The Kankelborg Kronicles

Volume 7, Christmas 1999

It seems like only nine months since our last Christmas letter. In fact, it has been only nine months! Although our friends and family won’t believe that we finally wrote a Christmas letter in December, we now pick up the story of our lives, beginning in April.

Carol has continued her involvement with Sweet Adelines. She competed in the regional competition with the Bozeman Chorus in early May in Eugene, Oregon. It was quite an experience as the chorus placed ninth overall. Since Charles and Emma tagged along, we all headed up to Tacoma afterwards to spend a week with Charles’ Mom. We visited friends in Eugene, Portland, and Tacoma as well. During the fall, Carol and the chorus worked hard at and had a lot of fun putting on their annual show. This Christmas, Carol will sing with a group at church in the Christmas program. Carol’s flute does not get as much attention these days, but she did have a few "gigs" to keep it from getting too jealous.

This year was tough on the garden, with a chilly June and a dry July. Nevertheless, Carol harvested one ripe tomato from the vine before the first frost. Several pounds of green tomatoes ripened indoors. The raspberry bushes provided enough for jam, pies, and muffins. The herb experiments yielded mixed results. We enjoyed home-grown chamomille tea but the cumin did not work out very well. The vegetable garden was not prolific, but it did produce fresh vegetables throughout the summer and into fall. Carol also spent a lot of time this summer working in the yard. After three summers, our landscaping efforts are starting to show some positive results.

Charles is as busy as ever. The TRACE satellite, launched in April ’98, is accumulating data on the sun at a prodigious rate. Charles divides his work day between scientific research, TRACE operations, and developing concepts for new space science missions. If one of those proposals really "flies", then Charles’ postdoctoral position at MSU will likely evolve into a permanent job. Travel has once again played a big part of our year. We spent the Fourth of July in Salt Lake City to visit the Utah Kankelborgs. Charles continues to travel a fair bit for work, but now Carol and Emma can tag along from time to time. They joined Charles first in Maryland; then Monterey, California; and finally Calgary, Alberta. We also took Emma on her first camping trip, to Montana Starwatch, in August. It was windy and a bit chilly at night, but we all had a great time.

Even better than traveling is having friends come to visit us. Carol’s parents visited in July (just couldn’t stay away from that cute granddaughter), and with them we headed to Glacier National Park and Waterton Provincial Park where we saw our first wild bear). On the way, we also stopped at Choteau, MT for a tour of the fossil beds where Jack Horner discovered Maiasaur eggs—along with the first evidence of dinosaurs caring for their young. Emma showed great aptitude for rock collecting (and rock tasting). The Collins family and Bob Relyea joined us for a fun Thanksgiving. This Christmas, Grandma Kankelborg will be coming to town. We’ll have to check her bags carefully when she leaves to make sure she doesn’t try to pack Emma :~)

Much of this year was spent marveling at Emma as she grows and develops from an infant to a toddler. We had her dedicated at church in June. It is an awesome privilege to raise a child. She has a wonderful, outgoing personality. Her first word was "hi," which she uses every chance she gets. She is also tenacious and determined; her second word, "no" shows that side of her. She loves to tease and joke and loves adventure, as shown by another early word, "whee!" She is such a neat kid. She’s been walking since she was 11 months old and loves to explore.

Emma enjoys birthday cake & ice cream.

Speaking of babies in the family, Carol’s sister Kathy gave birth this year to her second child, Lindsay Marie, on September 28.

If you have a high chair at home, take a good look at it. If the base is much wider than the top, you may be startled as Charles was one evening when he heard a great yelp from Carol breaking her little toe on that thing. The high chair is now kept out of major traffic areas.

We pray that all of you will have much to be thankful for this holiday season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

P.S. If you want to see more pictures of Emma, check out our web site. If that’s not enough footage for you, stop in on her grandparents. They have stacks of photos and reels of video tape they’d love to show you.

Emma’s dreaming of a white Christmas.