YCGL - Saturday, December 23, 2023 - Christmas Letter
Every year, I write a Christmas letter with text on one side and photos on the other. Here is this year's letter.
Dear Friends and Family,
Greetings to all of you this
Christmas season. This has been a year
of great joy and remembrance. Joy, in
that my families have been able to get together several times, and remembrance,
of my dear Sally. That is life, and it
is good.
I have been able to travel a lot and
that has been a great joy. My first big
camper trip of the year was to the Mountain West Basketball Tournament in Las
Vegas in March. After nine days there, I
visited the Grand Canyon, Navaho National Monument, and Monument Valley on the
way back to Laramie, returning in time for a class I still teach.
In May, Erik and Liz both flew in to
meet up with the Wojahns and me in Fort Collins. We celebrated a baby shower
for my niece Jere’s son, Rob, and his wife Liz’s twin girls, Olivia and
Lorelei, who were born July 7th.
We also took a day to scatter some of Sally and her sister Sandy’s ashes
in the Colorado mountains.
My next big trip was to Minnesota in
June and July. My first stop was day
with my Uncle Ray, his wife Darlene, and their families at a campground near
Hayfield,MN. It’s been over 30 years
since I’ve seen those cousins. Next was
Sally’s 55th high school reunion in Windom. It was bittersweet but warm to be around
these friends that I have made over the years.
Then back to Hayfield to visit with my other Uncle Ralph, twin brother
to Ray, and his wife Wilma. Next up to
Fertile, MN to visit my cousin, Bob, while seeing other cousins and friends
along the way. Bob is 91 and an active
genealogist. I was able to see cousins
Grace and Joel as well. Then back south
to Windom and Lake Okoboji in Iowa before heading home. All told, I’ve spent over 55 days in the
travel trailer this year.
The highlight of this year’s travel
was to Europe, with a week in Florence and Tuscany, two weeks in Norway, and a
two-week Mediterranean cruise. Sally and
I won the Florence trip at a charity auction for Family Promise in 2019. We had scheduled a Panama Canal cruise with
some college friends for April 2020 that was canceled due to COVID-19, so we
decided before she got sick that we would combine the Florence trip with a
Mediterranean Cruise instead.
When she was a child, Sally’s
grandmother Kirsti Moen Solien told her about how she loved the family farm
“Fremmermoen” in Vingelen, Norway, but of being lonely while tending the cattle
in the summer pasture in the hills above. We visited Sally’s third cousin Einar
Hilmarsen, his wife Kikki, and his son Tore at the farm in 2018. As we left the pasture, Sally put her hand
over her heart and said she felt at home here.
Both Sally and her sister Sandy said they wanted some of their ashes
scattered in the pasture at their grandmother’s farm.
Erik joined me in Italy for the first
week in Florence, Cinque Terre, and Radda in Chianti, which was fabulous. Then, we flew to Oslo, Norway and met up with
Liz, Sandy’s daughter Jaye, her husband Lyndon, and her son Tyler, and with
Sandy’s other daughter Jere, and her son Arthur. Erik’s girlfriend Eliza also flew into visit
Oslo from a work trip in Israel. We
spent three days in Oslo and then the eight of us family members drove to
Fremmermoen. There the Hilmarsen’s
embraced us with loving arms and warm hospitality. We also met Tore’s fiancé, Marit. We scattered Sally’s and Sandy’s ashes on the
morning of September 19th on the foundation stones of the milk house
in the pasture that Sally loved, and Einar placed a wreath they made in
memory. We then had lunch at “Movollen”,
the Hilmarsen’s mountain cottage, with Einar’s mother Olov, and his uncles Jon
and Magna and their wives Ann and Liv.
The next day, we visited Jon and Magna’s homes and learned about their
skills and hobbies. When we got back home, everyone agreed that the high point of the trip was meeting and being with our ‘new’ family, the Hilmarsen’s.
From there, the “youngs” flew to
Berlin, Germany while we “olds” went to Hommelvik, Norway where Sally’s Solien
family was from. Next to Trondheim, and
then down the Norwegian west coast, and finally to Bergen for three days. After doing the Norway-in-a-Nutshell tour
back to Oslo, I flew to Barcelona for a few days before embarking on the
Mediterranean cruise there. Cruise
highlights included Gibraltar, DaVinci’s Last Supper in Milan, Crete, and
Mykonos. I got off the cruise ship a day
early to spend two additional days in Mykonos and then ferried to Athens for a
few days. You can read more about my
trip on my blog, “youcantgetlost.blogspot.com”.
This fall, I flew to Texas to spend
Thanksgiving with my brothers, Mike and Pete, and their families. To wrap up the year, we are joining the
extended Wojahn’s for Christmas in Denver.
It’s a blessing to spend time with family and travel.
May the candles of Christmas and
Hannukah bring light and peace to this troubled world. May you all share that light, peace and
joy!
Thom Edgar
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