http://home.att.net/~Diether .......................................................................................................December 2008

Dear friends,

Reflecting on what to say in this letter, I realized, how great a year it is.

Let me start bragging about the children: Ben is doing well at USC and is expecting to finish his BS in mechanical engineering by summer. He is almost doing a full time job at VW. Ruth is working long hours at Maxim, a Silicon Valley company, and taking evening classes to stay up to date with the newest developments.

They planned to move out of Ruth's parents house in the fall. They are married 3 years now, and were saving their money, so they bought a lovely 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house. The 2 smaller bed rooms are used as office and utility / exercise room. The kitchen is a dream, 5 burner gas stove, and fully equipped with dishes, pots and pans and every thing else, one may need. They had us over for dinner and cooked up a storm like old pros. ( the laptop with recipes close at hand )

Our parents are doing well. Diether and Jutta visited in March, before the Spring School, where Diether had been lecturing since it's beginning. In May, they returned for Diether's parents' 60^th wedding anniversary, celebrated with many relatives and friends. It was great to see them again. I think, some of them, we saw last at Gundi's and Hans' wedding, and their oldest is 24..... And Jutta went back in September and November to support her mom for a couple weeks each. As well as they are doing, they are getting older. Ben and Ruth visited in August.

We all, Diether, Jutta, Ruth, and Ben spent the Martin Luther King week end in Pismo Beach. The summer trip to Tahoe was not possible this year. Between the trip to visit the grandparents, and buying a house there was just not enough time.

Diether is still working in San Jose, and enjoying his commute of exactly one mile during his weeks in San Jose. The airport is close, which makes the weekend commute easy. Advanced Technology is exciting and Diether and the group are very successful. Jutta spends most of her week in Reno, volunteering for children's programs, she is still involved with the Photonics Group, and was helping before the elections. And there was still time to visit with friends, local or not, the phone connects us anywhere.

They had friends visit, and were able to show them around. Jutta's cousin visited, a bit earlier this year, and all three spend a couple weeks vacationing together, enjoying the warmer weather, and swimming in many lakes.

Wishing you all happiness, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.