Season’s greetings!
2010
It’s that time of year already: the dreaded Christmas letter. Most of you will be reading this on our blog. Hope this works for you, please let me know.
Our blog is still active when we’re ‘away’ so please feel free to browse at your leisure. As usual, you can double click on pictures to see them enlarged.
2010 has been good to our family: our world is unfolding as it should, as we hope yours is too.
Starting ‘out West’, Kathleen and Phillip continue to enjoy San Diego, but are slowly considering a move to Portland, Oregon. Kathleen has graduated and has her California ‘papers’ as a massage therapist. Onwards and upwards, Kathleen is now going for her nation-wide certification: go girl go! If Portland becomes reality, Phillip will be able to work from home with periodic visits to San Diego for crucial meetings: obviously he’s a valued employee. This year, we are looking forward to having them in Ottawa for Christmas, so we’ll pass on our long drive to San Diego.
Colleen, Nick and the boys are doing well in Okotoks, recovering slowly from Calgary’s recent ‘bust’ economic cycle. It’s been a hard slog which they are facing squarely together. We had a short visit in October to be with Jacob for his 10th birthday. Wow, 10 years old! Where has the time gone? Jacob is doing well at hockey with Eric preferring gymnastics right now. Both boys are a credit to their parents and we’re both very proud of all of them.
What family outings are all about
Our trip West was different in as much as we took the train from Ottawa to Edmonton, then returned by air from Calgary. Train travel is so civilized compared to the treatment one gets at airports or in the air. We’ll definitely take the train more often!
Sunset in Northern Ontario from the moving train
Nancy and Christopher are still about fifteen minutes away, so we get to play grandparents often. Sophie turned a graceful six years old at Halloween, while Caitlyn is turning into a good younger sister, playmate, and source of much laughter. Joan still borrows them often for trips to museums, playgrounds that end up filled with amusing stories. The granddaughters always come up with heartwarming comments and to be able to witness their growing up is really a great gift.
Joan and Frankie continue enjoying quality time together, taking weekly riding lessons, and participating in the occasional show, where ribbons are added to an already impressive collection. Needless to say, Joan still enjoys mucking stalls more than housekeeping, and has safely become a very accomplished rider. What a wonderful way to satisfy a childhood dream!
Quality time: Joan and Cailtyn
This winter promises to be interesting. We’re sharing a rented condo on a PGA golf course in Port St Lucie, Florida with good friends Chris and Peter Cairns [and their well behaved dog] from Moncton. We’ll be near our Bridge playing friends Terri and Richard [who live in our condo bldg.] so cards will be dealt with. We’ll also share a short 4 day cruise in early February with these friends.
In March, we will return to Grayton beach. Our good friend Jan will be camping nearby in Port St Lucie while we’re there, will join us on the cruise, and of course, Jan will be in Grayton Beach for March so there will be lots of gaiety and laughter: We wish you the same for 2011.
Sh*t Hawks at Grayton Beach State Park
Please accept our very best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a very Healthy and Happy New Year!
Joan & Paul
2 comments:
Sounds like y'all are doing great! Paul...I don't believe I ever said thank you for your fire pics from Grayton. I'm still doing the EMT thing but have been volunteering on fires with The Nature Conservancy to get my fix. Not sure if that is enough though as I'm really itching to be back in fire full time. We'll see! Please pass my hello on to Joan, Jan and anyone that I might still know in Grayton. Best, Jason Ahern
Lovely pictures as always Paul. We are looking forward to being in Canada in a couple days. I'm digging out my warm boots :)
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