Christmas 2014
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6
Greetings to our family and friends,
As we get closer to
the day that we celebrate our Savior’s birth we hope that you join
us in the preparations for this time and pause to consider its
meaning for us all. We hope that these greetings reach you in good
health. Our activities
this year have again been varied and spent enjoying visits with
family and friends.
Our activities this
year have been quite peaceful.
Our Church choir presented the Duruflé
Requiem in May. In
January Werner returned to singing in the BelPres Chancel Choir and
also with Seattle Pro Musica.
For SPM’s May concert Carol also joined to sing the Brahms
Requiem at St James
Cathedral. We both
joined SPM in September, signing up for the full year.
Werner is also singing in
their Men’s group, Orpheon
and their Chamber Group, Vox.
It has been a challenge this year, singing French music for our
Christmas concerts (4), as well as other appearances in Western
Washington. Werner has
finally succumbed to the aches and pains and has retired from soccer
after 40 years.
We both continue to
enjoy attending the Issaquah Village Theater, one of the top
regional theaters. We
just saw an outstanding presentation of
Mary Poppins.
In
July we joined the rest of Carol’s Frandsen Family for four days of
fun in Breckenridge, Colorado.
Mark and Brian’s family joined us from Arizona and Georgia.
It is always enjoyable to become reacquainted and catch up
with each families events.
We also had a nice visit with Chuck and Elly Tyler, friends
from our time in Germany.
Although we missed Zachary at the reunion, we will see him
next May to celebrate the first of our six grandchildren to graduate
from High School.
In September, we
returned to Heidelberg for the funeral of Werner’s Uncle and Otto’s
Brother, Ernst Henn. It
was a sad time but an excellent time to experience the closure of
another part of our life.
It was a great opportunity to also meet his friends and
reminisce a little.
We
then traveled and visited familiar and new places.
Three years ago we became
acquainted, through Facebook, with
cousins on Werner’s mother’s side of the family that we had never
met. They were
originally from Altenburg, near Leipzig.
On the way we stopped and toured The Wartburg Castle where
Martin Luther translated the New Testament. We also spent a day
revisiting Dresden, specifically the restored Frauenkirche which was
totally destroyed during WW II.
The highlights of this six days was meeting and becoming
acquainted with four of Werner’s cousins, Sylvia, Silke, Uta and
Edita and their families.
It was also an opportunity to fill in a lot of blanks in the
Henn/Werner family tree.
Edita was our excellent tour guide through
Altenburg, another
Bach/Luther town with much ancient history.
Silke and her family showed us around Nürnburg.
We also experienced a very worshipful service at Lorenzkirche
and a wonderful Postlude on the largest pipe organ in a German
Protestant Church. On
our last day we revisited the ancient town of Rothenburg on the
Tauber, walking the cobble stone streets and the old wall.
We can’t forget to mention all of the wonderful meals we had
in every town. For a blog and pictures, see:
FamilyHenn.com.
Otto is doing as
well as can be expected for a man that will be 102 in May.
His memory and health is slowly descending.
He is anxious to be with Mom. He has been on Hospice care
since March and yet continues to amaze everyone.
We wish you all a
Christmas of Joy as we celebrate Christ’s birth and a New Year
filled with Happiness and Blessings.
Our Best Wishes,
