2006 Xmas Letter

For the record I am penning this under duress. I am sure that I have previously committed to you all that the last ‘seasonal’ letter was, in fact, my very last one. Reason being, I can only imagine that you know everything you ever want to know about my family. But, if George Bush can change his mind about pulling troops out of Iraq then I can eek out one more xmas letter.

We are all in good health (you can stop reading here, as we have our health and therefore have nothing to complain about).

Maggie is 10 ½ . She is in grade 5, but sits in a combined 5/6 classroom. Little house on the Prairie comes to Etobicoke? Who knew they combined classroom these days? She has taken up the saxophone – doing fine but likely would have chosen clarinet if she’d know how heavy a saxophone was. Passed swimming lessons, plays soccer and is becoming an expert at online computer games and hotmail to classmates.

Hannah is 9, continues to play the flute, be a girl guide, pass her swimming lessons and play soccer. Most notably though she took up Atom hockey this winter as a new sport. She is making a concerted effort to improve her skating and learn the game. Sunday night game attendance is mandatory. Hannah has the largest cheering section led by Nana Barb – the Howie Meeker of women’s hockey. The games are fabulously entertaining – what they lack in skills, they make up for in heart.

Carolyn is 40+, continues to run the marketing dep’t at Schick and gets a lot of needling about the number  of blades thing i.e. “when are you going to 6 blades? – ha ha”. She is working on her craft as a beginner sculptor and will be taking another class this winter. I think her sculptures are great – not just because they are all small either. Highly productive, she still manages to volunteer in class, go on school trips and help the kids with the math homework that baffles me. (who does long division anymore?).

I am still the sole employee at Lighthouse Consulting. To date I have not received a single lead from years of writing this letter, not one. As a result I was forced to look abroad, I have been doing quite a bit of work with a food company in Northern Mexico. The whole family increasingly likes it when I am gone for a week at a time in Monterrey.. In honour of my lost youth I bought a fairly large motorcycle this fall, I am looking forward to riding in the Spring. A number of people have asked me why I bought this bike? There is no reason per se, it just sort of compensates for hair loss.

In the spring, Maggie performed in a children’s company production of Anne of Green Gables – the play was excellent and it prompted a family vacation to Prince Edward Island. The island is stunning and we enjoyed beaching, kayaking, lots of cycling (me) and digging up the potatoes from neighbouring fields for our dinner. In our second week of vacation we swapped our Cape Cod trip for a week at a resort in Vermont with our usual travelling companions the Mozden’s.

If you have read this far, you must be family (or close to it). So, love to you all, wishing you a wonderful holiday.