...and a Happy New Year

It's difficult to believe that we are already at the end of the second week of January. I hope and pray for all of us that 2008 will be a good year.

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.

Long Overdue Update

Obviously a lot has happened since my last update so I will NOT attempt to fill you in on too many boring details. What follows is in the disorder in which things come to my mind rather than trying to maintain a chronological sequence.

Judith's first round of semi-annual tests were all negative which means she is still cancer free after six months. We continue to thank God for the wonders of modern medical technology. Right now she is totally preoccupied with getting herself ready to go to Queens University in Kingston, Ontario to begin studying Physical Education/Kinesiology. Queens is where Mark got his electrical engineering degree and where Stephen will be going into his final year of mechanical engineering. It's almost 300 km east of Toronto on Lake Ontario - a three hour drive by car from where we live.

By sheer coincidence (?) Judith's boyfriend (also Mark) will also be going to Queens to study mechanical engineering.

OFSAA Award for Judith
In June, at the end of year Athletic Banquet at Denison High, Judith was awarded the OFSAA Award for field hockey by the York Region Athletic Association. OFSAA is the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations. The award reads in part: Congratulations on being selected by the YRAA Association as the recipient of the "360 Athletics - All Round Field Hockey Student Athlete Award." This award represents your positive attitude, fair play, dedication, and leadership throughout the entire Field Hockey season. We thank you for your hard work on and off the field.

Nine Years In Canada
On 21 July it was exactly 9 years since I landed in Canada. Ingrid, Judith and Stephen will be celebrating their 9 year anniversary of landing this week on 25 August.

On August 11 the Holst family - Ingrid's uncle, Oom Joop, and aunt, Tante Ria, cousins and their children and grandchildren - held their 12th Annual Holst Picnic at Gulliver's Lake in the Hamilton area of Ontario. This will be the 8th year that we have gone to be together with them for the occasion.

We have a store not far from where we live that sells egte boerewors (farmers' sausage) from a South African butcher so it's a great opportunity to make the most of the excellent braai (BBQ) that Herb has made from a half drum and charcoal fire.

Ingrid and Tante Ria sharing a joke.

On the same day as the Holst Picnic, Stephen and his girlfriend, Heather, went to Canada's Wonderland to cool off in the waterworld. I don't know what they weren't thinking but instead of putting their stuff in a locker they just left it on the grass while they went to have fun in the water. When they came out they were amazed and dismayed to find that somebody had walked off with their rucksack containing all their clothes, cash, credit cards and not one, not two, not three, but four pairs of prescription glasses, including 2 pairs of prescription sunglasses. Luckily for them the thieves were only after the cash and the following day Stephen received a call that his kit bag had turned up - minus wallet. Quite a shock for a South African to discover there are actually criminals in Canada!

Beginnings of a prostate saga
Blood tests that I have had over the past four years have shown above normal PSA levels in my prostate - indicative of possible cancer of the prostate. Further examinations and tests were unable to confirm anything until this April when one of ten biopsy needles showed very slow-growing cancer cells in 5% of the specimen. For the grade of cancer cell that was found it will likely be a number of years before any medical intervention is indicated so I have opted not to do anything radical for the moment but to wait and see what the tests show in 6 months time and take it 6 months at a time. Meanwhile I am watching my diet, taking exercise and rest and have put myself on some supplements that are supposed to be prostate friendly :-)

In July Mark and Luisa, who have been in Holland for the past seven months, went camping with Vincent and Jeroen and their families. Here are all the happy campers. I suppose Luisa was taking the picture. She is returning to Canada at the end of this month to begin her Masters at the University of Toronto.