Hi from the mother of the family!  This is my second year of teaching half-days only and I love it!  It gives me time to visit a local motel swimming pool several times a week to work on flexibility.

As the others have mentioned, we took a trip to Europe this summer to see friends, relatives, and former exchange students and their families.  Christiane, from the time of Kirsten’s senior year in high school, brought her boyfriend for the first week of our stay in Norway.  Kirsten and Manuel stayed with friends from her year in Norway… Christiane, Kai Arne, Bob and I found a delightful youth hostel called Haraldsheim in Oslo to serve as our base.  If you’re curious about our trip, I’ve put several pictures taken on the trip on our personal web page at:
http://personal.180com.net/theholmens/SumTrip1.htm

(As you might guess from the link name, it continues in more than one page…)

Our second week Maren joined us for a stay in a time-share in Sweden that served as a base for our second week of visits in Norway.

At the end of that week, the rest left us and Bob and I went on to see Christine, our Norwegian exchange daughter from two years ago.  Her family gave us a marvelous tour of southern Norway from Kristiansand nearly to Stavanger, a truly breathtaking experience!

When we left Christine’s family, Bob and I went on to Sweden, where I caught a train to Paris to see friends dating back to my college days and he eventually joined Christiane and Kai Arne again to see more of Germany.  I met a girl on the train who had recently moved to… of all places… Red Lodge, Montana!  On another leg of the trip, I traveled with a magician and his family from California.  Jacques and Odile made sure I got to see Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower… and to meet their family, two of whom worked on the current film ‘Winged Migration’!

A Eurrail pass is a great way to travel!  After leaving Paris I went to an organ concert in Freiburg, Germany, to hear Paris organist Naji Hakim, whom I’d met on the train the day before, and ended up sitting next to one of my physics professors from St. Olaf, Dr. Thomas Rossing.

Bob and I reconnected again at Franziska’s family’s home in Wannweil (near Stuttgart).  They gave us a tour of some wonderful castles, and gave us a wonderful finale to the trip, as we went from there to Hamburg and a final farewell to Christiane to fly back to Denver and drive back to Montana.

We made our 3rd annual trip to Colorado for Thanksgiving where Kirsten and Manuel get to do the cooking … love that idea!  It’s less expensive for Maren to fly there than to Montana, so it also makes a great way for the family to be together.

For Christmas, we all get to collect in Montana, before the usual after Christmas trek to Minnesota.  We LOVE hearing from you!  You can reach us by e-mail at:
abholmen@wtp.net
and follow our ‘wanderings’ at:
http://personal.180com.net/theholmens

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Andrea



To the Holmen web page