Merry Christmas 2001

Hello and once again I thought I was ahead of the game having 90% of my shopping and out of town deliveries done by Nov. 11. We got the Christmas tree up on Dec. 2 and worked on the rest of the decorations up during the week. Then this weekend we wallpapered the bathroom and today I planned to do our annual letter, but we decided to do a road trip to Kalispell for Chinese food instead. (It’s not Paris for Chateaubriand, but it will do.)   Now sitting here I realize that I have no baking done, my house needs cleaning and I’ve got two last minute parcels to mail off. Oh well, the sun is shining, Grandma Boyle is with us and I’m madly writing on a clipboard.

We started the kids cross-country skiing last January. Mickey’s beginning skills learned in skating carried through and cross-country skiing came very naturally including turning around and getting up. Keelan on the other hand spent as much of his time on the ground as standing, but he never gave up and had a good time anyway. He had the same determination in skating, where he refused to be in the beginners group and insisted on being with his brother. He was often 7 or 8 skills behind but never stopped, never got frustrated and never cheated. His determination earned him the most improved preschool skater award from the Cranbrook Skating Club.

The boys got into swimming this year now that Cranbrook once again has an indoor swimming pool. Both achieved their Level 1 – Keelan at the pool and Mickey up at Loon Lake where there was no chlorine to get in his eyes. They also discovered that waterslides were pretty fun. We have an outdoor one in Cranbrook but then we went to Edmonton and stayed at the Ramada one night where they had two slides. Unfortunately the landing pool was deeper than the kids were tall so Deb walked up the stairs and slid with alternating boys for 2 ½ hours straight. Luckily the outdoor slides in Cranbrook have shallow landings and we can just let them go – Whew.

We had a great holiday in the spring going out to Vancouver Island – where we searched for fossils on the Puntledge River bed, saw giant sea stars, bloodworms and many other wondrous things. (Mickey was in heaven). We had a rolling ferry ride from Port Hardy until we got into the inside passage causing a touch of seasickness in Mickey. He was fine the next morning and was able to enjoy the rest of the ferry ride to Prince Rupert. We toured the K’san Indian Village, and the historic fort at Fort St. James (where the boys learned all about life during the fur trade). Then we were off to Bakerville where both boys had a real shock as to the expectations of a 1900 schoolteacher. (Mickey decided that he far preferred Kootenay Orchard School). Both boys tried their hands at gold panning and had a bit of luck. They learned all about precious stones called “Leaverite” in one of the plays about trying to get mine investors, and Keelan still likes to repeat the punch line – “you know what you do with Leaverite?? – You leave ‘er right there”.

Much of our time this summer was spent out at the cabin. We road our bikes, attempted roller blading, and spent a lot of time at the beach. Deb even tried windsurfing after Pat wrangled a good deal on some used boards, as he wanted the sail for the canoe. Deb’s attempts have been amusing to say the least but at least she has lots of ballast Pat insists. We got the kids canoeing on Mineral Lake one day but as we paddled, we noticed a lot of bottles and cans along the edges. Mindful a always of lessons to be learned, we grabbed a couple of garbage bags and went about fishing, netting and scooping them out of the water. We got three pairs of runners, a pair of sandals, and some other miscellaneous garbage and about $10.00 worth of bottles and cans. It looked a lot better, but as it is a common party spot, I doubt it will stay that way for long.

Keelan has become an avid game player, constantly challenging Grandma Boyle to games of Crazy 8’s, Memory or Pokemon Yahtzee. He’s also begun to really enjoy drawing and coloring and is getting good at staying in the lines. He’s learned to write his name and we’re working on the rest of the alphabet so that he’s ready for kindergarten. Mickey retains his dominance at home with the computer and is learning skills at the interactive games now rather than staying with the experiments and science. Mickey’s kindergarten teacher was wonderful and incorporated lots of science and dinosaurs into the curriculum. Grade 1 thus far is not as exciting; there are a couple of challenging kids and so far no science other than the books he reads. Mickey and Dad are reading Children’s versions of the Classics, which Mickey seems to enjoy. Thus fair they have read Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, Prince and the Pauper.

Deb moved up to a 0.8 position for 3 months this fall as her unit was short staffed. She was able to work her schedule so as to be done at 2:30, 4 out of 5 days so Mickey only has after school care once a week. Keelan went into full time daycare with one day being at a different caregiver. This was a struggle for him so Deb’s glad its over now. The only problem is, she is still has .8 work to do now in .5 time, although some of her work should move to the new employee after Christmas.

The new Campbell government has recently announced a 30% cut to the Ministry that Pat works for. Although there are no particulars at this time (they will probably save this for their Xmas message), things have been fairly stressful. Pat continues to work hard and manages to do more with less staff – however this will not be taken in account – and there is a real possibility that he will probably be out of work – but not for a while. Although this is not settling news, Pat has taken it in stride and is sort of looking forward to a bit of a break when that day comes.

So as you can see – the more things change – the more hectic they become. Despite the challenges we continue to enjoy every minute. We are not sure what the future holds – but we’ll probably continue to take things in stride.

Hopefully this letter finds things well for you and yours. Take care and stay healthy.

Pat, Deb, Mickey and Keelan.