Christmas Roundup.
It was a wonderful Christmas for Ingrid and me, being the first time since coming to Canada that we had the whole family together for Christmas Eve Mass, opening of the gifts, and dinner on Christmas Day. In addition we had two "significant others": Geoff and Mark Dank (the Tank). Luisa made a full (computer) screen cameo appearance from Winnipeg into our living room on Christmas Eve courtesy of Skype, Mark's laptop and our wireless router.
Our family has always opened presents on Christmas Eve. This was made possible by the fact that, while Santa Clause goes to the houses of our friends on Christmas Eve, he and Sinterklaas (St Nicholas) have an arrangement whereby Sinterklaas comes to our house on a weekend close to December 6 while on Christmas Eve Santa goes to the other houses that Sinterklaas did not visit previously. This made total sense to our kids from when they were young enough to know what was fair. The main, practical benefit is obvious - parents get to sleep in on Christmas morning. The other big spin-off for us was that Christmas has always been about the birth of the infant Jesus in the stable at Bethlehem, and not about Father Christmas. We give Christmas presents after singing carols on Christmas eve because we want to celebrate the birthday of Christ - and everybody knows you celebrate birthdays with gift giving...
Stephen, Heather, Ingrid and Judith in our lounge on the occasion of Sinterklaas.
Our Christmas crib.
Good News from Judith and Terry.
In November I went to the urologist for my 6-monthly visit to check up on the cancer in my prostate. He and I were very pleased that my PSA levels had actually dropped by 40%. I attribute this to 3 things: prayer, diet, and the cocktail of vitamins and minerals that I have been taking daily.
On January 2 Judith went to see her oncologist for her 6-monthly visit and was also given the good news to come back again in six months. We all had a bit of a reaction when the hospital phoned this last week for Judith to have a test this month. We all thought, "Oh no. What have they found?" However it proved to be that the person who booked the test had not read the order correctly and was only supposed to book the test for June.
When Judith and Ingrid came back from the oncologist they went and had their hair done!
Quick Summary of "the kids"
Mark is now back from Holland and has found a place to stay downtown Toronto within walking distance of where Miriam is staying. He continues to work at his old job in Newmarket.
Next month Sean will move out of our home to a place not far from Miriam and Mark.
Also next month, Miriam will be starting a new job having accepted a social work position at The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. This month will see her finish her MA practicum at CAMH. We are all very excited for her.
Judith and Stephen are both at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Stephen is finishing his final year mechanical engineering this May. Judith will finish her first year of Phys Ed at that time.
Canadian Weather.
Canadians love to talk about the weather and this winter has provided us with lots to talk about. January is normally the "heavy" snowfall month of the winter season. This winter, we had more snow in December than in an average January. One dumping left more snow on the ground than any snowfall since a century record breaker in January of 1999 and temperatures plummeted to -22 deg C. OK, I know Mark's girlfriend, Luisa, is howling with laughter because that is "nothing" in Winnipeg but for a Seffrican Canadian in Toronto that is COLD! We had a 5 foot (150 cm) bank of snow down the side of our drive way - hand shovelled by Sean and myself.
Yours faithfully - the intrepid snow shoveller.
Snowman built in our backyard three days before Christmas - the day before this picture was taken - looking somewhat the worse for wear. Note the nose and pipe and some buttons lying on the ground. These, and the eyes, were given to Mark by his boss' family for Sinterklaas while he was still in Holland.
Snow bank piled up in front of our deck on New Year's Day.
There is a fascinating beauty about snow that collects on branches.
I really do love the "cake icing" effect.
Barely 3 weeks later, and one week after another huge dumping on New Year (see pics,) we had record highs in the teens which melted almost all the snow and brought out the skunks to sacrifice their lives as road kill as they always do in the spring.
Decomposed remains of a once proud snowman.
