Christmas Letter 2009

Doris wrote this, but I added my 2 cents too.
Now that the snow has come it feels a bit like Christmas. The day before it snowed we went to a Christmas tree farm and cut the first tree we came to. How different from the Christmas tree shopping we used to do 35 years ago when we first got married. Back then I insisted on going to every tree lot until we found the most perfect tree.
Things really changed for us this year with Laurie’s retirement from Bell Aliant in February. He is really enjoying his freedom and has never had a dull moment. It has been a very easy adjustment for him. He has spent lots of time doing what he loves best, which is reading. He has been volunteering his time at the church and is involved in the Ham Radio Club and the Astronomy Club. He makes sure he gets some exercise every day and often I go out walking with him.
As for me, I have been organizing retreats and some other events for women at our church. It takes up a fair bit of my time. I am finding that what they say about retirement is true: you are busier after retirement than before. I volunteer at York Manor at least once a week. That is the nursing home my mom lives in. I also have recently begun volunteering for Bridges of Canada, wrapping and bagging Christmas gifts for the children of prisoners. This is short term but intense as Christmas approaches.
Together Laurie and I volunteer one day a week at Green Hill Lake Camp, a Christian camp for kids, which is also used throughout the year for rental groups and retreats . There is much to be done all year, so I work in the office and Laurie usually works on whatever outdoor project needs to be done, sometimes working in the office as well. I have been acting as Camp “pastor” there for a week almost every summer since 1996.
We are not very great at being handymen, but this fall we faced a challenge in that area and won. We had to put back the interlocking patio stones in our walkway and drive way that were ripped out when we had some work done on our garage. It was kind of like doing a jig saw puzzle except it was necessary to make sure the ground underneath was perfectly flat. We tried to do it perfectly and now that it is covered in snow, it IS perfect :-)
Jill is working for the Federal Government at ACOA on a contract basis that has been extended about 5 times already but no permanent contract has been offered as yet. She enjoys working there and has made some more friends. She also writes online course content for a company called Skillsoft in her spare time. She runs, swims and bikes regularly and entered a triathlon this summer.
Michelle is working with small children, something she has always excelled at. She is working in a Preschool setting and seems to really enjoy the children. We don’t see her often but did have a nice time with her in August when we visited her at her home in Dartmouth. She took us to some nice beaches. One beach on the ocean looked and felt like a tropical beach minus the palm trees. It even had warm water. She and I had great time tubing down a lazy river that flowed into the ocean. Eric was in Alaska and LA at the time. He is always traveling the world going to conferences and speaking at them.
We took two trips last winter. In February we drove to Florida with Ruth and John and stayed with Laurie’s two aunts for a couple of weeks. The highlight of that was taking them to the Kennedy Space Center and touching a real moon rock.
In March we went with the Bensons to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Las Vegas has so much to see! We would walk around all day and evening and just take in the sights. The Grand Canyon is awesome but I was scared because I do not like heights especially when the people I am with are leaning over the edges!
We are now looking forward to our 5 week trip to New Zealand, Fiji and Hawaii in March and April 2010. Our niece, who teaches in Indonesia, is planning to join us for a few days in New Zealand.