Asmundson's Christmas Letter 2007

The Whole Gang

Another year has sped by with plenty of fun and frolicking and much to look forward to in the new year. As always, we hope that your holidays are bright and that your year has produced as many stories to tell your grandchildren as ours has.

Ruth has probably experienced the most change during the year. She lost 50 pounds in the beginning of the year and has been wowing friends, family, and strangers with her workout exploits and her entirely new size 6/8P wardrobe. Shopping, visiting, and speaking engagements in Manila, Bangkok, and Shanghai/Wuxi keep her busy even as they are a danger to her new-found slimness. Adamson University has also benefited from Ruth's newfound energy: this year Ruth acted as founding president of the Adamson University Diamond Jubilee Foundation; cut the ribbon at the IDEA (Institutional Development and External Affairs) Office dedication at Adamson; and attended the inaugural grand academic conference "Harnessing Advances in Science and Technology for Poverty Reduction." Despite her travels, she still finds herself immersed in her job as a City Council member and is looking forward to working on some of the major upcoming projects.

Alinia and Omen continue to settle into life in Davis. Omen started his dream job in April as a computer security engineer at the UC Davis Data Center – his first assignment tracked down a major database break-in which he then presented to campus bigwigs and the FBI. In July, inspired by Roz Savage's exploits (www.rozsavage.com) and the amazing presentations at the Banff Mountain Film Festival, Alinia convinced Omen to accompany her on a 72-mile rowing trip from Omen's hometown in Alaska, Elfin Cove, out to the White Sulphur Hot Springs. Despite all ocean and weather warnings to the contrary, they enjoyed almost perfect weather on both the outgoing and return journeys. Their most exciting moment was when they were pinged by a whale when a mile off-shore balanced by their most relaxing moment reading Harry Potter on the banks of the outside scalding hot pool. On returning to California, Alinia set out on another Intel business trip, this time to Shanghai/Shenzhen/Taipei. With the gracious guidance of friends and co-workers, she managed to do some wonderful eating and sightseeing as well as meeting many of the people she has come to rely on over the past couple of years. There is much more to Alinia and Omen's year, but their biggest news is that they are expecting an addition to the Asmundson-Wild household at the end of May. Each and every one of you is invited to our "July 4th/10th anniversary/meet the baby" shindig at 4PM on Friday, July 4th at our house in Davis.

Irena has lately been taking over the role of "Most Travelled Sister". She visited friends getting married in Mexico City and Istanbul, met up in Munich for Oktoberfest with some of the girls she met at the first wedding, and has of course been heading out to Moldova regularly. Although these visits are for work, the government makes sure she gets to experience the real Moldova, including thorough tastings of the wine, sherry, and brandy through seven-hour lunches. She also graduated from the Economist Program at the IMF, and is now a full-fledged staff member. To counteract the effects of having to wear a suit every day to work, she continues to take advantage of her trips by visiting friends and stopping over in Bucharest, Budapest, London, Madrid, Malmo, Tilburg, and Vienna. As she is also the "one who doesn't live in Davis," the rest of the family tries to let her know what she's missing by responding to her emails to the family with queries such as "what time are we having dinner tonight?"

Wilfred recently looked into the dark abyss of retail, clocking time during the infamous "Black Friday" at the Apple Store. However, he continues to enjoy working at the Corte Madera Apple Store providing behind-the-scenes support handling repair and parts shipments. In July, he took the plunge and got LASIK surgery for both eyes and currently seeing 20/20. This probably helped his golf game as his group took second place in an October golf tournament for the local University of Arizona Alumni Association at Walnut Creek.

Vigdis has been complaining about her extended foray into the ranks of adulthood. This year marks the longest period she has gone without leaving the country. (She is fortunately spending Christmas with Ruth in the Philippines, as she might have popped if she had waited any longer to take an international holiday.) Summer school, her friend's baby Kieran, and ultimately the mortgage have all conspired to keep her stateside-bound for the length of the year, still she did manage trips to Seattle and New York after the Bahamanian cruise. Complaints aside she has a lot of fun teaching sixth grade at St. James Catholic School down the street from her now perfectly redone house.

Jonas took another step this year in the direction of his ultimate goal of receiving the "Music Educator of the Century" award as this fall he matriculated in the Harvard Graduate School of Education for an Ed.M. in Arts in Education. Leaving behind Manhattan and all of the musical groups he had been enjoying there for the past six years was a wrench, but Cambridge/Somerville have also proved to be a rewarding new experience and he's already joined the 173 year-old Harvard University Choir and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the official chorus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops Orchestra. Shockingly, he also just attended his ten-year high school reunion during the Thanksgiving holiday – oh where, oh where have the years gone to?

Sigrid and Tyler still reside in the greater Davis area rather than Davis proper! Despite all the pressure brought to bear on them by the sister contingent, Sigrid continues to enjoy her 5 minute commute to Best, Best, and Krieger and is diligently running up her billable time as you read this. Tyler also continues to enjoy his 0 minute commute between his two jobs of stock speculator and home-maker. For Easter, Sigrid pulled off the not-insignificant feat of shepherding her mother and sisters on a 3-day cruise to the Bahamas out of Orlando, FL. The highlight of the trip (besides the eating, playing, eating, walking, eating, reading, eating, and shopping) was the very musical Easter morning mass at the Catholic church in Nassau. Sigrid and Tyler also enjoyed the weddings of Tyler's sister and cousins.

We all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with Vigfus' siblings. Fortunately for all of us at this annual tribute dinner to Grandfather Asmundson's research, a new midprandial perambulation tradition has been instated. The picture on the postcard is a rare one of the Asmundson clan together under one roof. We hope that we will also soon be with each of you sharing a meal under one roof. Until then, have a wonderful holiday season and a lovely new year!

This file last modified Wednesday, May 6, 2015.