Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Christmas to us means a special occasion
when we can express our sincere thanks
to those whose friendship we cherish.
May you have a wonderful, joyous season

(click any picture to enlarge)
Well we are getting this out late, but after missing last year for the first time in 20 years, we feel accomplished. The reason for no card last year was our purchase of a 150 year old Chateau on the Meuse River that we are renovating and moved into last year just before Christmas. We thought it would be a good one year project. You could call us ambitious, but a better word would be naïve, bordering on stupid. It’s probably going to take at least twice as long. We are about 40 miles out of Brussels, and it’s a one hour train ride for me to the office, but it’s worth it, I feel like I’m on vacation every day when I get home. Some pictures of the house and area we live in on the back. The house is right on a bridge so it took some damage during bomb hits in both World Wars, and to Randy’s delight, it was even a bordello for German officers for a short time. There is a lot more history to it, but you have to come and visit to hear the rest.
One of the reasons for buying this was to send you all an open invitation to come and see Europe and use us for a base for your trip. We are at the centre of everything, and we love the company. We’ve had a few friends and relatives already…so book a ticket. I mean it!
Some highlights and lowlights of our year were…lowlights first, my aunt Renee (second from right) was diagnosed with cancer in September and passed away in April. She had just retired from 40 years of work at the Justice Palace. It was very hard on me because she was only 14 years older, and more like a sister than an aunt. She will be missed by all of us.
I was presented with an opportunity that I couldn’t turn down this summer and switched law firms in September. I am now at White & Case, another US firm that practices competition law. It took some settling in, but I’m glad I made the jump.
Randy had another good season in the pool business and is now back until next summer, although he’s able to do more and more from home, which means he’s back in the states, less and less. He’s got a lot to do on this home, so I need him here. He’s in an expat group called STUDS and these guys are always finding ways to run around Europe to battlefield sites from Normandy to Berlin. You’ll have to ask him what the “STUDS” is all about. I think they just love being called that.
Now the kids….Julie is in her last year of high school taking marketing and communications and will get more schooling along those lines next year.

She wants to spend some time in the States first with Tracy next summer, so she is looking forward to that.
Dana is in his third year at North Dakota State and is taking engineering classes, which I don’t understand much about, but it seems to be easy enough for him. He is as steady as ever and moved in with longtime girlfriend Chelsea who’s in her second year of school in Fargo, or maybe Moorhead, I never get those straight.
Before we get to child number three a little news from Randy’s brother Doug. Allison, who is the same age as Tracy, had a baby this fall to make Doug & Pam grandparents. (that’s me giving little Cooper a bottle on back) Tracy must have thought she had to keep up with her cousin, because she informed us in November that we will be grandparents in June. Take that Doug and Pam! We would have liked to have seen this planned out a little better, but we couldn’t be happier to be grandparents.

Warmest thoughts and best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year, and book that ticket!

Love Randy, Mireille, Julie, Tracy & Dana

randy.dallmann@gmail.com mireille.dallmann@gmail.com