Christmas Letter 2011

Merry Christmas 2011!

Thank you for taking the time to visit the rarely updated but still existing Wiant family blog. I have decided not to print out and send our Christmas letter this year... a sign of changing times that just about everyone is online now. I hope everyone enjoyed Jonathan's funny rambling silly loving letter from last year.

And if you did, you are in for a treat, as I am off to baking and cleaning and scheduling and Jonathan was sitting around reading the paper and smoking his pipe in the family rocker and trying to recapture the iconic man of the fifties image and I encouraged him to pick up his proverbial pen and get to writing. (If you did not guess it I jumped in after the first paragraph; Ed.).
Anyway and speaking of rocker...if you do not follow the ski industry this is the year of the rocker. The big trend—and hey it actually works—is making skis with reverse camber (=rocker) which are even easier to ski on and more versatile and variable and fun. But you may not be interested in skiing or my work so let’s get onto family and the major 2011 milestones and our particular approach to the holidays.
Loss: last year’s letter had a bit to do with loss:
Loss of Oma Bensheim- who had a full life and died at 90 in December 2010;
Loss of Dios in February 2010;
And now loss of GiGi (Jonathan’s grandma) early this year and also at 90. We miss them all and think of the often—not only when mail comes for Oma Bensheim at our address. Happy Holidays you three!
We also have experienced a sort of loss of innocence. Andreas has finally come to the conclusion that if you only do the bare minimum of effort for school—you may bring home a report card and test results that reflect this poor effort. After easy sailing through the 5th grade Andreas has received a double portion of humble pie: French and Math. Susanne has added personal tutor to her long list of tasks and jobs and has spirited an effort to turn around Andreas’ math grade. For French we are crossing our french-fries and hoping for a natural development in the shadow of romantic love. Unfortunately, Andreas is all boy and all of 11.9 years old and has not caught on the idea of the language of love. Jonathan has suggested a hot looking 25 year old French Nanny to come and live with us to help Andreas with his French—and make bread and chocolate and wine—but Susanne saw right through my pathetic charade and figured we could save money and I could continue cleaning the car and repairing the bikes without help.
Ah, Charlotte—thank god for Charlotte; or as Isabella occasionally reminds me that without Charlotte and a second Andreas there may never have been an Isabella. This is certainly not really true but an easy Charlotte did give us hope for humanity. Andreas has fortunately gotten a lot easier with age—as those of you who had the pleasure of taking away my son from me for part of the summer can attest to—and I really miss him when he is not around. Speaking of last summer, Andreas fulfilled Charlotte’s dream and spent the entire summer in the USA between my family in the East and Susanne’s family in the West. He came back with reluctance and a burger king five, some new clothes including mama’s bane—camouflage pants—and several pairs of comfy boxer shorts. Thanks to all the hosts and hostesses for sending back our son safely and with improved English skills.
Charlotte was pretty upset to have her idea wasted on Andreas but stopped crying after 12 days when we agreed to send her for the 2012 summer. Look out America!
Charlotte has made a sweet transition to the all girls Gymnasium across town and down the road from where Andreas is going. I would write down the name of her new school if I could pronounce it. Let me just say that it sounds like the horribly strict name of some past headmistress wearing an uncomfortable bustier and prickly woolen knickers. Susanne and I really wanted Charlotte to go to the school she eventually picked but as most of her close grade school kids were going to Andreas’ (Werdenfels Gymnasium—easier to remember after two years and no strange connotations) but wanted her to make the decision. She is shining in the new school and doing well and already joined an English play group scoring a role in Pride & Prejudice; picked apparently due to the large number of female parts.
Bella has really grown up and taken on the responsibilities of going to the first grade with aplomb. Always one to have a large influence, Bella single handedly changed the winter policy of scooter riding in early December when she crashed in an icy corner and had three deep lacerations in her face requiring over 25 stitches and two days of hospital observation. One day later the school principal sent out notice suggesting that the scooters be left at home until spring. Fortunately Bella is out of danger, healing well and back to her wild and confident self. She is learning to read and write and very diligent about her homework and getting to class.

Susanne is still the rock in my Gibraltar, keeping everything oiled and working at home including the bulk of the correspondence. After reading this letter you are probably as grateful of this as I. Other than turning 45 in a few days nothing much has changed for me in the last year. My work continues to challenge and I have a great team to work with. I have been drawn into new areas of frustration this year with appearances in preliminary courts, depositions and other legal affairs which just make you shake your head. My boss told me to see what I could do to change the US legal system and I thought of sending a photo shopped image of the five of us in front of the capital building with sandwich board protest signs demanding change now. As he does not have the same sense of humor as you all I decided to spend this time and energy on something far wider in its reach—such as this Christmas letter.
That was a quick reference to “Who”. For the “What” we went to Gargano, Italy again for our spring vacation, which is driven by the Easter dates and was very late this year. We had perfect weather, great mountain biking and water time, good food and conversation with our friends and Jonathan even got in an afternoon of windsurfing. We borrowed stand up paddlers (google SUP) from a friend and added them to the already overloaded VW camper van and toy trailer. I proved once again that Darwin still has his eye on me as I tried a 1.5 flip off the cliff dive and powerdrove my head into to sandy bottom. Other than a sore neck, 1,2 cm of height reduction and a scratch on my forehead I am happy to have survived the incident without a wheelchair. The only bad thing about Gargano is the 1.006 KM drive from door to campground. The only good thing about this drive is my uncanny 44 year training on wearing down an opponent in argument. It was not about winning in the end but just shutting the !@#@$##$%^% (or in a nicer way: du hast deine Recht und ich meine Ruehe) up which led to the exciting new addition of a 7 meter long self-contained small motorhome with room for 6. Poor Susanne had to trade in her loyalty to her VW for a Volvo wagon for the motorhome that collects dust and costs in storage for the winter. I am pretty psyched and swear that I sleep better, have a better time on the toilet and even enjoy driving our new wheeled cabin. I was rewarded after our summer vacation (sans Andreas as explained earlier) in Sud Tyrol, Northern Italy when Charlotte listed motorhome camping with mama and papa in her top 5 favorite things to do.
Other than a great two weeks in Sud Tyrol where we hiked, swam, biked, enjoyed time with friends, beautiful scenery and mushroomed we have also taken a few weekend trips to Lake Garda and a 12 hour night mountain bike race. Fortunately for me, and as this was our first “WoMo” experience, it rained cats and dogs most of the night. Susanne raced on a women’s 3 person team and I competed with a 4 man single speed team. We parked with everyone else in the middle of a grassy (read mud) soccer field and Susanne felt embarrassed by our decadence part of which was defined by the guy sleeping in a bivouac sack in the mud next to our wheeled palace. I reminded Susanne that we had been there before: 1998 in Moab during the 24 hour race where it snowed and we had 70 MPH winds and slept in the back of my car. She reminded me that she was on a team with a motorhome and had a cook and masseuse on staff and I knew I had her. Anyway, after my third hot shower between laps I was pretty psyched and the luxury had paid for itself in my book.
“What”:
Andreas: BMX, ski club, soccer, hiker, diving and computer;
Charlotte: ski club, guitar, BMX starting 2012, hiker, Judo;
Isabella: papa snuggler, ski club, hiker, tennis and pottery;
Susanne: driver, biker, baker, fort holder downer, worker, skier and ski touring;
Jonathan: worker, biker, enduro, skiing, ski touring, home repair

“When”: we hope to see you soon and please come and visit.

Love the Wiants