Christmas 2020

 

Christmas Greetings to all and best wishes for a much better year in 2021!

Well, this has certainly been an unusual year! As I write this, no one in our family has yet been sick. All our kids and their spouses have remained employed. So, we consider ourselves lucky. That said, we have certainly experienced some disruption.

We began the year with a January trip to Victoria to visit Darren’s family. The boys were in swimming and soccer. Justin was in the chess club and taking karate lessons. Cameron was playing basketball. 

In mid March Darren and the boys came here for a week and that is when all hell broke loose. They had just arrived when all the restrictions were implemented and all the entertainment we had planned closed down. It made for a lot of visiting, but not much activity.

They were all able to make their annual July pilgrimage to the cottage in Ontario because COVID cases were low and they were able to isolate at the cottage. And they were able to visit their Spruston grandparents in Kelowna a couple of times because it only involves in-province travel. We were not as fortunate, however, and have not seen them since their March visit.

Their time in Victoria has ended and they moved back to Vancouver after their Ontario sojourn. They spent their last few weeks on Vancouver Island exploring some of the camping and hiking experiences they had not previously taken in.

The boys’ school in Vancouver is undergoing a “seismic upgrade” (earthquake mitigation), so they walk to their school and are then bused to a temporary replacement school. Soccer and some other activities have resumed. Both boys are in Parkour and Justin is taking Karate on Zoom. Darren and Sue have been primarily working from home throughout the COVID restrictions.

For Cameron’s birthday in September, he received a pet Bearded Dragon lizard that he named Chili Pepper. He was only as big as Cameron’s hand (including tail) when they got him, but he grew quickly. They also became cricket farmers to feed him. Darren set up a web cam so we could watch him eat crickets online. Darren also set up an account on the Discord social media app. The boys can participate on their tablets and we have had some fun exchanges, mostly about Chili. We supplement those with occasional phone calls and Skype calls. Unfortunately, Chili became ill and passed just before Christmas.

Laura has continued to work part time throughout the pandemic with some at-work precautions. She has a new manager that has implemented a more regular schedule. She now works Monday, Thursday, and Friday and covers every third Saturday in another associated pharmacy. This makes for a more consistent schedule for everyone. On workdays, we look after Louisa for the day and the twins after school. Louisa is sure a character and a lot of fun to have around. She especially enjoys “Grandma School” with her classmates Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy. 

All three girls are taking Ukrainian dancing with restrictions on class size and spacing. Louisa is very excited about it and eagerly demonstrates every new step she learns. The twins are taking piano lessons and are doing quite well.

When the schools were closed in March in response to the pandemic, Brett worked from home. He and/or Laura did morning home schooling with the twins, then Brett did online work with his students in the afternoon. He was active with the girls every day from March until the return to school in September and enjoyed it immensely. He started playing hockey again in the fall, but suspended his participation, at least temporarily, in November as COVID cases began to rise.

In February we and Carla and Tyler Joined the Matlocks for the Family Day weekend at the lodge in Cypress Hills. The weather was fabulous, and we all had a lot of fun. 

The Matlocks love their camping. They made three longer excursions – to Madge Lake, Waskesiu, and Cypress Hills – and a few weekend trips. We made a couple of day trips to join them on weekends nearby but did not do any overnight trips with them this year.

As September approached, we discussed the school year ahead with Laura and Brett. Louisa was scheduled for pre-school, but we decided to not risk that exposure. It is a shame, as she is so ready for school, but she will be fine. The school board recommended that, whenever possible, kids who usually ride the school buses should be driven to school to enable better physical distancing. The timing does not work for Laura and Brett when they are both working and Louisa does not like to bundle up twice a day for a short ride, so, I have been driving the twins to and from school every day. I quite enjoy seeing them and having a short visit twice a day. Of course, on Laura’s three working days, we have all three girls for the last 1-1.5 hours until Brett gets home.

With COVID cases rising, the school board decided to revert to home schooling for the week before and the week after the planned Christmas holiday, so we have had a few days of “Grandma and Grandpa school” for the twins. Their teacher sent a bunch of work home with them and every day she sends an online itinerary with what they should be doing that day, including several online exercises. The first day was a challenge figuring out the technology, but we are fumbling along OK now.

Carla and Tyler have also worked through the pandemic. Carla worked from home for the late spring and early summer. She returned to her office in July, but, as case numbers spiked in the late fall, she was again relegated to working from home which, for the most part she prefers. Tyler continued working at the TV station throughout as he must actually handle on-site equipment. They reduced the number of people on site by having other people work from home and took other steps to enable distancing, separate workstations, and clean equipment.

Their biggest story this past year was a non-event. We had booked and paid for a Rhine River cruise for the four of us in June. Carla put in a lot of research to plan what to see and do, but it was eventually canceled, so we will have to plan for it another time.

Tyler has been having trouble with his hips. He recently received a diagnosis, and it is hoped that he can correct the problem with physiotherapy. If not, he may have to have surgery in the future.

Glenn’s Mom is still in her condo, now 94 years old. She keeps pretty much to herself so has kept pretty safe through the pandemic.

We pretty much covered our year in the kids’ stories. We have been staying pretty close to home and not getting out much except for groceries. Celeste did almost all our Christmas shopping online. We normally have all the Regina kids for Supper on Sundays, but we have curtailed that the last few weeks.

Best wishes to all! Keep well! Keep safe!                              Celeste & Glenn