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From us, to us!
e-mail your Holiday and New Year's greetings and they'll be posted here for your classmates to enjoy.
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Lee and Sue Shaffer
Here's Lee and Sue Shaffer's card from Chocowinity, NC. (scanned 1/6/15)
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Peg and Bob Leo
Here's Peg (Ingafu) and Bob Leo's Christmas Card (scanned 12/9/14)
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Dave and Trudy Stolte - First one in (12/6/14)
Hi all,
Trudy and I continue to enjoy life to the fullest. Sometimes it's difficult to keep up with two houses and a boat, but with good friends like Sal and Doreen DeTurris to help we still manage. We are still skiing and playing golf but not as often. We are looking forward to our annual Caribbean Cruise again. It is for one week and departs from St. Maarten with Windstar Cruises on March 14th. Anyone who wants to join us, we'd love to see you. Happy Holidays to all.
Dave and Trudy Stolte
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Bob and Julie Stokstad (12/7/14)
Mackinac Island, July 4, 2014
Christmas, 2014
Dear Family, Friends, and Classmates,
Hoping that you are having a wondrful time this holiday season, we send you our greetings and mews from this past year.
Looking back on 2014, it's becoming clear that our lives now have two geographic centers of gravity: The San Francisco Bay Area (our c.o.g. for the last 34 years) and more recently, Michigan. It's hard to imagine two more different places, but each has its special value.
In Berkeley we live in one of the best climates (talking about the weather) in the US and have Arne, Karna, Elsa (4) and Liam (2) in Palo Alto, just an hour away. Bob can ride his motorcycle all year round and Julie still enjoys the natural history of this region that she introduced to her biology students in past years.
East Lansing is where Paul and Paula both work at Michigan State University and are raising Erika (8) and Sonja (5). We find people in the Midwest are friendlier. Having four different seasons marks the passage of time (not that we need that at our age). Spring and tulip time – we were there for Sonja's birthday and to visit our favorite birding spot, Magee Marsh on Lake Erie. Summer – a family reunion on Macinac Island over the 4th of July and a week at The Chautauqua Institute. In the Fall we enjoyed the turning of the leaves and the week-long Halloween festivities that so captivate Erika and Sonja, and finally, Winter. We will fly out to spend our first Christmas in East Lansing. Probably a white one, certainly a cold one.
We're also realizing that it's OK to do the same thing again, if you really like it. The lectures and music, the lovely buildings and relaxing atmosphere at Lake Chautauqua refreshed and inspired us. This may become an annual affair. Running the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon in 2013 was so wonderful we did it again in August. Two weeks of 'roughing it' – you have to set up your own tent each night – on the river and in the equally spectacular side canyons gets under your skin.
Julie had her own big adventure. She went to Capetown, South Africa for two weeks in July to check out an NGO that she was considering for a future six-month volunteer activity. The NGO wasn't right for her (and has just recently folded) but the three days she spent at a nature reserve were memorable. Another benefit of this trip has been Julie's entry into the blog-o-sphere. She posted frequently during her trip. Recently Julie has begun a new blog where her thoughts on, as Guy Noir, Private Eye, would put it, "life's persistent questions" are shared. Check it out at holeydoughnut.blogspot.com
Oldest son Erik - now comfortably in his mid forties – is undertaking the biggest adventure. He moved to Cambridge, England this month to spend at least two years working for the International branch of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Science Magazine. He'll still be writing news articles for Science, but in a very different venue. The good news is that we've got a reason to go back to the UK and Europe, but the obvious downside is that we'll see Erik less frequently.
Today we are babysitting grandson Liam, whose nose is discharging a gooey substance not welcome at his daycare center. He'll be two years old in two weeks and loves to plug electrical cords into sockets and drag around a stool from which he can reach a wall switch and then turn on the lights in every room. We know that Liam will be an engineer.
As you can tell, we have a lot to be thankful for. We hope that your situation is a good one, too, and that this holiday season and the New Year will bring you many blessings.
Bob and Julie Stokstad
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