Blair's Blog

A very merry Christmas to you all! We trust that you are enjoying the holiday surrounded by family and friends, good food and all the hope that Christmas brings to mind.

2013 is nearly gone, and so quickly it seems. This was a milestone year for Brenda and I, with our 25th wedding anniversary in August. We marked the day in a bit of a low key fashion but the anniversary has shaped different aspects of the year. In particular, our summer holiday to Ontario took us back to St. Catharines where we were married and, in just a few days, it will take Brenda and I to Mexico. We are taking a week to hit the beaches in Cancun for just the two of us as a way of celebrating 25 years together. The kids will be staying with their cousins in Caroline for the week – thanks Barry and Breana!

At the start of the year we were helping Brenda’s Mom and Dad deal with some serious health issues – Dad had broken his hip and Mom had been diagnosed with cancer. At the same time my Mom had a knee replacement. Happily, all are doing much better now and, although Brenda’s folks have had to slow down some. We’ve already enjoyed our annual Sinterklaas get-together with all the cousins – up at Barry and Breana’s place this year. We hosted Christmas dinner at our house this year, with my folks and brothers coming over. We had a fine day, we ate well and enjoyed playing some games and watching the kids enjoy some of their newly acquired presents.

For me, 2013 was a good year for employment, as I was fortunate enough to be renewed twice for additional contract work at TransCanada. First a 9 month stint deploying new processes for one of the engineering teams, then a 12 month contract starting in October working with the Quality Management team. This year was the big 50 for me and we celebrated by (finally) selling the old Mazda truck and replacing it with a much nicer car – Brenda got me a “mid-life crisis red” Audi A4. So much nicer than the rattle-trap truck. I also enjoyed volunteering with Vintage Wings, which allowed me to learn about and work on the P-51 Mustang and to hang out (with Brenda!) at airshows.

Brenda had a year-long contract with Vintage Wings of Canada, and was very involved with an educational outreach program to Air Cadets across the country. Brenda made a few interesting trips to Victoria, Penhold and Ottawa and had the pleasure of getting two flights in the Vintage Wings open cockpit Stearman biplane. Although not related to her Vintage Wings work, Brenda also had a chance to fly in the bombardier’s position of the Arizona Commemorative Air Force B-17. That was a thank you gift to her from the B-17 crew for all of her hard work making their previous visit to Canada for the Calgary Aviation Expo such a success. She has had some wonderful opportunities to fly in vintage aircraft with the connections she has made working in aviation – things that are the envy of many a person with a bucket list.

The kids are great – such a blessing to see them grow and mature (most days…) through the year. Alyssa, now 11 and in grade 6, has a wide range of interests and is feeling quite grown up as she finally got her own cell phone after school began this fall. She continues to follow in Brenda’s footstep with her creative spark – trying her hand at a bit of crocheting this year as well as some scrap-booking and other crafts with Gram. Alyssa and Mark helped out with Brenda’s work over the summer at the Airdrie and Lethbridge airshows and the two of them managed to get a hot air balloon flight, a helicopter ride and a glider flight over the summer.

Mark (14, grade 8) is starting to sprout and will likely soon be the second tallest in the family. It’s very difficult to keep the boys in pants these days – if only capri pants were a boy’s style. Mark is becoming quite independent and has shown an interest in cooking that we are helping him develop. He’s an adventurous eater and is able to hold his own with some basic recipes like muffins, tacos or spaghetti – even to the point where his meat sauce is almost too spicy for his siblings. Mark’s spirit is helpful and generous, we can always count on him to pitch in with chores with little complaint. He and Chloe (our french bulldog) are pretty much inseparable.

Steven really is our big kid, finally (at age 16, grade 11) filling out to match his size 13 feet at just short of 6′ 2″ and climbing. With only a year-and-a-half of high school ahead of him, Steven is starting to think about what is next. Vocational direction isn’t yet clear, although he is inclined towards the technical – maybe computer programming or the like. He took a 2-week programming course at the university during the summer that he really enjoyed. We are already encouraging him to not rush too quickly into the post-secondary world and to consider a “gap year” to travel or work or volunteer – something to broaden his horizons and foster self-reliance. In the meantime, he is rightfully just enjoying being a big kid.