bobgarlitz

CHRISTMAS 2007, DECEMBER 12
Dear Ones,
Our MOST exciting news of this year is the marriage of Dave and Cécile on June 29th in Paris.  We went over for the week. They are planning their American wedding here for the summer of 2009.  {See Appendix for wedding details. }

Our family’s health is better this year; Virginia’ sister and brother-in-law seem to have their cancer controlled.  Her brother Rick has moved back to their family house in Albuquerque with his friend Patricia and her two cats.  Bob’s parents are doing very well for 91 and 92.  Virginia is still doing lots of rehab, now with the bioness system.  She also swims and does Pilates with the help of two friends and former colleagues.  As an outgrowth of her rehab, Virginia has been working with two Dartmouth engineering majors on a design for a portable combination toilet and shower chair.  Virginia also attended a class at PSU this fall, Anthropology of Religion.  She enjoyed showing the students her Mexican Day of the Dead presentation, dressed as Doña Catrina.

Virginia is working on a second book, this one on Valle-Inclán’s 1910 South American tour.   Her first book has just come out in Spain.

Bob is still teaching with no plans to retire as long as he enjoys it.  He still maintains a studio and tries to paint as much as possible.  He bought the collected works of Beckett a few months ago and plans to dive in for a winter of uplifting reading.

Our big cat, Cafe Solo and his smaller mate, Latte, have been watching the good snowfalls we’ve had so far and everything looks and feels as it should.   We are ready for Christmas with our first artificial tree.  This year it will be just us as Marilyn and her two boys and will be with  Rick and his two boys in NM.   Dave and Cécile will do the holidays with her grandparents in the country near Orleans and then go to Berlin to see friends for New Years.  They have already bought tickets to visit here next summer.

We hope you are all warm and with people you love.  We pray for a new year of peace and more enlightened government!

Much love to you and yours,

Bob and Virginia Garlitz
tel: 603-238-2578
email:  robert.garlitz@gmail.com
site:  www.bobgarlitz.com
Appendix
Photo album online, see http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcM2bRs2ZuHOg

WEDDING OF DAVID GARLITZ & CECILE DESSERTENNE

On June 29th, 2007, under slightly overcast skies, family and international friends (one coming from as far as Bangladesh) gathered in the magnificent wedding hall of the Mairie, or town hall, of the 15th Arrondissement in Paris, for the civil ceremony uniting Dave Garlitz, son of Virginia and Robert Garlitz of Plymouth NH, and Cécile Dessertenne of Paris, France.

Then everyone braved Friday traffic to drive to a “chateau” about forty miles outside the city for the reception. Guests performed skits with puppets made to look like the bride and groom, played word and trivia games, enjoyed music performed by Dave and his salsa band friends and danced to a DJ’s selection of Cuban timba, French-Caribbean zouk, and latest ‘tecktonic’ dance mixes. Friends of the bride’s family provided a pot luck buffet dinner, three cakes
and plenty of champagne and red wine.  The party lasted until 5:30am.  The couple honeymooned on the French island of Corsica.
While on a sightseeing tour there, their boat hit a large wave and both ended up with a small fracture in a vertebra (D lumbar, C dorsal).  They seem fine now and are back to work:  Dave teaches guitar in a private music school and Cécile teaches kindergarten, which in France starts with children at three years old.

Dave and Cécile plan to have another wedding and party for their American family and friends here in June of 2009