TIME FOR FAMILY - Christmas Letters

I used to write Christmas letters at the beginning of December each year and mail them out to family, friends and former missionary companions. Somewhere along the line I strayed from this ritual and would get letters from my companions Nancy and Becky long before I found the time to write my response. So this year I decided to go back to the way things were. As I print my letters and prepare them for delivery my husband suggested I post a copy online. What a great idea! We didn't have blogs back then. 


By the way, while visiting my Facebook account I have visited a couple of inspirational Christmas theme YouTube videos. I am going to post links for them here on my blog. I get tears in my eyes every time I see them. I know they are spreading quickly but I want to make sure I am helping. One is a clip of the Hallelujah chorus being sung in a Canadian Shopping Mall: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE
and the other is a song about lining up for Jesus, like kids do for Santa: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OExXItDyWEY

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SOUTH EDMONTON TREK 2010

We spent spring time this year getting ready for the Edmonton Millwoods Stake’s first ever attempt at Trek. Our ward (Beaumont) joined with the Devon, Wainwright, Wetaskiwin and Camrose wards/branches, so only youth from half our Stake were involved. Karren and Jami participated as youth in other families while Glen and I served as Ma and Pa to 4 boys and 2 girls that were assigned to us. 

We called ourselves the Willie Wonka Handcart family. For the first time ever Karren had 3 brothers (w/2 sisters) and Jami had 6 brothers (w/1 sister). It required a lot of preparation, some serious pulling and pushing of the handcarts, and learning how to deal with heat in the day and rain at night. It was AWESOME and yes we would all do it again. We learned so much about early pioneer life even though we know we had it easy.

CAROLE'S MOM VISITS FROM QUEBEC 

For Mother’s Day we told my Mom we would pay for her to fly out west to visit with us. She arrived a few days after Trek was over and stayed for about 5 weeks. We did work around the house, planted a new Russian Olive tree in the front yard, picked lots of raspberries and apples but our vegetable garden didn’t do so well this year. We went camping up in the Cold Lake area so that Mom could see my brother Danny and his family as well as Annick (my brother Jeff’s daughter) and her little ones, also living at the military base in Cold Lake. So this was a great time for a family reunion of sorts.

  We introduced my Mom to geocaching and hunting for diamond willow. We had several neat geocache finds up in Cold Lake and when we came back home we found an excellent place to set up one of our own. Mom and I were driving up and down the country roads looking for willow that had a disease that causes the diamonds to grow on their limbs. We found a willow patch that others had already cut most of the branches with diamonds off. But we did get a small piece for Mom to take home with her. And the location was just perfect to hide an old ammo container as our own geocache. I posted it as “Mom’s Willow”. So far we have had 14  people find this cache and report it online. Way cool.

  

We also took a trip to see Mom’s sister Evelyn a couple of times and even go visit Uncle Dave and Aunt Masie in Wabamun. After a nice lunch together at their home they showed us where the Denton land used to be. Mom and Uncle Dave reminisced about the farm and where thought their house had been located. Next year there will be a Denton reunion at Johnny Lake nearby. I look forward to this event and learning more about the past.

  

School had already resumed a few days before Mom took her flight back home to Quebec. A couple days after her departure Glen and I were on our own flight to California. (Some day I will get around to adding the details of our vacation).


Below is an update on our girls. The pictures come from two different photo sessions with local photographer Allison Cahoon. I snipped copies of some of the ones she posted online on her blog. You can see all of them a lot better by clicking on this link: http://www.urbanalli.com/blog/?p=723  

JAMI, KARREN AND LINDA 

Jami (13+) is now attending early morning seminary (scripture study before school) with her sister and she has grown up so much. She is now the same height as Karren but three years ago the difference used to be 6 inches. She is adjusting well to High School life. Ever since Kindergarten her classmates have usually been the same children year after year because she too has gone through the local French Immersion program that her older sisters have. With the high school combining these students from both of the middle schools here in town she is getting to make new friends.  

   When we returned home from California we were delighted to attend the High School Awards night where Karren (16) was recognized 4 times! She was in the group of top grade ten students, also top four students and finally as the top student overall. She also received the Science and Technology Award. Right now she is practicing hard and hopes to get her driver’s license soon. Both girls also enjoy participating in and hanging out with friends in the church’s Young Women’s program.

  

Linda (19+) is attending her second year of music (flute) study at the University of Alberta. She lives with her boyfriend in an apartment in Edmonton. She is very independent and often likes to learn things the hard way. Our relationship with her has improved over the last couple of years for which we are very grateful. She loves hanging out with her sisters and Caleb our dog, which is why he joins us in the family photo. 

BRENDA, AMBER & TOM 

Brenda (22) continues to work at the Running Room head office in the advertising department. She got a small raise a few months back and continues to work hard creating pamphlets and such on what she calls outdated computers. She is second councilor in her Single’s Ward Relief Society and is dating a fellow that we met over the Thanksgiving Holiday. (For my American readers – In Canada we celebrate this in October). 

  Tom and Amber (24) moved into their own home in June. They bought it in August 2009 but were waiting for Tom’s parents to come back from their Mission in Hong Kong.They were taking care of their home while they were away. Brenda had been living in the home with three roommates and this way they were able to collect rent for a little while to help pay their mortgage.The roommates have moved out but Brenda stayed. The house has lots of room and it works well for Brenda. Tom is now officially a Chartered Accountant and Amber has recently changed jobs to work in a government office. No more lab work for now.  

Our goal was to send out special Christmas greeting cards with our most recent family photograph but alas, the deadline to order them was the same day as our evening photo session. So this will have to do for now, hence the poor quality and the logo above. Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!