Note: To see all the images try www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/Christmas07.htm.
Greetings:
We are going to introduce a new rule about Christmas letters. Just as the IRS gives you until April 15 to report last year's income, we think it's only fair that all of us be given until at least Valentine's Day to write about last year's activities and send you New Year's greetings.
One would think that there would be no better excuse than grading final exams and papers, but this year we have even better excuses, a whole raft of them. A two weeks before Christmas Gail returned from a routine check-up with her Boise foot doctor with a cast on her right leg (toes to knee). Gail told him of some mild heal pain, and the doctor was afraid that her Achilles tendonitis would get worse, so he immobilized it for six weeks!
Nick's first excuse was that he was asked by a national blog editor to write up everything he knew about our local minister and former student Doug Wilson. They wanted the first installment the Friday before Christmas, and Nick's memories were vague and files were virtually non-existent from the 1970s. A serendipitous meeting with Doug's father cleared up lots of questions, but it was still difficult. The responses have been very positive, especially from conservative Christians who have been very disapproving of Wilson's antics and errant theology. You can read the whole series at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/WilsonEmpire.htm.
But back to our excuses for not writing, we had a whole house full of guests for Christmas. First, Gail's nieces—Jessica and Alison--came, and you can see them with their grandmother Viola in the picture below. Then the nieces' father Jay came, along with Alison's husband Dan and his brother Scott. You can see the entire gang at one of our dinners below. It was truly a wonderful Christmas.
After the guests left the first of many winter storms came sweeping through the Palouse. We did not want Viola driving and walking in the snow and ice, and so Nick started driving her to Good Sam's main building for her activities. A number of other issues conspired to convince us that she needed to move from her lovely duplex to an apartment at the main complex and she agreed. Fortunately, there was a 2-bedroom unit available and on Jan. 3 we started moving her and about 12 days later we had it done, but Gail spent many 10-hour days sorting and packing and Nick the Mule did all the boxhauling. Viola loves being there closer to her friends and all her activities. She doesn't miss the duplex at all.
Speaking of winter weather, there was enough snow on Moscow Mt. before Christmas to take Jessica and Alison skiing twice. Nick hung his new camera on a branch and let the anti-jiggle function allow us to take a good picture. Nick's Nikon digital died in the sands of the Moroccan desert, and he now has a 12-mega pixel Canon that can do 11x17 prints.
Our cat Ellie is as sassy as ever and really enjoyed the crowd at Christmas. As you can see, she is not completely sure about one of her presents, a catnip stuffed lion. It took at least 15 minutes to get a good picture of her and the lion. During our travels this Fall and now while we are in Mexico, Ellie stays out on Moscow Mt. with Aunt Judy Tackett and Uncle Tom Partington.
Christina and John stayed in Edmonton to celebrate Christmas with Lisbeth, Christina's Danish mother. In August we had a good visit with them, and on the way and on the way back had beautiful drives through the Canadian Rockies. We left our cameras at home, so we have no 2007 pictures of the two, so we planning on Christmas 2008 in Moscow. Christina is finishing her third year in the music department at the University of Alberta, John is head of computing at the a federal institute of nanotechnology on the same campus.
Nick's favorite Indian couple, Johnson and Sarita, are doing well in Houston. Nick supported Johnson for five years—two at San Francisco Theological Seminary and three at Iliff School of Theology—and he and his wife Sarita have relocated to Houston. He is half way through an internship as a chaplain at hospital in downtown Houston, and Sarita is in her second semester as a nursing student at San Jacinto Community College. Johnson is also studying for his qualifying exams for his Ph.D. at Iliff.
Two of Nick's friends have asked him to be adopted Grandpa to their children, and they bring a lot of joy to his life and keep him young and on his toes. The two girls—Landon (6) and Martyn (3)—and the two boys—Devin (13) and Alden (7) are pictured on below. Two summers ago he took the boys and their dad to the Wallowas, one of my favorite places in the world.
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We
are now at our timeshare (right) in Cabo San Lucas, at the tip of the Baja
Peninsula. Gail bought one week in 1994 and then we bought two weeks together
in 1996. We thought we would trade more around the world, but we like it here
so much that we just spend all the time down here during January and February.
Pueblo Bonita is one of the most beautiful resorts in the world.
After a month in Cabo (Feb./March 2007), Gail booked us a trip to Morocco with Overseas Adventure Travel. We spent three glorious weeks in April touring this amazing country. Some of you probably read the columns that I wrote about our trip. Expecting to see mostly desert, we were amazed at the great variation in landscape, and much of it reminded us of the rolling hills of the Palouse with wheat fields and, most surprisingly, a huge harvest of carrots. For some strange reason I could not get the three pictures from Morocco to execute on FrontPage. Very frustrating.
Because of her knee replacement and other joint problems, Gail has decided not to go river rafting any more. That means that each summer I'm searching for new rafting partners. This time I invited John Dahl, WSU microbiologist and father to Landon and Martyn, Lani and Mari for short. We had a great trip on the Main Salmon with Gail's friends from Bellingham and John did a great job rowing and paddling, especially for his first time out. After seeing John take to the inflatable kayak so eagerly and skillfully, I tried my hand at it and I was better at it than I thought.
Our good friends Terry and Dorene asked us to join them for their wedding in Las Vegas on Sept. 1st, so all four of us flew down to Sin City and had a marvelous time. Good food and great companionship were had by all. Although we are very happy for the lovely couple, we miss Dorene who now lives in Wenatchee, WA.
Nick had not been back to Denmark for 21 years, so Gail once again did her magic with free tickets and we spent about 2 weeks traveling in Denmark and Sweden. Nick had a reunion with Lisbeth's brother Jørn and his wife Merete. We stayed at their townhouse in Copenhagen and had a grand time. Merete and Gail got along famously. We had only a short time in Sweden but lucked out with 68-degree weather in Stockholm, an absolutely gorgeous city.
After her first trip to Egypt in 1999, Gail wanted to go again and make sure that Nick was along this time. Our guide was Bob Brier who has done a course on the history of Egypt for the Teaching Company. Gail kept saying that his guiding was a thousand times better than the guide she had on her previous trip. Gail chose this trip because of the guide and the fact we got to go into places closed to most tourists.
First,
we did the Giza Pyramids and the world famous Cairo Museum. We then saw the
step pyramid at Sakara and the famous Pyramid Texts inside a crumbling small
pyramid nearby. We also saw the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid. The only
time Gail went inside was for the Pyramid texts, but Nick enjoyed crawling,
along with about half our gang, inside the Great Pyramid and the Red Pyramid.
We then flew to Abu Simbel, built by
Ramses the Great 2,200 years ago, this is a wide angle shot
(below right) Nick got in front of
this amazing structure, which was cut up in pieces and moved to higher ground as
Lake Nasser flooded most of ancient Nubia.
We then sailed on Lake Nasser (Nick prefers to call it the Nubian Sea) for three days and nights stopping at archeological sites along the way. We arrived at Aswan and stayed at the Old Cataract Hotel (above left), where Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Nile. We visited ancient sites, including Elephantine Island (right across the river from the hotel), where Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek about 250 BCE.
We can't
cover all the temples we visited, but to the left you can see us standing by the
famous statue of Horus at Edfu. We drove from Aswan to Luxor visiting temples
on the way, and when we arrived in Luxor, we did a quick trip through the Luxor
Temple and got some shots just before it got dark. The next day we visited the
Valley of the Kings and highlights there were visiting King Tut's tomb and
seeing his mummy, the first time it has ever been displayed, and then, even more
stunning, we got a special permission to go into Nefertari's Tomb. The wall
paintings there appear to be as fresh as the day they were painted and in Gail's
opinion are the most beautiful art in Egypt. The first two pictures on the left
are from Luxor and the one on the right is from Karnak Temple, whose gigantic
columns are the largest in the world.
As we started out in September we thought that these two trips would be it for the Fall. But Nick's Buddhist friends in Japan invited both of us for a week in Tokyo where he was invited to give a lecture on his book on the origins of religious violence and where Nick also received an honorary degree from Soka University. We were treated like royalty with a suite on the 29th floor overlooking an imperial garden and, on the very last morning, a view of Mt. Fuji in the distance. I was hoping our fine hosts would send us some of the pictures they took, but they still have not done it.
That's all, folks, and we hope that your 2008 has already commenced in the best possible ways.
Best Wishes for the New Year (and Happy Valentine's Day!),
Nick & Gail