Introducing our family to the Fuger family

As previously mentioned, in 1979-1980 the Morss family went on sabbatical to Belgium. My dad, Lester Morss, worked at the University of Liege with Jean Fuger. Mr. Fuger had previously been on sabbatical at Berkeley in the 1960's, where he met my dad (who was then a new graduate student). So on our last day in Belgium, we met up with nearly the entire Fuger family. By my calculations, this meeting now encompasses at least three sabbaticals.

After one last amazing Belgian breakfast, we checked out of our little hotel and drove to the Fugers' house. They have lived in this house, right near the University of Liege, for as long as I can remember. The drive didn't seem familiar to me, but I immediately recognized the house. Mr. Fuger had said that we could come early, and by some miracle we actually were about an hour early! Mr. and Mme. Fuger still welcomed us into their home. We introduced them to our children, who were immediately delighted by the Fugers' gift of the BIGGEST car tower we had ever seen (51 cars!). How did they know? We were also delighted to meet their beautiful new dog, Zara, who was incredibly sweet and friendly. She had unfortunately just been spayed, so was supposed to remain calm, but she loves children so that was a challenge.

We then went to lunch at a nearby Chinese food buffet. The Fugers selected this location not so much for the food as for the convenience. We could eat as we pleased and they had an indoor play area. Since we were early for lunch, our kids had the whole play area to themselves for a while. Sammy loved the slide, Joey love throwing the balls, and Lanna particularly enjoyed the freedom of being in the play area with her brothers relatively unsupervised. We could see them all through the glass, and the boys took good care of her. 

The kids ate pretty well at the Chinese buffer, which had some frog legs (!) and sushi too! They especially enjoyed the fruit and the ice cream. Sammy had smurf flavor (or at least smurf color). Lanna warmed up nicely to Mme. Fuger.

We then drove back to the Fugers' house to see the rest of the family. Mr. and Mme. Fuger have 2 daughters. Danielle has a son, Pierre Francois. Michele has a daughter Florence and a son Florian. They brought more gifts for everyone, including some books which I have been attempting to translate from French to English. Luckily, our kids do not know the stories well enough to know when I am making things up.

All the following pictures were taken by Joey:
Danielle and Pierre Francois

Florian

Michele, Florence, and her boyfriend Guillaume

Mme Fuger, serving delicious tarts

Lanna slept through a large part of the afternoon and was carefully guarded (please pardon her lack of ladylike posture in a dress). You can see that she felt right at home!

Joey also enjoyed the knick knacks around the Fugers' home, taking several pictures of little owls.

After spending some wonderful time catching up with everyone, and of course becoming friends on Facebook and exchanging Skype usernames, it was time to say goodbye. We took one last phono of nearly everyone.

It was so wonderful to see the Fugers again, and we were honored that nearly the entire family came to greet us. We sincerely hope to be in closer touch with them all, especially the younger generation, and to provide them equally warm hospitality if they ever come to the US.