24 Dec 2008 11:49 am
Merry Christmas!!
It’s after 11:00pm on Christmas Eve and the children are (finally) snuggled down in their beds… I’m not sure that they’d even recognize a sugar-plum if it fell on them. I don’t suppose I would, either.
Nonetheless, the excitement of anticipating Christmas has been very recognizable as we have adjudicated debates over whether it is proper to count today when discerning the number of days left til Christmas Day. Now that the house is quiet, I’ve a moment to count the days since last Christmas and to be thankful for all of them. We’ve had our ups and downs this year, as every family does, but looking back over 2008 it has been a good year.
The kids have grown in both stature and maturity, Steven is now in Grade 6 and the elementary years are behind him. Adapting to moving from class to class has been a challenge for Steven to find just the right techniques to be properly prepared and organized for each new subject, but he seems to be prevailing. Steven is still interested in gymnastics and swimming and we tend to alternate between the two. This year he is in the school’s junior band playing the trombone, but decided that being a drummer would be cool. Cool enough to spend his own cash on a drum kit, while we are footing the bill for some lessons. It’s nice to see him focused on an interest that his totally his own.
Mark is in Grade 3 this year and working hard at school, we are very proud of his efforts. He still really loves the sciences and continues to be completely enthralled by anything to do with animals, sea-life in particular, but most any animal will suffice. Just yesterday, he spent the day at one of his school friends whose dog had puppies just two weeks ago. He was grinning ear-to-ear when he got home from the excitement of it all. Mark also took swimming lessons this year and has really become comfortable in the water.
Alyssa is in Grade 1 and coping adequately with the unfair restrictions of having to wear a school uniform! She still loves her fancy dresses and, of course, never wears pants – that would never do. At her school Christmas concert all of the kids were supposed to wear jeans and a blue t-shirt (provided) – 99 kids were in jeans and 1 (my daughter) was in a dress with the t-shirt over top! Alyssa is extremely creative and loves nothing more than to sit at the kitchen table with paper, pens, crayons, fancy scissors and glue creating one masterpiece after another. We had to buy a special cabinet for her to store all of her supplies! In the new year, we’d like to get her signed up for some drawing lessons.
With all of the kids in school full-time Brenda has had the opportunity to think about how she can transition back into the work world and has taken a 1/2 – time job in the cafeteria at the kids school. It’s a great (re-)starting point and it allows her to maintain plenty of contact with the kids activities and teachers. She is also learning lots of great cooking tips as the manager of the cafeteria is a certified Chef. As a side activity, Brenda took on the challenge of learning to ride a motorcycle taking some training in the spring and eventually getting her motorcycle license in the fall. It’s a daunting process, but Brenda did great and we managed to get out for a ride or two together on my days off when the kids were in school. We’re definitely looking forward to more riding next year.
I’ve been in a transition year with my work at GD Canada and have become more involved with measurement of engineering processes to help determine ways to improve the business. It’s more detail oriented than the previous years and the roles in my group have shifted considerably. My spare time this year revolved around learning more about maintaining a webserver and mailserver – I’ve got my little server room under the basement stairs and enjoy tinkering with obscure sounding things like ubuntu, apache and postfix. My other “hobby” this year was dabbling with deafness – in August I had a nasty sinus and ear infection that left my inner ears filled with fluid for 3 months. For the first month, I was extremely hard of hearing – fortunately, as the fluid slowly drained, my hearing and balance returned to normal. It has given me a real appreciation for the value of good hearing – so, turn that music down!
For our holidays, we did a few weekend trips to visit family in Rocky Mountain House, to Drumheller with Brenda’s cousin, and visits to Banff. In July, we took a week and went to Vancouver Island where we had a great time re-connecting with old friends at Capernwray Harbour on Thetis Island. The kids had a great time exploring the tide pools and just playing while Brenda and I had some time to just relax. A stop at the Vancouver Aquarium on the way home to see the 5 week old beluga whale calf was a highlight for Mark.
We are looking forward to spending Christmas day with Brenda’s folks over at my Mom and Dad’s place – it’s not often that we are able to have both sides of our family together for Christmas dinner, but it worked out that way this year. The remainder of the Christmas break should be nice and relaxing, we’ve no plans to travel and are all off school and work until January 5th. We truly wish you and yours all the best this Christmas and hope that you have a great year in 2009.
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