Best wishes to all for a joyous Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year!!
Our family’s big adventure this year was a trip to Orlando theme parks in February. The Regina gang went for two weeks, but the Vancouver gang could only get away for the first week. To get the whole story and many pictures go to https://celesteglenn.blogspot.com/
We drove to Mandan, North Dakota, in July for the weekend convention of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society. We always learn something new and interesting there. This year I found the marriage record for Grandpa and Grandma Schwartz that I have been seeking for over 30 years. It is a long story that only a genealogist could love so I will spare you. But I will be glad to tell you if you want to ask.
Our only other long distance travels this year were to Vancouver. We were there with the boys for the weekend after Easter while Darren and Sue escaped for an anniversary weekend at Whistler. We were going to try for another visit at the end of June, but the timing between the end of school and their leaving for Ontario did not work out. We visited again in October for a weekend. The time flies by on those weekends between the boys’ activities and their school homework.
While we did not get to Vancouver in the summer, our boys were able to come here in August. The Matlock girls also took part in most of our activities. We escaped from an escape room, went to a movie theatre, took a day trip to Buffalo Pound Provincial Park, did a short shopping trip, watched a Regina Thunder junior football game, did a hike, streamed a movie, went to the Science Centre and IMAX movie, and to the Royal Sask. Museum. We ate out or ordered in most of the time and enjoyed several treats.
I still walk the girls to the school bus every morning. Celeste and I walk them home after school and stay with them until Mom or Dad gets home. It is a joy to see them almost every day. Laura drops off our grand dog on her way to work in the morning and the dog spends the day with us. She is so funny and full of energy. Very entertaining, but a bit of a pest wanting us to play with her all the time.
Other than our interactions with our kids and grandkids, our lives are pretty dull. We both spend a lot of time online, largely keeping up with current events. We watch a bit of TV and streaming. Celeste also follows a lot of Instagram accounts for education and entertainment. I read a lot of financial and genealogical material. I still run the Zichydorf Village Association and its web site. In February we migrated our ZVA site to a new provider. While another volunteer did the technical work, I managed the content. It was a big chore learning how the new site works. Every few weeks I get a request to help someone out with their genealogy and sometimes I even get to work on my own.
We subscribe to a couple of symphony series for a dozen performances a year. The symphony has been struggling to get people back ever since Covid and has been asking for donations. We decided that, instead of donating, we would buy two extra seats and invite family to join us. If we have not asked you yet we may get to you later.
We still have Roughrider season tickets, but Celeste does not go anymore so I take different family members to the games. I also go to most Regina Rams and Regina Thunder games with cousin Larry. We did a U of R Cougars men and women basketball doubleheader last winter and will likely do a couple more in the season just started.
Tragedy struck our extended family in June when our nephew, Colin Montgomery, son of my sister Gail, passed unexpectedly from a ruptured aortic aneurysm. In September Gail was diagnosed with incurable but treatable cancer. So far, her treatments are helping her feel better without severe side effects.
The big news in Carla and Tyler’s life is that Tyler got a promotion at Global TV. He was mostly involved in the technical side of putting together the suppertime and late-night local news and worked from 2 PM to 11 PM. He is now the producer responsible for selecting the stories and writing the intros read by the anchors. The real appeal is the change in hours to 10 AM to 7 PM so they will now have most of their evenings together. Carla is still with the provincial Ministry of Education supporting their network.
They rented a cabin in Waskesiu for several days this summer followed by a couple of days a little farther southeast at Candle Lake where one of Carla’s co-workers had invited the rest of the crew for a weekend getaway.
Darren’s family has been busy traveling this past year. They finished last year with Christmas skiing at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where Sue’s sister’s family has a house. The whole gang joined us for a week in Orlando in February. The boys visited Sue’s parents in Kelowna for a week on their school break in March. Justin and Sue went on a school trip to Vancouver Island the last week in April. As usual, they spent three weeks at the Spruston family cottage in Ontario. The boys were here for a week in late August. Justin (grade 9) and Cameron (grade 8) are now both in high school and took a school trip to Alberta in late September visiting Banff, Calgary, the Tyrrell dinosaur museum in Drumheller, and Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump near Fort Macleod. They all went to Kelowna for Thanksgiving and joined Sue’s parents for several days in Palm Desert in November. They will all be here for a week right after Christmas. And, of course, they always manage to squeeze in a few weekends at Whistler, including Easter weekend. It all makes me tired just thinking about it.
Sue still works for AECOM on water and sewer projects. She works from home as much as possible but must be in the office a few days a week. She was in Salt Lake City and Chicago for work this year. Darren splits his time about 50/50 between home and downtown office. He had an interesting five-day trip to Mexico where his company is building a new copper mine. He and a few other people from his company and a consulting company traveled around by private jet investigating transportation and port options for the mine. He also made another trip to Tucson in June to meet with the consultants. His main job now is pulling together the operating plans of the different mine components into an overall master plan and costing it out.
The boys are both doing very well in school. They still play soccer – a game and two practices per week. They also like to take in a few Vancouver Whitecaps games during their season. Justin now has his blue belt in karate and helps coach the beginner kids. The boys both took a soccer referees course and can ref games for 10 and under. At school they are taking band class. Cameron plays the tuba and Justin plays the euphonium, which is like a small tuba.
Laura was working a few extra hours for the first part of the year – three full days a week at her store and a couple of days a week filling in at another store owned by her boss. She got a surprise in September when the manager of her store decided to move on to another opportunity. The owner asked her to take over as manager, but she was reluctant at first. She was content just being a pharmacist and did not have a dream to take on the responsibility and headaches of being a manager. However, with her hours at the other store being uncertain, the certainty of five days a week and a nice raise convinced her to give it a try starting in mid-October. So far, so good.
Brett is still at the same school teaching grade 8. He is busy in the fall coaching flag football, and volleyball, but by putting in his time in the fall, he has less of a load for the rest of the year. He still plays hockey about once a week in winter and baseball/softball occasionally in summer.
A big event for the girls was that they were all baptized this year and the twins received their first communion. The evening preparation classes were a big time commitment for the twins and mom and dad.
The twins
are in grade 5 and Louisa is in grade 2. They all enjoy school and are doing
well. They all really love to read.
They all take piano lessons and Ukrainian dance class.
The twins are in Girl Guides and Louisa is in Embers, the new name for Brownies. They quite enjoy these activities too. This year they are all taking swimming lessons too. They camped for a week at Waskesiu and a week at Clear Lake in Manitoba plus a couple of weekends at Buffalo Pound.
At the end of the summer the Vogelsangs (Celeste’s sister and brother-in-law) decided to sell their Chevrolet Tahoe full-size SUV. The Matlocks’ van was near its towing limits pulling their trailer, so they decided to buy the Tahoe for its greater towing capacity. Then, with the new ride, they decided they could use a bigger trailer as their existing one was getting cramped for their growing family. They found a used trailer similar to their old one but with an extra pull-out queen bed. After selling their car and old trailer their investment was not unreasonable. Thanks so much to Greg V. for looking after every detail to make sure the Tahoe is as trouble free as possible.
There was one other major event in the Matlocks life. They got a puppy in March (born in January).
She spends her weekdays at our place while they are all at school and work. She is getting pretty big but still has the energy of a puppy. She is quite a pest trying to get us to play with her, but lots of fun.
Best wishes to all for 2024! Take care. Keep well. Glenn & Celeste
