Christmas 2014

2014 Season’s Greetings

from the Glenn Schwartz family

We hope this message finds you happy and healthy and as grateful as we are for another good year.

First, congratulations to Canada Post! After many years of failing to deter us from sending Christmas cards, the most recent rate hikes have pushed us over the edge. Beginning this year we will email our Christmas letter and post pictures on our blog. We will save our cards and stamps for the handful of you that do not have email. If you receive our card, but you have an email address, please send us your email at gschwartz@myaccess.ca. With the new economical delivery system we have added some names to our list. If you are among our newbies, we hope that you will share your year with us too.

I suppose the first order of business should be to update you all on the health of Glenn’s Dad. You may recall that at the time of last year’s letter (early December) he had been in and out of hospital with hallucinations and disorientation. He was back at home and seemed to be on the road to recovery. 

Over last Christmas and New Year’s he was back in hospital with more hallucinations and disorientation and low blood pressure. We surmised that the problem was a build-up of the shingles pain medication. They were also giving him anti-psychotics because of his agitated state. We convinced the doctors to take him off the pain killers and then the anti-psychotics. He again seemed to be on the road to recovery when he started having mini-strokes. He was in and out of hospital a couple of times in January. The doctor put him on warfarin to combat the strokes and by the end of January he seemed near normal. Because of the frequent recurrence of his symptoms, the hospital social worker said he could not go home and Mom was also uncertain of how she could manage him at home, so he went into a private care home at the beginning of February. There he did very well, had no more episodes, and Mom took him home at the end of March. Since then he has been his old self and has even been taken off the warfarin.  Good news at last! He is not spry, walking stiffly and mostly using a walker, but he is all there again. He is celebrating his 89^th birthday as I write this on December 15.

Dad's 89th birthday party with hangers on from October and November.

Glenn’s Mom’s health has been pretty good, although she was pretty worn down by Dad’s difficulties at the beginning of the year. She is now the family driver, as Dad lost his license a couple of years ago due to poor vision. Celeste’s Mom is also doing well living at home, although she still misses driving.

Carla is still with CGI Group in Regina maintaining networks for corporate customers. She seems to enjoy the work but she gets exasperated by people who do not meet her exacting standards. Tyler still looks after the home front while engaging in many part time jobs. He gets quite a few one-day gigs helping to produce content for SaskTel’s community channel; he works for TSN at ‘Rider games; and he filled in several weeks at SCN (Sask. Communications Network) for a fellow who was off on sick leave. Another new and interesting opportunity surfaced through his brother, who recently became a liquor company representative. Tyler helps him out occasionally with tasting sessions. Carla and Tyler quite enjoy their downtown lifestyle and like to try out all the pubs and restaurants. Their big adventure this year was a trip to Fargo, ND, this summer for several days of shopping and trying out new restaurants and pubs. They won’t be with us for Christmas this year. They will be visiting Tyler’s Mom and Step-Dad in Yuma, Tyler’s Dad and Step-Mom in San Diego, and a friend in Palm Springs.

Darren’s family could not be with us for Christmas last year, so they came in February instead. We celebrated Christmas again, included Justin in the February birthday celebrations (complete with a bowling night),

 had a waterslide party at a hotel,

gave the bouncy castle a workout,

and other assorted activities.

In June, Darren and Sue received a short notice opportunity to go sailing for a few days on a friend’s sailboat, so we flew out there to sit on the boys for a few days. They were not able to stop in Regina on their way home from the Ontario cottage at the end of July, so we drove out there. More on that later.

Justin started full time kindergarten this year, but, because the teachers were on strike, he started a few weeks late.

It seemed a little weird for him to be at home while his little brother was in playschool three mornings a week. When Justin started school, it was quite an adjustment for Cameron, but I am sure he will get used to it. I think he will appreciate his private time with Mom. Both boys are in swimming; Justin played a version of T-ball and some soccer.

Cameron does gymnastics – we sometimes refer to him as Darren 2.0 when we see him in action.

And the whole family does quite a bit of skiing in the winter.

In August Sue resigned from her job to spend more time with the boys at home before they are both in school full time. Meanwhile, their nanny Simona found another family that needs her. She still lives in their downstairs suite.

They are pretty much done with the basic renovations of their house, but they still have a couple of projects in mind. They are building a room in the attic as a den and storage area. They need the storage space because they plan to build another bedroom in the storage/workshop area on the bottom floor.

Here are some more pictures from their year.

Laura’s and Brett’s lives have, of course, revolved around their twins. Brett has managed to squeeze in a bit of hockey and Laura has done some dancing and yoga, but they mostly stay pretty close to home. They did manage one weekend away with the girls at a B&B in Saskatoon and bravely flew and drove with the twins to spend a week at Sue’s family cottage in Ontario in July.

The twins are now walking confidently and picking up new words every day. They are a constant source of entertainment and joy. It is amazing to watch their daily progress.

Brett continues teaching at St. Matthew School in Regina. He has a straight grade 8 this year. Laura started back to work at a small independent pharmacy part time – two and, sometimes, three days a week. There are no evenings and no Sundays, so it was a perfect fit for her. We watch the girls on weekdays, usually Monday and Wednesday. Brett takes over whenever she works a Saturday.

More pictures from their year.

Christmas 2013:

 January

 Valentine's Day

March

April

May (Grandma and Annabelle in prison garb.)

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Our year has been busy, as usual. I took another group tour to Europe for three weeks in June. I had discovered some new places on the family tree that I wanted to visit, so I thought I would lead one last tour. Unfortunately, by the time I fit in everyone else’s requests, I had to drop most of mine. I would like to go back again sometime, but privately, to go where I want to go. 

When I got back from Europe Celeste was already gone to Vancouver to babysit Darren’s boys.

I stayed home a couple of days to take in a concert by “Heart” that we had bought tickets to before the Vancouver plans unfolded. I took my sister Cheryl on Celeste’s ticket, and then joined Celeste in Vancouver for a few days. We also flew to Vancouver for a few days in April,

 while Sue was at a conference in Halifax, and again in November.

We also took a driving trip to the west coast in July. I had always been curious about Spokane, Washington. This year the Germans from Russia Heritage Society held their annual convention there, so I talked Celeste into going and combining it with a trip to Vancouver. We stopped in Cypress Hills along the way,

spent a few days in Spokane,

and then went on to Vancouver where we took the boys camping.

We have been flying, rather than driving through the mountains, for several years, so I quite enjoyed driving again. The highway is much improved with many passing lanes and some stretches of four-lane road. And all the trailers are now pulled by powerful pickup trucks, so you don’t get the long lines of backed up traffic that used to be so prevalent.

In September I attended a genealogical conference in Oregon where I gave a presentation on our European trip. The main reason I wanted to go this year was because the Serbian guide I have used on all four of my group tours was also speaking. I was looking forward to a more social encounter with him than our usual “business” trips, but he was so busy all weekend that it really did not pan out that way. Unfortunately, I missed the twins’ birthday party, arriving home that evening after all the festivities.

In entertainment news, in addition to the “Heart” concert mentioned previously, we also took in “ZZ Top” in March at the new Moose Jaw arena with Ron and Cheryl, “Nitty Gritty Dirt Band” at Casino Regina in October, and “Dralion” by Cirque de Soleil in December.

We invested in a new van in October. We still loved our 1998 Astro van and the body and interior were in great shape, but it needed a few things mechanically. We figured if we did everything that needed doing, it would still only be worth the money we sank into the repairs. We really wanted to find something with All-Wheel-Drive. The only van that has it is one of the Toyota versions and there were some things about it that we didn’t like. The SUVs we looked at did not have the interior room we wanted. So we finally settled on a 2014 Chrysler Town and Country. I like it pretty well, but I am already missing the AWD.

For 2015 we are planning a few days in Las Vegas just before Celeste’s 60^th birthday, then a family week in Puerto Vallarta in February, followed by a Danube River cruise in June. Should be fun!

If you absolutely must see more of our Spokane trip, go to http://celesteglenn.blogspot.ca/

For more about my European trip, go to  http://2014banat.blogspot.ca/

Best wishes for the Christmas season and throughout the New Year!

Glenn, Celeste, & Family