Blair's Blog

As 2017 winds down and frigid weather has us hunkered down for the holidays, we would like to wish each of you the very best this Christmas season and for the coming new year.  Reflecting on the year as the last day of the year slips away, we are very grateful for all that we have, for friends and family and for each other.  Last Christmas, we were just getting back on our feet after a long spell of unemployment as Calgary struggled with low oil prices and the ripple effect through the entire economy.  A year later, we have undone most of the “robbing Peter to pay Paul” but it will be another year yet before we get back to where we were in 2015.  Yet, we are thankful for all we have, as we know many who are still looking to fully get back to work. Continue Reading »

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Christmas time has come again and with the holidays an opportunity to reflect on the year that is quickly drawing to a close. And what a year it was, characterized predominantly by the extended period of unemployment for Brenda and I. Despite a few short contracts for each of us – working as occasional tour guide or electrician’s assistant – the “tightened-belt” was never far from our minds. Fortunately, in September Brenda got work and about two weeks later, so did I – after more than 11 months without steady work. So, this Christmas, we are most grateful for work and for the support of our family in 2016. Continue Reading »

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Christmas day has come and gone; the new year is just around the corner. It seems that this year has just flown by! The week leading up to Christmas Day was full of family activity; we hosted Brenda’s two brothers and their families on the 23rd and had twenty-one cousins, aunts and uncles over for dinner to celebrate Barry’s birthday and it wasn’t even a major milestone (unless you are counting in hexadecimal, then it’s 40). Barry and Breana and their 6 kids headed home on Christmas eve (after an all-cousins laser tag outing), then on Christmas Day we gathered with my side of the family at my Mom and Dad’s on Christmas Day.
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Christmas Eve – another Christmas is upon us and we are grateful for the days off that we have to enjoy a break at the end of a busy year.  2014 was a year of change for us as we made a move from our place in Chestermere into Calgary.  Although  our place in Chestermere was very suited to life when the kids where small, with a large yard on a quiet cul-de-sac, as the years went by the burden of driving back and forth to Calgary mounted. By the autumn of 2013 it was clear that a change was in order, so we began the search for a new home in Calgary and in January made an offer on our new place.  We chose to buy in Calgary before listing the Chestermere house to allow us to stage and list the old place in the summer time.

We moved into the city in March, then spent about 5 weeks getting the Chestermere house cleared out, cleaned up, repainted and re-carpeted before staging the house and listing at the end of April. We had quite a bit of interest and had offers to consider within a couple of weeks, eventually selling in mid-June.  There was a bit of a scramble towards the possession date in July, but on the 18^th we handed over the keys and ended that chapter of our lives after 15½ years.

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