Best wishes to all for the Christmas season and in the New Year!!
We only got to Vancouver twice this year, in April and November,
but the boys were here for almost a week in August. We took in the Queen City Ex with the Matlocks, saw a ‘Rider game, did a hike, went to the Wascana pool and waterslide, went to the farmers’ market, and toured the provincial legislature.
Our routine has not changed much. 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 gift to be able to see them almost every day. Laura drops off our grand dog on her way to work and the dog spends the day with us.
Other than our interactions with our kids and grandkids, our lives are pretty quiet. 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, news, political, and genealogical material. I still run the Zichydorf Village Association and its web site. 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. Instead of donating to their appeals, we buy two extra seats and invite family to join us. We have taken our local kids, siblings and their spouses, and a couple of cousins so far.
We still have Roughrider season tickets and Celeste has resumed going to the games. She had found that climbing the stairs or the ramp to our seats made her feel unwell but has discovered that the elevator is quite accessible. Glenn also goes to most Regina Rams and Regina Thunder games with cousin Larry. They 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.
We made our annual pilgrimage to Cypress Hills for the Family Day long weekend in February with Carla and Tyler and the Matlocks. The weather was quite tolerable this year and we were able to get outside quite a bit in addition to doing several jigsaw puzzles.
Glenn also made a whirlwind overnight trip to Winnipeg in May for a gathering of retired Air Traffic Controllers. It was a pleasure to visit with old friends and acquaintances from forty years ago.
Carla is still with the provincial Ministry of Education supporting their network. Tyler has been in his new job as producer of Global TV’s local suppertime news for a year now. He is enjoying the new position and they are both especially happy that his new hours leave his evenings free after 7 pm. They very much appreciate their downtown lifestyle, trying out all the neighbourhood restaurants and bars. They traded in their Kia for a lease on a BMW SUV last year. They spent a camping weekend at Candle Lake in August again this year with Carla’s workmates. Their focus these days is planning another trip to Japan in April.
Last year Darren and Sue and boys were in Kelowna for
Christmas with Sue’s parents and joined us the following week over New Years.
This year they are joining us over Christmas and will visit Sue’s family over
New Years.
They took two big family trips this year. They spent almost two
weeks in March and April in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. They had some
unique experiences and sent back some very interesting pictures.
In late August they went to Italy for the wedding of Simona, who was au pair for the boys when they were small. She still lives in Vancouver and so does her husband, but all her family is still in Italy. Again, they had some cool experiences and sent some great pictures.
In the fall the boys went on separate school trips. Justin spent a week in Tofino, but nearly constant rain limited what they could do. Cameron was in Victoria for a week, visiting museums and doing walking tours. They took their usual trip to the family cottage for most of July
and the boys were her for a week in August. Darren and Sue took advantage of their absence to take a romantic hike for two up Mount Baker in Washington state, just southeast of Abbotsford BC .
Justin (grade 10) and Cameron (grade 9) are both doing very well in school. They did not have music in the fall semester, but in the New Year they will be in band again, Cameron on tuba and Justin on euphonium. Justin is still taking karate and helping teach the beginners. He has his blue belt but has been told that he should be able to skip purple all the way up to brown by summer. They are both still involved in soccer, especially Cameron. They all also like to take in occasional Vancouver Whitecaps games and go skiing at Whistler a few times in the winter.
Darren and Sue both work from home as much as possible, but both must be in the office two or three days a week. Sue has not traveled much for work this year, just one trip to Salt Lake City. Most of her work is currently local, focused on sewage plants for North Vancouver and Vancouver. Darren is still working on planning a copper mine in Mexico. He has regular online collaborations with others in his company, others in his company’s partner, and consultants in Tucson, Arizona. For the last few months, he has been traveling to Tucson for about a week per month and now ramping up to two weeks per month. The project is now in transition to where the partner will be taking a larger role, and Darren will be virtually the only one from his company still involved.
Laura has been store manager for just over a year now and has settled in nicely. It comes with some inconveniences but has some benefits too. The first half of the year had some uncertainty as one pharmacist was on long term sick leave while another wanted to retire. It all resolved about mid-year when the person on sick leave recovered and returned to work.
Brett is teaching grade 8 at a school a short commute from home. He coached touch football and volleyball in the fall, building up some comp time to take when needed. He has no coaching commitments for the second half of the year. He also coached a club volleyball team in the spring in which the twins also participated.
Matlocks spent much of the summer camping, as usual. They
spent a week in Cypress Hills in July and a week in Kananaskis, west of
Calgary, in August as well as a couple of weekends at Buffalo Pound, west of
Regina.
Annabelle and Charlotte are now in grade six and Louisa in grade three. The twins are in band this year and participated in a pre-Christmas concert despite having only about three months of experience. Annabelle is playing clarinet and Charlotte is percussion. The twins also participated in Improv this school year and the Battle of the Books last school year. Their school finished first in the city (for Separate Schools) in Improv.
In Battle of the Books teams of four students all read the same few books and answer questions about them while gathered in a gym. Despite being short a teammate and being grade fives competing against grade sevens and eights, our girls finished in the top three. Charlotte also participated in triple jump and Annabelle in high jump. Annabelle was one of only two girls to clear the starting bar. All three girls are in Ukrainian dance twice a week and piano lessons. Louisa is in Embers (was Brownies) and the twins are in Girl Guides.
Laura and Brett both dealt with some health issues this year. For some time Laura had felt that she had a constriction in her throat and had a persistent urge to cough. She finally received a diagnosis that she had scar tissue in her throat from some long-ago trauma. On November 12 she had a procedure in Saskatoon in which a laser in her throat cut through the scar tissue. Then a balloon was inflated in the throat to expand the opening. The procedure and recovery were both quite quick and she was back at work the next week and feeling much better.
Brett had arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder for a torn rotator cuff in Regina on November 24. When they got inside, they found that he also had a torn labrum and bicep tendon. They repaired these and some other more minor issues. His recovery was not quite as smooth as Laura’s. He was in considerable pain for the first few days and must spend four weeks in a sling (during which he cannot drive) before gradually getting back to normal over a few months. The doctor has given him three months off work, but he is hoping to be back sooner. He played some ball in the summer but won’t be playing hockey until next year.
For those who are medically curious and not squeamish, here are links to examples of Laura’s throat surgery and Brett’s labrum and rotator cuff surgery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUKpl1SzZGQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIPE1m4JmQc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXrn3Ibx9eY
Best wishes to all for 2025! Keep well. Take care. Glenn & Celeste
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