There was a lot of blowing snow over the passes but we made the trip without a hitch. We spent the next six days skiing in Vail. Anna learned how to ski and rapidly progressed from a Mogul Mouse to a Mountain Level 3 skier. She got a coat full of colorful buttons to prove it. Julia had fun in her "play school". It was a real treat to ski together. Fortunately my leg survived all the skiing without a problem.

Santa came a second time in Colorodo on Christmas Eve. After we all shared a traditional Austrian peasant meal of sausages, sauerkraut and potatoes plus the traditional French symbolic 13 desserts, we went upstairs to Oma and Opa’s unit where the girls were surprised by another stack of presents. Thank you everyone!

On Friday December 28, we celebrated Marlies' 60th birthday at a fantastic Austrian restaurant. I ate a delicious Veal Shank/Osso Bucco. All the daughters worked together to give her an anthology of her friends' and family's favorite poems. There were some original poems in there as well.

Here was my contribution to the collection.

TO MY FRIENDS

The chain of golden days and nights
Is still your heritage from Deity,
And, still, the languid maidens’ eyes
Are turned to you as well intently.
So, play and sing, friends of my years!
Lose very quickly passing evening,
And, at your heedless joy and singing,
I will be smiling through my tears.

Alexander Sergeivich Pushkin
Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, September, 1999
Edited by Dmitry Karshtedt, December, 1999

ДРУЗЬЯМ.
("Источник: Пушкин")

Богами вам еще даны
Златые дни, златые ночи,
И томных дев устремлены
На вас внимательные очи.
Играйте, пойте, о друзья!
Утратьте вечер скоротечный;
И вашей радости беспечной
Сквозь слезы улыбнуся я.

Laura made some beautiful earrings.We returned back to Washington and quickly cleaned up all the Christmas stuff. It always makes me a little sad to do it. All that cheer packed away in the dusty attic for another year and the bare Christmas tree laid to rest at the curb.