29 Dec 2011 08:54 pm
Posted by Dave under Dave's Thoughts,Family
Merry Christmas!!
Another Christmas season has arrived – each year it seems to sneak up a little more quickly than the last! We would like to wish each of you the best this Christmas season and hope that 2012 is a great year for you and your families. This year we returned to a more traditional Christmas – no trip to Mexico or other tropical destination for us. However, the +9 °C temperature on Christmas Day and the extremely mild weather during the last few weeks has been very nice.
2011 was another full-on adventure of a year with more job changes, visitors from overseas, family gatherings and the “regular” routines of school and home. The kids are growing as always and Steven is now taller than Brenda and will soon best me as well. He is 14 now and talking of getting his learner’s license after the winter. Steven’s interests run strongly towards computers and, apart from the games, he is beginning to understand how to troubleshoot problems like when his PC video card failed a month or so ago. Steven worked his first paying job over the summer as the gift shop and admissions clerk at the Aero Space Museum for one day each week during his summer vacation. He now has some real savings and a bank account and debit card of his own. It was a good experience for him and taught him a few things about dealing with the public.
Mark (12) is growing as well and, while not shooting up quite as fast as Steven, still manages to outgrow his pants at a pretty good rate. This year he is playing trumpet in the beginner band and has had the use of his Gramps old trumpet. He is still a little unsure about whether he wants to take band after this year, but certainly enjoyed rousing the entire family at 6:00am Christmas morning playing something akin to Reveille! Apparently his trumpet tutoring has not been totally focused on the band curriculum. Chloe, our French Bulldog, has a special bond with Mark – he’s still got a real affinity for animals. For his birthday, he had a tour of a dog sledding company’s kennels and was talking about the 176 huskies for weeks afterwards.
Alyssa is 9 now and is growing into a lovely young lady, she still loves the fancy dresses but doesn’t let that slow down the rough-and-tumble of keeping pace with her brothers. Crafts of all kinds continue to be a central part of each day for her, creating and drawing and writing stories – using her wonderful imagination. She is very sure of herself and is just a great girl – there is nothing I love to see more than the giant smile on her face as she comes running up to me, covered in snow from playing in the school field, when I pick the kids up after the school day ends.
Brenda’s job changed this year; she is now Operations Manager at the Aero Space Museum. In some ways this was a natural progression of the series of roles she has had there over the past 3 years – but it was also a big step and it took several months of hard work to sort out some staffing and other issues. Despite the sometimes long hours, there have been lots of great success stories along the way for Brenda, ranging from promoting the museum on television to meeting and hearing the stories of some of Canada’s veterans to even having the chance to fly a small airplane with one of the volunteers. Apart from work, one of the changes this past fall was when Brenda’s Mom and Dad sold their home in Calgary and moved up to Rocky Mountain House – they’d been in Calgary since we came back from Australia in 1998 and we will miss having them nearby.
As for me, what would the annual update be without a job change to report? The home renovation company that I had worked for last year had a rough winter with low sales and went under at the end of March – paying me off with a coffee maker! It took a while to find the next job, but when I did – guess where? The Aero Space Museum! While I was searching for full time work, the museum board approached me and asked if I would review and improve their financial management processes on a part time basis. That turned out to work perfectly as Brenda was putting in some long days and the kids were off school for the summer. I was able to be Mr. Mom for the kids and still keep the resume current with an interesting and challenging project. It’s been a bit of role reversal for both Brenda and I that has worked out well for all of us.
Well, enough of my rambling – if you are interested in more of what we’ve been up to, feel free to browse through previous posts here on the blog. Leave us a comment or drop a line by email – we’d love to hear from you.
Wishing you all the best,
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