MERRY CHRISTMAS!

[Marlies]

Dear all,

just a quick stop by as we would like to wish everybody great holidays and merry Christmas. May those days give you some time to rest and think about the things you do not have the time to think about during the year. See you next week in Munich, Bochum and Pratteln, where we will farewell an amazing 2006 and welcome a for sure very interesting and hopefully lucky and healthy 2007 for everybody. More on what's coming up in 2007 next week, enough for now. Enjoy yor meal, enjoy yourself - we wish you a Rockin' and Rollin' Christmas time!

Rock hard, ride free and God bless you all!

The Swabian five - Todde, Mille, Dieter, Andreas & Andy

 

[Marlies]

Happy holidays guys and everybody!

Here is my xmas mail and card:

Hello friends!

What a year it's been.. or rather, these past months! This year it's very hard to get into the xmas spirit, because within two months time we lost two of our dearest friends in Regina, Canada (the city we want to move to) to cancer. Danny Stephenson passed away in November, only 7 weeks after his brother Dave! How can anything ever be OK ever again? How can I be merry when I know their family misses them so much, esp. on these days? So it's with mixed feelings this time that I enjoy the holidays... For more info about these beautiful guys and how we will keep them alive: Band Of Brothers - the legacy of Dave & Danny Stephenson

The first half of 2007 went by fast and fairly uneventful. At the end of June we unexpectedly had to say goodbye to our last cat Robin. One night he came in anxious, with big eyes and irregularly dilated pupils. Within half an hour he was almost paralyzed at the back and in a lot of pain. The vet said it could be a trauma of some sort, but I felt something happened in his body. Anyway, we didn't know, a cortison shot from the vet didn't help and in the morning we couldn't bare to see him hurting this bad anymore. Any further investigation would've caused even more pain and since it didn't look good at all, regardless the cause, we asked to free him of his pain and put him to sleep. Because of the emigration plans, we're not taking in any new pets now, so after decades we're all cat-less for now. Eww!!

Oh yeah those emigration plans again.. when are we going to f*** off already?? ) Well, we've been back last October and Nico had a very cool interview (thanks to Joy and Tricia!) at the Regina hospital. They can offer him a job and get him a workpermit if he does his Registered Nurse exam (June) and gets his registration in order. Our stay in Regina was also very emotional because of Dave's passing, us (luckily) still being able to visit Danny several times while he was still at home and meeting their awesome family. It was wonderful staying at Tim and Cortney's place (and thanks Stu for letting us crash in your room!) and all in all we are now both very excited about moving there! But Nico still wants to see the books for this RN exam, to see if he would be able to do it and such (although it should be OK). We are still trying to find those books with our friend Marlin's help over there, but of course all has been postponed a bit after Danny passed away in November. Even though it was expected, it was a huge blow and I am now finally getting a bit better. Yet knowing how rough these times are for the family, makes it hard for me to just wish you a merry Xmas as if nothing happened (I'm also thinking of my friend Nadja who just totally unexpectedly lost her mom who was only 45).

So I guess people, what I want to say mostly is... count your blessings and enjoy your loved ones!!! You never know.. ya know?!

Let's hope 2007 will bring the Stephenson's, Nadja and everyone else out there in difficult situations all the strength they need to deal with their losses and other hardships. But let's also hope that 2007 brings us joy, health and happiness! And in our case, let's hope that (probably by the end of the year) we can f****** move to Regina already! )

You can view our Xmas card here: http://truemetal.org/marlies/wobben/2006/xmascard06.jpg I made it based on some vacation pics from the Rockies and it has the perfect topic for Xmas, our Canada adventures as well as for Dave and Danny up there... Angel glacier.

x Nico & Marlies