David and Janna's Christmas Blog 2008

and Happy Holidays!

It's been quite a year in these parts, and we hope that this Christmas blog finds you and your family well. As usual, we'll try to keep the news short, the pictures fun, and the sentiments genuine.

Our biggest news is Krista's engagement to Chad Kerner, a businessman from Raleigh, NC. They've been together for several years, are both hard-working entrepreneurs, and we are, of course, delighted with his (and her!) choice. Janna is already growing into the Mother-of-the-Bride role, even though they have not picked a date yet (I won't say anything about the children's books that have started appearing in the Gies closets....). Kirk, still gloriously single and available, is a successful science teacher in a magnet school in Charleston, SC; to make ends meet he also has great fun working a pedicab for the tourists. Somehow, I think he connects the physics he teaches with the torque of his leg muscles.

Janna, Chad, Krista, Kirk, David

As usual, our year was full of travel, much of it with the Semester at Sea program that UVa adopted in 2006. This summer we joined the voyage to Norway, Russia, Denmark, and Belgium, with many highlights including the Winter Palace/Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

We enjoyed two trips to Spain, one to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our study abroad program in Valencia. Here is Santiago Calatrava's dazzling opera house in Valencia.

In addition, Janna was hired as librarian on a 3-week voyage that went to the Caribbean coast of Central America in May, and before Christmas we will board the MV Explorer for a 7-week trip to the Amazon basin (Manáus), the Caribbean, and finally, across the Atlantic to Cádiz, Spain. David will give lectures on Spanish painters, language, and cultural history.

Our families are well, both mothers entering their 10th decade, and going strong. Janna went to her, ahem, 40th year reunion from Hamline University (she retired 1 January this year) and has been volunteering at various entities in Central Virginia. She has been spending wonderful time with her mother and sisters, as the opportunity presents itself, and visiting Krista in Raleigh. David's 201 K (down from the previous 401 K) suggests he'll be teaching for a few more years....

Our annual section of Gratuitous Moments of Silly Celebrity Worship is rather sparse this year, but the celebs are great, as we think you'll agree. David did run into Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz in Madrid, but was without his camera (uncharacteristically) and besides, it's hard to take photos and drool at the same time. Can you identify these people?

(Answers: duh! + Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Judy Collins)

The Peaceable Kingdom reigns here (Chico and Foster); we hope it does at your castle as well.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!