Happy Holidays 2009!
Clearly, this year's Major Event in our lives was Krista's wedding to Chad Kerner in Raleigh, NC, in June. What a party! Lots of family (all of Janna's sisters plus her mother) joined the festivities. Janna had fun planning things with Krista (buttons! runner! nails!) and it was a seamless, joyful event. And they're still married!
(David, Chad, Krista, Janna, Kirk)Krista was offered ownership of an Outback Steakhouse franchise (she's worked with the company since college), and Kirk is in his fifth year as a physics teacher at a wonderful magnet school in Charleston, SC. He complains about the salary (duh, drives a pedicab on the weekends in order to make ends meet; look for him if you go to historic Charleston), but loves the work, the students, and the creativity of teaching.
As usual, the University of Virginia's Semester at Sea program has captured a lot of our attention. We had opportunities to sail across the Atlantic to Spain both in January and in June (David gave lectures on Spain to prepare the students and faculty for the first port). Following those crossings, we stayed in the country for a couple of extra weeks, potzing through paradores, seeing friends, and enjoying that lively, civilized country.
And the seas continue to fascinate. Our friends Marty and Julian (with their SO's) invited us to sail with them again this year -- around the Society Islands (Tahiti, Morea, Bora Bora, Taha'a), which we did for two glorious weeks in April on a 51' monohull.
David was in Spain five times this year (lectures, conference, meetings, fun); Janna got to join all of her sisters in Seattle to celebrate Helen's 90th birthday.
(Janna, Kristin, Margi, Gretchen, Helen, Karla)One challenge we faced this year was Chico (our dog), who underwent emergency back surgery (is this Christmas letter material??) in early October, and is still in the recovery stage. What a sweetheart this 9-year-old pal of ours is.
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AND NOW the moment you have been waiting for! While the Salahis of Washington have stolen some of our thunder, here comes "The Annual Silly Moments of Gratuituous Celebrity Worship" section. Can you identify them?
1-2. Former President (Bill Clinton).
3. Best-selling American novelist (John Grisham).
4. Film director and son of the novelist Gabriel García Márquez, plus two-time Tony Award winner as well as President on "24" (Rodrigo García and Cherry ("Doubt") Jones.
5. Academy-award winning actor-activist ("Jaws," "Close Encounters," "Mr. Holland's Opus") (Richard Dreyfuss).
6. Actor Ferris Bueller/"The Producers" (Matthew Broderick).
7. Former Prime Minister of Poland, current head of the IMF (Marek Belka).
HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND A JOYFUL, HEALTHY 2010. Love to all from Janna and David
