2013 was a particularly hectic year and we have not done an update since January
2013.
- Text mainly by Ingrid. Photography mainly by Terry.
Valentine Dance
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| Team Valentine |
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| Heather, Stephen, Miriam, Geoff |
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| Terry, Ingrid, Grande Amante, Luisa |
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| Feeling the baby kicking |
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| Ingrid and Stephen |
Terry and I have been very involved with the planning and organising the
Marriage Encounter Valentine Dance which was held on February 9th, which also
happened to be in the middle of Miriam and Geoff's packing up for their move to
their new house the next weekend.
The dance
was a great success and for us an opportunity to spend time with family and
friends.
We didn't
know it at the time but this was the first move of four during this year.
Heather and Stephen's ANNOUNCEMENT
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| The Announcement |
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| We finally ate the cake |
Two days
after Stephen's actual birthday on February 22 we all got together for a
birthday lunch at Mark and Luisa's house. Rob and MaryAnn, Heather's parents, were with us too and when the birthday cake was presented it said Happy
Birthday Daddy - their announcement of a baby on the way. While Claire and
Jonty were staring mournfully at this magnificent cake ( when are we going to
get some?? ) the adults were running
around the table congratulating the new parents to be and each other.
Easter
Egg Hunt
Heather
and Reinier Visit
Two weeks
later my brother Reinier and sister-in-law Heather arrived in Canada from
Scotland. Heather was involved in a conference but Reinier spent time with us
in Holland Landing. We did manage to get together with most of the family and
Heather at Miriam and Geoff' home on the Sunday before Heather left for Ottawa
to do some research. Reinier endeared himself to Claire and Jonty, allowing
them to explore animal sounds on his cell phone.
Caitlyn's
Birthday
We celebrated Caitlyn's first birthday in April. It was a fun day and had a surprise visit from Luisa's Mom, Connie, who was on her way to Portugal and had enough time between two flights to spend some time with
us.
Welcome
Gabi
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| Gabi getting Claire-love |
Our next
big event was the
birth of little
Gabriela Elizabeth on May 3. Like her brother Jonty she decided to come
three weeks early. Her second name Elizabeth is after Aunty Bessie who was very
pleased with the choice. On June 2 we had a " Meet Gabi " event and apart from it being
another family gathering it was a great opportunity to meet some of Mark and
Luisa's friends from Peterborough.
Sean and
Judith Move
At some
point around this time Judith was finishing her exams and preparing to move to
a one bedroom basement apartment in Mark D's sister's house in Toronto. This
would make commuting to her first chiropractic placement much easier than from
her place in North York. If I remember correctly Sean had moved to his new
place in the city by then -what I remember most from that was unloading
furniture in the rain .
Toronto had more rain in 2013 than I can remember in the 15 years we have been
here - many floods and rivers in our garden. I think around this time Stephen and Heather also announced that they
were looking for a house to buy.
Father's
Day Work Party
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| Mark M, Mark D, Sean, Stephen |
On
Father's day we had a work party at our house to shingle the garden shed. This
had been planned on two previous occasions but rain (what's new?) and a downed
tree forced us to change the plans both times. Finally it got done and it looks
great! Thank you, all!
Aunty
Bessie R.I.P.
On June
30 we sadly said goodbye to Aunty Bessie. She died peacefully at the age of 97
while praying with our friend Pat who had been staying with her when she became
critically ill. Aunty Bessie didn't want to go to hospital or Frail Care and
she died in her own bed as she had always hoped she would. Although our hearts
were sore, we were grateful that her death was so peaceful. She was a most
amazing , happy, content and spiritual woman and will always occupy a special
place in our heart. Her name lives on in our sweet little Gabriela Elizabeth.
Terry left for South Africa the next day and spent two weeks sorting out the
estate and arranging the funeral and a memorial service at the retirement village where she lived. He managed to see some of our friends
who also very kindly gave him a place to stay while there. For photos and more comment see
Elizabeth (Aunty Bessie) Sessler 1916-4-27 - 2013-6-30 R.I.P.
Claire's
Birthday
Terry
missed Claire's third birthday party because he was in SA as well as my aunt
and uncle's 60th wedding anniversary which we celebrated at the annual Holst
picnic (my side of the family in Canada).
Visit
from South Africa
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| Anne and Barbara |
On July
15 I met my friend Barbara Miller who came to spend a month in Canada staying
with another friend. While she was still planning the trip Barbara connected
with us and I was able to take some days off work to spend time with her.
Barbara is one of my oldest friends from my university days; we shared our
first apartment away from home and although we had lost contact for quite some
time it was so easy to pick up the thread again, it was quite amazing. The next
week Barbara and her sister Anne came to spend a few days in Holland Landing.
We took a trip around the
Holland Marsh, went to Peterborough for a day and
visited
St Marie Among the Hurons. Barbara does beautiful beadwork and
Newmarket happens to have a well known bead shop,
That Bead Lady, which we
visited too.
Heather
and Stephen Move
Heather
and Stephen moved into their new home on August 1. Terry and I went to help
them the next day. It is a beautiful century home close to the hospital where
Heather works and not even 10 minutes drive from Stephen`s work which means
that it is also really close to Mark and Luisa.
Ingrid's
Birthday
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| Discovery Harbour |
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| Musket drill |
On my
birthday, Terry and I went to visit Discovery Harbour in Penetanguishene. We
had planned to take more time off around that time but by then we knew that
Terry`s work was coming to an end and we thought it would be better to have a
break then.
Retirement
- sort of
September
6 was Terry`s last day at GE and he
officially retired. This is not going to be the end of work however. Terry has taken some courses for additional certifications and has registered his own company
with a view to doing quality management and ISO consulting. It certainly does feel like the end of an
era for us - and the start of a new adventure.
Baby
Shower
The next
day we had the baby shower for Heather and Stephen in Peterborough with a get
to know the down-town scavenger hunt arranged by Luisa.
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| Peterborough Liftlock Boat Cruise |
On Sunday
we went on the
Liftlock Cruise courtesy of Mark and Luisa - watching Jonty was a
delight.
Gananoque
The day
after, Terry and I went on a three day tour to
Gananoque and Thousand Islands.
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| Osprey Squatters nest |
We did a Thousand
Island boat tour
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| Sky Deck Selfie |
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| St Lawrence from Sky Deck |
...and viewed the St Lawrence river and islands from the Sky Deck
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| The Socialist Pig Coffeehouse |
...and had some great meals and coffee and walks around the picturesque town of
Gananoque. We can recommend The Socialist Pig Coffeehouse.
I had taken the rest of the week off too and when we came back we spent it doing some
planning and talking about our new "state of life."
Lachlan
James. Ta-da!
That
weekend we were back in Peterborough babysitting Jonty for Mark and Luisa`s
annual Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. When Stephen and Heather arrived for dinner
on Friday evening Heather announced that she was maybe going into labour.
During dinner it became obvious that she was definitely going into labour and
we had Heather bouncing off the walls with excitement while Stephen appeared to
be in shock ( not surprising as this was three weeks ahead of due date).
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| Lachlan James, Daddy Stephen, Mommy Heather |
Stephen had
arranged for somebody to fix their hot water heater which had stopped working
and another company to install new shutters the next day; now it seemed that
they would be spending their time at the hospital having a baby. We changed our arrangements so as to
babysit Jonty at their house and supervise workers and by the time that was all
done
Lachlan James was born on
September 14.
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| Lachlan meets his cousins |
Grandparents,
uncles, aunts and cousins all descended upon the hospital for the next two days
- much noise and activity to the consternation of some nurses but Lachlan took
it all in stride and slept through it all.
More
birthdays
Next
weekend we were again back in Peterborough (maybe we should move there) for
Mark`s birthday - family, friends, more children -about 50 people in all.
The
day after it was Miriam's birthday celebration which we celebrated with
breakfast - all the McCanns slept over at the two houses.
Thanksgiving
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| Cousins in a wigwam |
On
October 13, a whole 3 weeks later, we were back at Stephen and Heather`s house
for Thanksgiving which they hosted with contributions to the meal from
everybody and, especially, Stephen who, contrary to the Canadian tradition of
turkey, made the most delicious lamb roast and ham. Nobody complained.
After the huge meal we all went for a walk in a nearby parkland where the kids found the remnants of somebody's wigwam. Scouts?
The rest of the year
Life slowed down as we settled in with babies, Terry's studies and preparations for his consulting business and my ongoing work.
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| Reading the rhyme |
In the beginning of December we celebrated Sinterklaas, Terry wrote his Six Sigma Green Belt exam and of course... more birthdays.
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| Jonty got a fishing rod |
Jonty turned 3, preparations for Christmas and trips to Winnipeg ( Luisa and kids) and SA (Mark for Pieter Grootes' wedding) kept us all busy.
Christmas and The Ice Storm
On the night of Dec 21-22 an ice storm hit Toronto and surrounding areas and created havoc, loss of power for more than a million people and roads that were blocked by fallen trees. We were lucky - although we could not get out of our driveway for a day and one of our trees split in half and crashed, we still had power.
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| Ice Beauty in our back yard |
Miriam and Geoff and the girls came to stay from Monday onwards as they lost their power and by then their house was getting too cold. The plan was to have Christmas here instead of at their house but plans were reversed again when their hydro was restored on Tuesday. Many families still had no power during Christmas, some even beyond New Year.
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| Christmas Dinner |
Geoff's parents came from Ottawa and I think it is true to say that I have never had such a tender and succulent turkey as the one Geoff prepared that day.
The next day Terry and I spent the day with Stephen and Heather and her parents, Rob and MaryAnn, at their farm at Lafontaine. The trip from our house to theirs is about an hour and thirty minutes and the scenery was just too beautiful. Being further north, while they did have some ice , they did not have the devastation but rather a lot more snow.
Stephen took Terry for a ride on Rob's new toy along the local snowmobile trail. As Stephen was driving Terry managed to take some video footage of the beautiful trail.
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| Winter stroll |
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| Lachlan asleep on his sled |
That night Stephen, Heather and Lachlan came to our house and stayed with us. The next day we all went for a walk with Lachlan all bundled up on the sled - he slept the whole time.
On New Year's eve Terry and I went to a dinner and dance with friends at the parish hall.
Happy New Year everybody!!
I had
taken a few days off the following week and spent a very enjoyable day with
Reinier at the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum). The next day Reinier and I went to Peterborough from where he took the
bus to Ottawa to meet up with Heather. The next weekend we did the same
arrangement in reverse and on our way back to Holland Landing we stopped at
Leaskdale, a little hamlet north of Uxbridge where Lucy M Montgomery (Ann of
Green Gables) lived for, I think, 9 years. The house was locked but when we
went to the church just down the road we happened to meet a member of the LMM
Society who offered to go home to get the keys so that we could have a look. A
small group of Leaskdale residents are working hard to restore the house and
church where LMM's husband was the minister and from where she did a lot of her
writing. Heather has done some research into LMM and the visit was quite
special for her.
