December 2013 - Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Fröhliche Weihnachten! Alles Gute in neuen Jahr!

Dear Family and Friends,

 Reflecting on 2013 brings a smile to my face.  I realize that each year I talk about how wonderful our lives are, but it is really true.  The blessings and opportunities just never stop coming.  So, while we have not had as many visitors from the states in the way of family and friends, we have certainly made up for that by making many new friends. We are so fortunate to have increased our circle of friends around the world.  The saddest part is the initial goodbye to friends who have been like family to us – Jill and Stewart left this summer and now Colleen and Benny just before Christmas.  We know that the military family is small and we will see each other again, it is just hard to not be as frequently as we like. 

a soldier in transport on the plane - why we are here

If you remember from last year, in October Russell Fleming came to stay with us while his mother (Mayland’s 1^st cousin) Tasha had a stem cell transplant to cure her of Leukemia.  In January we sent Russell home to his recovering mother with lots of stories to tell of Florence, Rome, Paris, and Germany. It took us a couple of weeks to get back in the rhythm of school, work, and volunteerism after our Florence Christmas trip.  We really loved Rome (only spent 1 day there) so this year we went back to spend 6 days in Rome over Christmas. But more in Rome in the December part -I’ll try to keep the letter under 12 pages J.

 January started off with a lot of activity – Russell heading home and Sean to Ft. Bragg to cover their ICU for 2 weeks, straight.  The work schedule left no time for him to spend time with friends or family.  Clark and MJ filled their days with school and afternoons with Taekwondo (Clark earning yellow belt green stripe) and MJ taking cooking classes (she can make some great eggs, muffins, mac & cheese – not Kraft and many other meals now.  Mayland continued to volunteer at the hospital and with the chapel on the praise team. The praise team has turned into a major blessing for Sean and Mayland because we have found another amazing set of friends in Mindy and Sven.  In the dark and very gloomy days of Jan and Feb we would plan Sunday lunches with Benny, Colleen, Mindy and Sven – they brought so much sunshine into our lives, truly friends who kept (and keep) us going.  January ended with Sean being home and February came and went with the days getting longer.  Mayland took the kids and a resident to the Velvet caves in the Netherlands.  While these are steeped in history, the most relevant was the use of the caves by WWII US soldiers as a place of refuge; their profiles and signatures are still preserved on the walls. 

Mont-Saint-Michel

March was a much-anticipated month with Grandma and Papa coming to visit.  We had wanted to go to the beaches of Normandy and decided there was no better time, so we hopped on the train to Paris, spent the night where Sean and Mayland got away for a grown-up dinner with Giselle and Francise.  Next morning we took the train out to Rouen, rented a car and started our adventures.  A French historian with a passion for WWII showed us the beaches, told us the stories of American and French men and woman who made it through those difficult days.  He also showed us how the French of used so much of what we left behind (great at recycling).  While the tour was the best part of the trip for history, Mont-Saint-Michel was definitely the highlight sight and the kids loved St. Malo (a formerly independent pirate city).  The only part of the trip that didn’t go as planned was hitting the deer, fortunately the car was still drivable and we hope the deer was not too badly injured; he didn’t stick around for an examination.  After 7 days in the Normandy region (and still a long list of things we wanted to see) we headed back to Paris so that Cindy and Rich could see Notre Dame, St. Chappelle and the Eifel tower.  

In Paris

 Notre Dame on Good Friday has a line about 2 miles long as people line up to venerate three holy items encased in glass (part of the crown of thorns, piece of the cross, and a nail driven into Christ, don’t know which body part).  We returned home just in time to get Mom and Dad home and the kids back to school.  April we started back on tennis, that does mean the Taekwondo stopped for Clark, he decided he would rather do 3-4 days/week of tennis.  In May Mayland took a 1 day trip (left in the AM and returned that night) to have lunch in London with a friend from over 25 years ago – Howard Hess.  How many people can say, I flew to London for lunch?  

  

St. Malo with the pirate ships

 A couple of weeks later we took a long weekend trip to Prague.  The art and architecture was amazing, the downside was that it rained so much that it made the news for the river flooding.  Prague is not as cheap as it used to be as they are trying to join the EU on the economic side and are still trying to climb out of the hole that communism created.  Only city where we were charged for soggy potato chips that no one ate - $7.  I counted that as their tip.  Fortunately, that was only 1 restaurant and we managed to find good ones for every other meal. We are very grateful for the 2 ½ week breaks during the school year as it allows for more travel time, so when June rolled around and all of the American kids were out of school, my two were still fully occupied with science trips and overnights at their schools.  We also filled every minute of time we could with Jill and Stewart before they headed back to the states.  Another very, very hard farewell; yet, with farewells, there are also hellos, so, while all of these other things were happening, Sean and Mayland were getting to know the new Navy Neurosurgeon  (here for 6 mos.) who was quickly becoming a very close friend.  We had dinner together often and he spent many hours talking about his family and how excited he was that they could come to visit, after meeting Clark and MJ it was decided that his kids would spend a couple of days hanging our with ours to just have some downtime before his wife took them off for some crazy European adventures.  I met Sam and felt like I had met a long lost friend – she is wonderful with a beautiful smile and gentle way about her.  Their three children couldn’t be more fun and delightful, Kristen (12), Alex (9) and Elliot (4).  Sam and the kids stayed with us while Kendall worked and between their trips.  We also spent a long weekend in Munich together. 

Playing in bubbles on a lake in Munich

I know those kids loved Munich and will remember playing on the lake in the big balls for a lifetime.  Our summer break was full – Munich, soccer camp, week of relaxation (playing with the Lee kids), tennis camp for the whole family with a side trip to Salzburg, then tennis camp for the kids here in Landstuhl (with an overnight camping component).  The best treat for Mayland was that one of her two very best friends, Tod Winston, from Westtown was able to visit, even if it was just for a couple of days.  They made a day trip to Luxemburg, where Tod was able to introduce MJ to the love of bird watching.  It is amazing how quickly we pickup with our best friends even when time is limited. Before the kids had a chance to utter the words “I’m bored” school started. (6 weeks goes very quickly). 

The first week back at school the kids actually missed a day as we went on a retreat with the chapel.  While there Clark was exposed to Hebrew, so when he came back from there he decided to join the Hebrew club at school and start another language (bilingual in German – both kids); French (3^rd year); Latin (2^nd year) and Hebrew for fun.  August and September were calm – tennis, school, volunteering and work.  During that time Mayland found out that Kendall (Neurosurgeon from before) was actually getting ready to leave and had not had much opportunity to travel … he had 2 weeks and the kids had a 2+ week fall break coming up in October, so off they went – Venice and Paris. 

Inside the mirror room that DaVinci used to
paint himself

Venice was amazing and we decided that for our 25^th wedding anniversaries would reconvene and redo this trip only as 2 couples.  The 4 of them walked all over Venice – took a 3 hour walking tour with a local who pointed out everything you never thought was possible, how the city was built on water was fascinating.  We didn’t actually go into any of the major tourist sights, but we ate amazing food, drank lots of wine and walked about 10 miles a day just enjoying the beauty of the city.  In Paris we saw the Pantheon, tomb of Napoléon and had a great night out with Giselle and Francise at the Moulin Rouge (yeah for teens who can babysit!).    We laid plenty of plans and schemes for that 25^th anniversary trip that will include Sam and Sean!  24 hours after getting home from Paris, we said good-bye to Kendall and took off for Neuberg on the Danube to stay at the Haynes’ apartment (right on the river).  Sean had worked for 3+ weeks straight and Mayland decided he needed to get away – we spent the weekend hiking and Sean became a kid playing Mice and Mystics (think D&D for middle school).  They had a blast.  After our return from Neuberg, Grandmother Crosson came to stay for two weeks.  She provided childcare while Mayland and Sean took off for their much-anticipated Halloween adventure in Romania.  Romania is another country still struggling to recover from the economic difficulties imposed by dictators who tried to make communism work from the top down.  We saw the castle that Vlad the Impaler was born in (Dracula).  We had a great time dressing up and getting to know Scott and Nanette, new friends – also Navy doctors.  The trip was wonderful for Sean and

Pirate Sean

Mayland to just connect and be a couple without worrying about the parenting part, thank you Grandmother for that much needed break.  Upon our return we took one extra day to explore Frankfurt before returning to the reality of work.  Indoor tennis started in November and the only thing we did was head to see Circ-de-Soil with Sean Dooley.  It was a magical evening!  If you have not seen a Circ, you should definitely go.  Our Thanksgiving was very low key as the kids still have school so we ate at the dining facility (where they do an amazing meal) and then had a small one with friends on Sunday.  We definitely needed a few weeks of quiet before December hit … Christmas markets (only 3 this year), the Landstuhl Holiday Ball and a new leather jacket were my presents from Sean, MJ’s birthday – we made American cupcakes to take to school, the kids love them but can’t eat them all because they are too super sweet.  MJ also planned a birthday party for the following Saturday evening – sent out the invitations and then remembered to tell Mom 2 days before.  Despite the late notice, it went off very well, but then a Rockband birthday party how can that go wrong?  The following week we packed up and took for Rome with 3 tours booked – the Bourghese museum on Sean’s birthday, Vatican on Christmas Eve and Pompeii on Clark’s Birthday.  I’ll write about it on the blog, in the interest of space.  Our last day of vacation was spent at the Munich museum of Man and Nature – the kids translated everything to us and it was awesome!!  It is amazing to see how much they have learned in 2.5 years.  Dec. 29 Sean headed back into work and our last piece of news … you have until July 2016 to come and visit – yes, we are staying an extra 2 years.  So, there are more long Christmas letters in your future.

Peace, Love, and Happiness,

   Sean, Mayland, Clark, and MJ