Christmas – celebration and transition

January 10, 2009

I had not expected to travel home for Christmas vacation this year given that Laura was due to arrive in Dhaka on January 7 and because I had been home briefly in October for a medical meeting. Nonetheless, I was able to find a good airfare home, the Embassy gets pretty quiet as so many families travel during the school holidays, and I had already built up a number of days of “comp time” from work while tending to after-hours emergencies. I was in Minnesota from December 16 until January 2. It was great to get home to “relax” a little….

I surprised daughter Mary with my arrival by picking her up unexpectedly at St. Olaf College on December 17. Two days later we celebrated Laura’s graduation from St.Cloud State University where she just completed her Master’s Degree in Government and Non-profit Institutions. Then it was time to roll up our sleeves and get down to the task of moving out of our home of 18 years in Willmar. We signed a purchase agreement on the house while I was home, and have lined up a renter for the winter months. But sorting through the accumulated possessions of a busy family with three children kept us very busy. There were many trips to Goodwill and the recycling center and two to the county landfill. There was careful sorting of items to go to Bangladesh on a second State Department shipment, items to go into long-term storage in Washington, D.C. and items to go to the townhouse we have purchased in Minneapolis that our son, Paul, is renting for the next few years. Two moving companies, a week apart, with Christmas in the middle of that week made for a quick holiday season. But we got through it as a team with laughs, sighs, occasional frustrations, and lots of wonderful memories of our years in Willmar. A moment of happy relief was selling our pick-up truck to a neighbor just before leaving Willmar.

We did make time for the traditional Norwegian Christmas service at our home church on December 23, and went on to celebrate a wonderful Christmas holiday with Laura’s family and my family during the 24-26th. All the unique items I had stuffed into my suitcase from the gift bazaar several weeks earlier were a fun part of holiday sharing.

After a few short days of relaxing after resettling in to our allotted space in the Minneapolis townhouse, it was time for me to head back to Dhaka. I took off on my trip hours before daughter Mary headed west on Amtrak to a retreat center in the Rockies were she will spend a “January term” in a religion course from her college. Laura headed to Bangladesh on January 5 after a final weekend visiting her parents and sister. The boys, Paul and Mark, remain settled in Minneapolis and Madison, WI, respectively, where they are working. Our hope is to spend next Christmas all together in Bangladesh with a side trip to Nepal together. I was glad to have this holiday time together, but I suspect we’ll never have a holiday season as hectic as this one has been.

You’ll see some changes in the blog as well, as Laura begins some contributions. She is anxious to have me write about what I actually DO at work, so that will be coming shortly.