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With this Christmas Card we want to say "thank you" to our family, our friends, colleagues, and everyone else who joins us for longer or shorter distances along the road called "life". We wish you all a Merry Christmas and all the best for the year 2007.

Ingrid (16) has started her first year at Knarvik high school. She enjoys school very much. We are lucky to have her at home, and that she brings friends over from time to time. She still enjoys sewing. In the picture she is working on a new dancing outfit for her brother, Magnar. You can see the result in the picture below. In May Ingrid went on a long bus trip to Poland and Germany with her class, to visit historical sites and learn about the horrors of the Second World War. Mammy and daddy went along. This year Ingrid went to no less than three summer camps; Action, Arena and Link. For New-Year she will go to Explore, the fourth camp this year. Together with Magnar, she leads the confirmants' "out-door group", where they do camping, hiking, climbing, etc. Ingrid is the family's communicator. In December she was responsible for the sermon in Church, when it was re-opened after a major remodelling project.

Magnar (19) attends his final year in high school. He is still wondering what path to take next year. In his spare time he "plays on the computer", just like his daddy. He is web master for www.dynaplan.no, daddy's company site. Together with his big sister, Solbjørg, Magnar dances at BSI, where they are also instructors for beginner classes in boogie woogie (swing). They even take part in competitions and perform in shows - while keeping their level of ambition at: "just-for-fun". This year Magnar went to London together with good friends, and later he visited Newcastle with his class. In the summer we managed to travel together as a family, all five of us. The trip went to Risør, where we attended Eivind and Ivar's confirmations. It was great fun to experience a real family trip again, as it brought back good memories from many such travels from the time when the children were just babies and until now.

Solbjørg (22) has passed the first mile stones of her medical studies. Anatomy was a challenge, she claims. Physiology, however, is possible to understand logically, putting the anotomy into context. Good for her! This fall she went to Egypt to visit a friend and to typical "Egypt things", such as camel riding and pyramid viewing. Solbjørg works part time at a home for elderly people and she is a guide at the "Knowledge Centre" (Vitensenteret) in Bergen. This way she can make some extra money to spend on travels; her favourite undertaking. Yesterday she broke the news that she's got a boyfriend! He is a technology student in Trondheim. She did not tell us much more about him, except that he has the funniest looking pair of skis (what is that supposed to mean)? We think he is bright, though, because we can hardly read his handwriting :-)

Astrid teaches first grade. Her work is quite challenging, in many different ways. New guidelines from the government means that every child should get significantly more individual follow-up. The working day often lasts until late night, and in the week-ends Astrid often goes back to work. She is still a leader of the confirmants' sports-group. Next year she will no longer be leader of the children's group she has been co-responsible for since many years. Maybe this will give here some more time for her favorite hobby, which is to sit down and enjoy a good book.

Magne is occupied with Dynaplan, his computer software company. In the past year, Dynaplan's new technology, SMIA (Structured Modelling - Interactive Analysis), has been used with promising results in several projects together with key customers. The progress on Magne's PhD thesis has been slow this year, as the company has taken most of his time. The office hours often get quite long. When Magne needs a break, he usually takes his bike for a ride. The picture is taken minutes before the annual race from Bergen to Voss, a 170 km trip over mountains and along beautiful fjords. This fall Magne has experiences some minor back pains, so the amount of training has been reduces for a while. In his spare time Magne works mainly with church-related tasks, such as technology-group for the confirmants. For a long time he has been working hard to plan and get approval for some important changes to the old church. The requirements to a church building are quite different now than they were 115 years ago, when the church was built. It was a great day for Magne to experience the re-opening of the church on December 10th, after the successful completion of a major renovation project that makes the church more accessible and user friendly for the congregation. (You can click on the floor plan above in order to see the changes that were made).

We wish you all a blessed Christmas holiday and all the best for 2007.

- Magne, Astrid, Solbjørg Makalani, Magnar and Ingrid.