Dear American relatives,
We wish you a Happy New Year, luck, success, and health in the new centenium!
Our year was very busy, untill the last day therefore we haven't succeeded in writing you before Christmas. For all Christmas and New Year greetings, we send our thanks to you all.
All our children are well and learning at school or have started a formation, as Alena. Ricarda, our youngest girl, started school mid-September and is involving very well. My mother Tilly is in good health and the other members of the German Schwabs family too.
You will find some pictures from the Cartusian Museum which were sponsored by the American and German Schwabs. We hope it is of your interest. Unfortunately we could not participate in the inauguration of the diocesan museum because I had a scientific congress in Marsala, Sicily (Italy) and Sonja accompanied me. This journey was very impressive because of the old temples of the different cultures that settled on Sicily, as the Punians, the Greeks, and the Romans. If you visit Europe, you shall plan a few days for Sicily – the best time is end of May or June.
Around our home, we continued to form structures for the garden and we begun with the first repairs. In the summer, we made a little reunion in our court and we celebrated a vine tasting with the wines of Oregon and Washington which I have got from you in 1997. We were very impressed of the quality and the fruity flavours of the wines. Only sometimes, they are too sweet for our taste. Our grape harvest was good, with an acceptable quality. We harvested a good wine for the last year of this century.
During our holidays on the Mediterranean Sea, we visited Cinque Terre a wonderful region on the Italian coast south of Genua with vineyards an olive gardens directly on the coastal rocks.
For all relatives who have lost family members in the last year we want to express our feeling with you and we please the Lord to take all in his arms.
We look forward to the next years and to the Schwab's reunion in 2001 in Mount Angel. We hope to have the opportunity to participate and we hope to meet you all there in good health and happiness (or before here in Germany).
Yours Arnold and Family