Wiant Family Update & Christmas letter 2010

Susanne has been writing these the last years and between baking and preparing for the holiday season (and all the winter birthdays), the sudden loss of Oma on December 16th, and a slight loss of Mojo it is time for a new narrator for this season.

We moved Oma here to Garmisch-Partenkirchen about 2+ years ago from Bensheim where she spent most of her adult life. This was a very tough transition for her yet it was clear that she no longer could care for herself. She spent the last years in the Villa Nova--a comfortable and professional nursing home. We were all very fortunate to celebrate Oma’s 90th birthday on October 10th with Willi and Sibylle and have wonderful and fond memories of Oma Bensheim--as our children call her. Oma lived a long and full life and we will all miss her and are grateful to have time with her and her Urenkelchen over the last several years.

We are approaching ten years here in Europe! Can you believe it? What began innocently as a 2-4 year European adventure has become a journey where we have established a household here in Garmisch and are raising three German kids (who speak English at home). Every visit back to the USA carries an undercurrent of quietly evaluating: could we live here again? what would we do for work? where would we want to live--and why?

Susanne has been pretty clear on her goal to spend every second summer vacation in the USA with her family and with some form of adventure or travel. This last summer Susanne, Andreas (10), Charlotte (recently 9) and Isabella (6) left 4 days after the school bell rang and came home the afternoon prior to school start. I managed to get three weeks off and joined the family in Southern California for a brief visit with the Hechlers, Francie, Mark and Enzo (throw in a Yogi) and we had quite a visit, long time friends Mary and Gary made the trip from their gorge haven in Laguna Beach and Sibylle and Willi were kind enough to let us host a little reunion at their home.

We borrowed Willi and Sibylle’s 5th wheel trailer and Chevy and drove out three days after my arrival. In retrospect we bit off quite a big bite of America’s West and drove from Los Angeles to Seattle to Whitefish Montana in about 16 days. The trip was all about family and friends and we had 100% fulfillment: The whole Hechler extended family, the Manfreys, the Selufskys, Mike, Pat, Betty, Paul, Marc & Karin in San Luis Obispo, the Wiants in Cupertino, Clifford McGuire the Couacauds and Doug plus cherubs in Mill Valley, our old clan from Eugene, Oregon and special thanks to Jane, Tim and Kathy for the never ending hospitality (we also had a short discussion with a pajama clad cheerleader for the legalization of anythinghemp who has created a sort of boarding house and get together location for anyone in Eugene working for the Cause, complete with living room residents and moss and tarp on the roof in our old Eugene house), Patrick, Kim and Tammy--and then off to White Salmon, Washington where the tireless Clifford drove for another round of Wiant mayhem and hosted us in his amazingly cool windsurfer guru house on the Columbia Gorge. We went from there to Seattle for a short lakeside lunch with Christoph and Mira Wilfert, Mikey, my overly handsome godson and their other 4 kids (yes, those of you thinking three is a handful, with Noha--the live in angel of a grandma they are living the eight if enough fantasy--including the suburban with 4 rows of seats), and then straight across nowhere toward Montana. Now if you like 4-wheeling, quads, trees and no people, you will love Idaho. We visited towns and met wonderful folks who live for their toys and their dirt days. Kind of tempting for Jonathan (who’s midlife crisis resulted in 400 Cubic CMs of 50 PS bad !@@##%^$&( orange and black dirtmania on two wheels) and when he found the one dirt bike and quad shop in 4 counties and started drinking out of a hip flask from a guy named Ron and watching his helmet cam self filmed adventure videos of the amazing 4’ wide quad track he and his buddies built (some kind of club: QQQ: Quads-Quafs-Quilometers), and then the discussion of Idaho’s 10.000 miles of snowmobile tracks, poor old Jonathan started asking about real estate and post office jobs. Needless to say, Susanne went on out to the trailer (hey, we could have moved right in!) and found the cane Willi must have stashed there for just such a “save my son in law from the damned” kind of moment and came just in the nick of time as Jonathan was trying to buy a doublewide near the trout stream down the road. This lead to the next distraction which was over the windy pass road (recommended by Ron and his buddy) which led to one of those rare but seemingly abundant (Mystery Spot, etc., etc.) middle of nowhere roadside attractions and life’s work of a seemingly eccentric local hero that as far as Jonathan could tell must not have had any single inspiration or even aspiration to try out even a single mile of the abundantly proclaimed TEN THOUSAND miles of snowmobile tracks and must not have owned a 4 wheel drive or dirt bike or maybe even had a drivers license; for the guy spent eighty years making a museum which includes the single longest strand of hand carved wooden chain which must have gone half way around the earth as it was looped pretty much around the crazy museum this guy left to the local bar and burger joint at least three times.

Anyway, that is why they call these trips road trips--because at some point when the waitress comes over and calls you “honey” and the malted you ordered could have fed the entire family or at least the lower state of Mexico yet you ordered 5 of them cause darn, there are five of you and even sweet little Isabella wants a malty-walty, you just decide it’s time to hit the road! and there you do; road trip.

Oh we kept going...that is until it was one in the morning and there was a rest stop and the next rest stop was 90 miles away and we had the amazingly warm and comfortable 5th wheeler--thanks to W & S: did I get my plugs in? we are coming again baby--to park and snuggle up in. No toilet seat or awful bathroom hygene at the rest stop? No problemo with the 5th wheeler (until you have to get the bucket and pump the goodies and the rest of the malteds out a few days later). My secret hope and conservation concept on using the on-board potty was that I would make it to Montana where we were flying in the amazing Willi who could “show me” how to take care of the waste collection...

Well, after a great night sleep in the rest stop parking lot we drove to Spokane, Washington. Obviously if you have grasp on geography you have found my little error. I guess that Idaho empty space pulled me right in even if we had not yet left Spokane. Well although I jumped over it, I liked Spokane. The town is a cross between three hospitals and a University or two, pretty famous fishing and MTBing, some climbing and not too far away pretty good snow skiing. Lots of the things we need and like--and where else can you park a full size Chevy Exracab and 5th Wheeler (50 feet) curbside downtown to go to breakfast? I had to fill three meters and even found the best breakfast place in town called the Satellite (we got free coffee mugs). A breakfast place goes a long way in my book and as I already mentioned they have a lot of other draws Jonny likes and you can buy a house without having to inherit or both work like dogs so who knows--not too bad, but still not Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Man we are spoiled.

Did I mention already that today we went to the Zugspitze skiing under cloudless blue skies, - 12 degrees C and no lift lines. The lower mountain is open and most the tourists and even many locals stay at lower elevations this time of year so we had an amazing time and Isabella cranked some powder turns for the first time with allee! But I do digress as we are not yet in Montana and just finishing up our 4th Satellite mug of joe before pulling on down the road to Idaho and eventually Montana.

Did I mention 10.000 miles of snowmobile tracks? Did I mention I broke two ribs snowmobiling in Canada during a break day when visiting the Winter Olympics and that I am not exactly afraid of snowmobiles--but I have found a new level of respect for them.

Montana has been on my list of have to go and see that place and visit my cousin Eric and his wife Jennifer and their kids George, Sophie & Ella since they moved there many years ago. The draw grew about three years ago when Uncle Rick and Aunt Bish bought a log cabin at the West entrance to Glacier International Peace Park, and as Susanne and I are all about peace, love and nature, we just had to go. We did all that we planned with fly fishing with Uncle Rick and cousin Rick and Eric who is a real McCoy cut from the River Runs Through It cloth--and Andreas and even I landed a fish. Aunt Babs, Uncle Tim, Cousin Rick and his wife Nicki and their two kids made the trip from Wisconsin and Chicago respectfully to make for an amazing reunion. We hiked in the park with mom--who flew out to see us and join in the fun. We did the drive to the sun which ended in a snow storm and near white out at the summit but still managed to see a bear running along the road and a huge Big Mtn. Sheep complete with the largest sack of potatoes you might have ever seen--or at least slightly bigger than Dios. Poor Dios, other than Oma, Dios was the other big loss in our lives this year. He nearly made it to 14 and I do not care if you are the type to think you had or have a good dog, Dios was a great dog and the king of the breed. He is buried near us in our garden. I miss you big boy.

We were lucky to be with mom and Willi on the pass road and we captured a pretty cool shot of Willi nearly head-butting the big ram to keep him away from the Chevy. Typical to any Wiant family adventure, we were running too late for Aunt Bish’s fabulous diner and let the road unwind for us leading to a pretty fun experience in a local country kitchen where we likely won the month’s coloring book competition as, although you can read that keeping on track with writing is not my specialty, I sure can color the bejebies out of a coloring book designed for 8 year olds--only the notice said they do not ship the Huckleberry Pie out of state--let alone out of country.

I do digress. All in all, 19 bottles of red wine, no flat tires, 10.000 miles of snowmobile tracks never tracked, two coffee mugs, lots of hugs and kisses and only a few mosquito bites = an amazing trip.

What else did we do? We were drawn back to Cinque Terre for Spring Break and camped in our favorite campground. We hiked between the towns, watched our three innocent “we will just put our feet in” children from the pier side cafe deck get rolled by one meter shore break, did a great bike ride up out of town to the ridge and then 40 KM along the ridge and back into another town to eat gelato and take the train back: papa with the powerful stoker Bella on the tandem, Mama and Charlotte on the MTB and trailer cycle and the ever fitter Andreas on his own MTB.

Short summary of where we are in life:

Jonathan: Internationally in charge of Marker and Voelkl binding and ski brands for sales, marketing and product management. I try to take Susanne to a couple of events per year as you cannot really describe fully my job but leave it to say it is fun, stressful and keeps me very busy. Starting to train the mop for an eventual combover or as an alternative #2 with the dog trimmer as Susanne has tactfully identified a “thin spot”.

Susanne: Does everything else. Incredible mother, homemaker, wife, athlete, has 10-14 hour job/week which I describe as a hobby, taxi driver or biker for all the kids activities, volunteer, and keeper of the most amazing basement rooms (picture the Winchester Mystery House with only two rooms and 42 years worth of things). Susanne is getting to be a pretty accomplished skier and is starting to be competitive with Isabella for first down the mountain. She has strict competition as all the kids are now in the local race club and skiing 2-4 days a week.

Andreas: 10 is the big age here in Germany. Even though Andreas often displays a proud plumber’s crack--which the pants style seems to accentuate--he made the big scholastic jump to Gymnasium at the end of his 4th year and is now in school across town (an unthinkable 3 KM) in the 5th grade and in the college preparatory program. He is an amazing skier and today we watched him jump a few meters off the side of a fire road and then straight line the steep slope. He can hang with papa in almost all terrain and is certainly faster in the gates. He likes to play Wii and also Nintendo DS, both of which we try to regulate and keep him interested in reading and the outdoors. Andreas is doing well in school and socially and plays soccer as well as skis, bikes and plays the violin.

Charlotte just turned 9. She has a great teacher and is also well on her way to make the jump to Gymnasium. Unlike her older brother she is not disgusted by members of the opposite sex and has her eye on a classmate. She has already declared her affections in the manner accustomed here: love note, punch in the shoulder, etc. Charlotte is the more beautiful skier but a bit more timid off piste and not that interested in racing. This year she has already drawn the attention of some of the trainers but she wants to stay in the fun-oriented training group and not train with the hard core race kids. Charlotte is playing the guitar and doing judo as well as getting towed around behind mama on the MTB.

Isabella: firecracker. Bella is probably our most powerful athlete at her age. She is skiing well and already putting the hurt on Susanne. At the end of least season she wanted to try out for the race club and made it--complete with a terrific tomahawk crash down the mountain on the last run. She is in her last year of kindergarten and will start the first grade next year just as Charlotte makes the jump across town. She has discovered drawing and art this year and surprises us often with creative and accurate designs. Bella is a great tandem partner and keeps increasing her distance on her own bike.

In a nutshell, another year in paradise. We suffered some sorrowful loses this year with Dios in the Spring and most recently with Oma. I was able to visit my grandma (one week younger then Oma Bensheim) this year after a business trip to the USA and had such a great time with her and my Aunt, Uncle and cousins in Wisconsin. The loses only make us reflect more on what we have and how lucky we are to be alive, living in this mountain paradise and having the opportunity and means to have visitors and make visits.

Much love and warm fires for the holiday season.

Jonathan, Susanne, Andreas, Charlotte & Isabella