Christmas Greetings and best wishes for a Happy and Prosperous 2026
While Celeste was well ahead of the game on Christmas shopping, Glenn is running way behind on our Christmas letter. Too much other stuff going on.
Our lives are still pretty routine. I walk the girls to the school bus in the morning, and we both walk them home in the afternoon to wait for Mom or Dad to get home. Otherwise, Celeste watches a lot of Instagram or streaming, while Glenn reads varied materials online. Glenn still runs the Zichydorf Village Association and maintains its web site while occasionally responding to online inquiries. We take in occasional shows at the Casino or the Conexus Arts Centre as well as continuing with our subscriptions to the Regina Symphony programs at the Conexus Arts Centre, Darke Hall, and Government House. We are again buying two extra tickets to each show for family members.
We once again had Roughrider season tickets and were excited to follow them all the way to a Grey Cup victory.
Glenn also attends most games of our non-professional teams with cousin Larry. Our Regina Thunder junior team and U of Regina Rams also had successful seasons and were both leading in their playoff games, but both allowed comebacks by their Saskatoon rivals. The Saskatoon Hilltops juniors won the Canadian final while the U of Saskatchewan Huskies lost in the final.
We once again joined the Matlocks and Carla and Tyler at Cypress Hills Resort for a few days around the February Family Day weekend for some outdoor activities and jigsaw puzzling.
And Celeste celebrated (?) a milestone birthday.
We made it to Vancouver three times this year in January, May, and December. We were hoping for another trip early in the fall, but we couldn’t get our calendars to match up with Darren’s family.
We celebrated Schwartz extended family Christmas on Sunday, December 21 because Colin’s family was in town and will be gone again by Christmas. We had Christmas dinner at noon, followed by visiting, gift opening, and games. Leftovers for supper followed by more visiting and games. A long but enjoyable day. Our immediate family will gather at Matlocks’ mid-morning on Christmas Day for gift opening followed by brunch. Matlocks will head out in the early afternoon to Lumsden for Matlock Christmas and the rest of us will have the remainder of the day off.
No major changes on the Carla and Tyler file. Carla continues to support the network for the provincial Ministry of Education, linking the ministry with schools and libraries. Tyler is finishing his second year as producer of the suppertime news at Global TV Regina where he schedules the stories and writes the story introductions. They spent three weeks in Japan in April and a week in Calgary around the Labour Day weekend. Tyler also celebrated a milestone birthday. Where does the time go?
Darren and Sue are both working in the office most days now. Darren is still working on developing the mining plan for a copper property in Mexico. His company’s partner has taken over most of the functions, but he and another fellow are still representing his company in the planning. He was travelling to Tucson to work with their consultants as much as two weeks a month for a while but has scaled back some now. He also travelled to Mexico a couple of times for planning meetings
Sue is working on a major sewage treatment plant in North Vancouver. She is her company’s on-site eyes and ears, much like her assignment in Victoria a few years ago. As the project is at home, she has not travelled much but did attend a conference in Salt Lake City. She has always been keen on fitness, and this year worked herself up to complete an Ironman (and Woman) competition in November in her sister’s hometown of San Francisco. Justin accompanied her. I choose to call him the “team manager” but I am not sure how much managing he did.
Justin is sixteen in grade eleven and starting to think about what comes after high school. He has also been learning to drive. Cameron is fifteen in grade ten. Cameron played tuba in the school band in the spring and fall semesters. Justin played euphonium in the spring semester and will do so again this spring. They did week-long school trips to the Strathcona area of Vancouver Island in the spring and Alberta in the fall. They each have a couple of soccer practices and a game each week and Justin has karate a couple of times a week. With all that and school and homework they keep pretty busy and keep Mom and Dad running too.
"L" for learner's license.
As usual they spent a few weeks at the Spruston family cottage in Ontario.
They all enjoy Vancouver Whitecaps soccer games and head out to Whistler for skiing whenever they can. They visit Sue’s parents in Kelowna a few times a year and occasionally take a ski trip elsewhere in B.C. They were all here in July for Darren’s cousin’s (Rachel Vogelsang) wedding.
The three boys
were able to stay for a few days, but Sue had to return home the next day.
They will be spending the holidays this year in San Francisco and Lake Tahoe with Sue’s family, but they are thinking of coming here for Easter.
The Matlocks had a busy travel schedule this year. On the February Family Day weekend, they led the way to Cypress Hills for a few days where we and Carla and Tyler joined them.
They spent the August long weekend in Clear Lake, Manitoba and a couple of weekends after that at nearby Buffalo Pound. They are all very excited about travelling to Orlando first thing in the New Year. The lure of Universal Studios and Disney World trump any distaste for Donald Trump.
Laura has become comfortable in her role as store manager. It has its drawbacks, but there are advantages too. She does a daily run and workout in the downstairs gym. She also takes a weekly tap-dancing class with my slightly younger sister Cheryl. She enrolled Sunny in Kaos Dogsports where she has great fun learning to do an obstacle course. Not Laura. Sunny. But Laura has fun too. She occasionally takes one of the girls along too and they also quite enjoy it.
Brett still teaches a seven/eight split at St. Theresa school. He does a lot of coaching and organizing in the fall to get his volunteer hours in but then has a lot more free time in the New Year. Brett had left shoulder and bicep surgery at the end of November 2024 and was off work for three months. He was able to play baseball in the summer and some hockey in the fall, but his bicep is still bothering him. Now he is scheduled for knee surgery in late January so more recovery ahead.
Annabelle and Charlotte are now twelve and in grade seven and Louisa is nine in grade four.
The twins have been busy with school projects. They are in band - Annabelle on clarinet and Charlotte on percussion.
They again competed in Battle of the Books in which they must read several books and then compete with their team against other schools in answering questions about them. They were also on the school Improv team which came a close second in the city final for their school division.
They were also on a team of four in their school business fair this fall in which Annabelle crocheted the cutest little animals and Charlotte made accessories for them. They did very well in all aspects of the challenge and could have sold many more if they would have had them.
They were in a school comedy production about mixed up fairy tales. Annabelle also did very well in high jump.
Outside of school they are all continuing with piano lessons and Ukrainian dance.
Charlotte made some crafts and sold them alongside her Grandma Matlock at the Christkindl Market at the German Club.
We are so proud of our boys in Vancouver and our girls in Regina. They are all so smart and so accomplished and such good kids.
Finally, here a couple of optical illusion pictures from the Saskatchewan Science Centre...
...and some pet pictures of Sunny Matlock and Loki Schwartz.
Take care. Keep well. Glenn & Celeste
