Not exactly a Christmas Letter
I have been completely truant in
keeping my website updated. Marcus pointed out to me the other day that
the 2005 Christmas letter was still posted, and it's 2010. I can't let that state
of affairs continue. 2005 was a watershed year, for sure. But it was 5 years ago and we've all moved on.
In 2006 John and I took a trip to Newfoundland with the purpose of buying a place that
we could use as a summer cabin. We got lucky on New World Island and bought a 120+ -year-old
house only minutes from friends that I knew in University.
We have spent four months there each summer ever since, fixing it up ourselves.
It's a slow process but we're getting there. For more info on how this project is
advancing, check my blog: http://full-frontal.blogspot.com/ for entries from 2007
through 2008. We didn't do any work on it last year so the blog is rather out of date.
In 2009 we sold our Ottawa house and bought a little condo apartment. Best thing we
ever did. No more grass to mow. No weeds to pull. No pool to keep from going green.
Preparing a house for sale is not for the faint of heart. Repair this. Paint that. Fill
those cracks. We moved at least half of our furniture out into storage to make the place
look spacious. And then put up for For Sale sign in early January 2009. Long story short
we moved into our new place in late June 2009.
In other news, Tarryn is now in grad school working on her Masters at the Normal Patterson
School of International Affairs, and working at Department of Foreign Affairs & International
Trade. They love her there and are willing to let her complete her degree while keeping
her on the payroll.
Shauna has had success in her job in Toronto, earning a promotion recently. She appears
to have become a Torontonian in her soul and will probably never leave there.
Nate finished his degree at Carleton in Biochemistry and is looking around for the best
place to use his talents. For now he's working full-time at an Ottawa fruit and vegetable store
where he has started part-time a number of years ago. He and a friend have rented
a town-house; they rent half of it to students and this pays the entire rent so they can
save their money.
Marcus is still working as a systems administrator. He will probably be selling his
condo this summer since the place has not turned out to be the Shangri-la he had hoped it
would be. Keeping our fingers crossed.
On a sad note, John's mom died in the fall of 2009. We had not been home very long from
Newfoundland when she had to be taken to hospital. She died shortly thereafter.
Even sadder, her sister Grace died of nearly the same thing in the spring of 2010. Their
sister Eileen had died just the year before. That leaves only Aunt Bev in British
Columbia.
This summer we had
planned to take a side-trip with our friends Jo & Simon to the south coast of Newfoundland, to Francois (pronounced
France-way). But Jo's best friend is dying so we have posponed that trip until a later
date.
And so it goes.
Come visit us in Hillgrade, Newfoundland.