2006 Christmas letter


To our friends and family near and far,

This is the year when we can say, “We did it!”

As many of you have been following through our photo essays, we stopped talking about doing a major renovation and actually went through with it.

We chopped down the trees, picked up the house, built the new foundation, moved the house, tore down parts of the house including most interior walls, built it up again, added a great room out the back, and finished it nicely with hardwood floors, a funky bathtub, and a palette of vibrant colours. Well, actually, dozens of workmen and a few workwomen did all that while we stopped by every day and said, “good job!”

It’s nearly done. Guys are working frantically through these last pre-Christmas days finishing flooring and window treatments, and the kitchen cabinetry is coming next. We should be in by early January.

Daryl deserves credit for excellent supervision of the job and lots of the grunt work of going and selecting fixtures and colours and the thousand little decisions that had to be made, with some input from Anne. He also did some actual work on the house, including helping with some demolition, and installing tongue-in-groove ceilings and wainscotting.

Although we’ve been planning this for a long time, we couldn’t say for certain that we were doing it until July 10, when we returned from our Long Beach vacation.

That’s when the last hoop, the septic approval, was finally jumped through. We spent the first half of the year applying for variances (going before council asking if it’s okay if we moved our house that was too close to the road — that nobody knows is a road — further from the road — that nobody knows is a road — but still illegally close to it), mortgages (convincing the bank that it’s okay to spend as much on a reno as a new house because it will be just like a new house), reno permits (convincing the city that yes, this is a reno, because we’re going to pick up the old house and put it on top of the new house bits) and septic approval (I kept saying it’s not official until the poo lady signs), as well as selecting a contractor. As to why it had to be a reno rather than a new house, that’s a long story.

Last year at this time I said we had somewhere to live during the reno, but the people behind that very kind offer understandably changed their minds when they found out it may be for six months. We went through two other possible rental scenarios (thanks for the offers, folks) until a sudden opportunity arose to rent the farmhouse on the property of our good friends the Hagens out in rural Rosedale.

We moved here in late July and have had a neat five months (well-documented photographically) of even more country living than we’re usually accustomed to.

The kids will be able to tell their grandkids about when they had to walk or bike a kilometre to the school bus, in wind, rain, snow, and ice (with the occasional ride from Mum or Dad). They’ve mostly enjoyed doing so because they had the company of the Hagen kids.

Cheryl and Daryl enjoyed their morning coffee klatches walking with the kids to the bus, and Cheryl and Anne enjoyed their Friday afternoon beers in the autumn sunshine until winter kicked in.

We’ve plucked eggs from the Hagens’ chickens, seen their baby calf within hours of its birth, and enjoyed walking to the Cleggs’ forest, including last week when we went to see the salmon spawning.

The kids have loved the freedom of the quiet country roads, going for bike rids, blackberry picking, or just hanging out. Emma has loved being able to run next door to play with her friends. They’ve had to be driven to their friends for playdates for their whole lives so this was a taste of a less constrained lifestyle.

In the midst of this major upheaval we managed to have a bit of a normal but momentous year.

We both turned 40 in April and marked it with a big bash at the Camp River Hall. We’ve never had a big enough house to invite all our friends over at once (well, maybe we do we enjoyed the chance to do it there, with a well-planned song playlist by DJ Daryl, food provided by everyone, outdoor fun for the kids once the rain stopped, and lots of good company and dancing. I’ll always remember Miles leading the conga line of kids and adults throughout the hall to his favourite song, “I Like to Move it Move it.”

We escaped to Hornby Island for a most excellent party with the Rogalsky/Cameron clan, with a stop in Qualicum at the Hansson house, and four days in Long Beach, where Anne and Daryl quietly marked 25 years together and 14 years of marriage on July 4 (with three kids along to help us celebrate).

We also had a quick trip to Kelowna to see the second cousins there, and enjoyed a brief visit from the Winnipeg cousins and a long one from the India Russells. Nice to see y’all. Looking forward to connecting with the Kamloops and Williams Lake and Coquitlam/Port Moody clans at Christmas. A shout-out as well to those New Brunswick folks, who are doing a pretty good job of communicating these days. And it was great to visit with Uncle John and Aunt Lis, all the way from New Zealand.

The girls had great years academically and athletically, and Molly took on a new challenge by moving to Strathcona for her last year of elementary so she could take French Immersion. It’s amazing what she’s learned in four months, and through her hard work and diligence, her grades have remained excellent. Quite the change for her, from a school of 160 kids to one of over 500, but she brought some friends with her and has made new ones, and likes her teachers too. She’s still involved in and enjoying soccer, volleyball, basketball, and Destination Imagination.

Emma is still enjoying the comfortable surroundings of her little country school, East Chilliwack, and her weekly gymnastics sessions. She came back to soccer after a two-year absence once it switched from co-ed to all girls, and has been improving steadily and working on assertiveness.

Both Daryl and Anne coached spring soccer teams, and Daryl continues to coach Molly this fall and winter.

Miles has had a great year of good health and developmental milestones. He was weaned in April, potty trained in August during our move and vacation (with occasional unfortunate lapses), and moved out of the cupboard in our bedroom when we came to this house (although still a frequent visitor to our bed). We’ve also retired the booster seat at the table. And no hospital visits this year!

He loves to run, dance, jump on the trampoline, ride his bike, snuggle, read with us, play with his toys, and bug his sisters, especially Emma.

He’s really developed his speech this year.

Some favourite quotes:

(He’d tried Fruit Loops for the first time and had misplaced his bowl): “Where are my different-coloured rainbow circle eating things?”

(He had to buy slippers for a little stint at a local daycare and had never had any before and confused them with flip-flops): “Where are my slip-slops?”

(He confused wrestle with snuggle for the longest time): “I want to wrestle with you Mama.” (I oblige by tackling him.) “No, me want to snuggle you.”

We said goodbye to poor old Barney in April. He was waking up at six to stagger outside to bark at nothing, and was too deaf and blind to realize you were shouting at him to stop barking at nothing, and would reward you with inside surprises if you didn’t let him out. All a sign that he’d seen better days. But he was a good dog for us for 14 years. The three cats adapted well to the move and will be surprised with a move back soon. They love the countryside out here.

Anne tried to keep fit this year and had a great time at Cardio Core boot camp for the month of June (6 a.m five mornings a week) but discovered early arthritis in her knee and now declares that aging sucks, although she’s not ready to give up running yet. She also combined her new digital SLR camera, her love of storytelling, her beautiful surroundings and adventurous lifearing website, into a voracious and prolific hobby.

And she got bionic eyes in August, braving the surgeon’s laser in order to ditch contacts and glasses, with miraculous results. Highly recommended.

Daryl as usual gets to edit out whatever I say about him, but he did do a super job steering the creative and practical side of our house construction, and got to escape for four days in May to the Horde music festival at the Gorge in Washington and pretend he was 22 again.

We were happy to help Anne’s Dad celebrate his 75th birthday in December and Daryl’s Mum mark her 65th in March, major milestones for both.

This was a long one, but it was quite a year! Thanks for living it with us, whether near or far.

Love,

Anne, Daryl, Molly, Emma, Miles

A historical post on Miles' health saga

Miles hospital tour 2004/05

(No, he's not sick again! Just wanting to preserve these emails I sent out for historical purposes.)
From October 2004 to June 2005, Miles and the rest of us, especially me, endured numerous emergency visits, ambulance rides, pediatric ward admissions, invasive and tortuous medical interventions, oxygen hookups, for treatment for childhood asthma.

This was extremely tough on many levels, from seeing our toddler suffer, to subjecting him to procedures he couldn't understand and which hurt and scared him (taking blood for tests, taking x-rays that involved physically confining him, shoving oxygen tubes up his nose), to finding out how physically strong a toddler is (we don't usually do things to them that involve them resisting with all their tiny little might!). Being in the pediatric ward in a hospital 30 km from home was also hard because friends and family couldn't just drop in to relieve me.

But on the bright side, Canada's public health care system was there for me when I needed it.
The social observer in me learned a lot (just during our emergency visites I vicariously experienced the tragedies of knife wound treatment, overdose, dementia, miscarriage, and a really weird devil dude with a cut thumb on Halloween).

This went on from when he was 16 months to his second birthday. We had one more emergency visit when he was 29 months, but weren't admitted. He's been under regular pediatrician care since (and has seen a total of 10 pediatricians, just the way things turn out in the public system), and is now just on flovent and singulair. We also went to "asthma school" as I call it, with a very helpful respiratory therapist at the Chilliwack hospital.

We dare not say he's outgrown it, but is doing really well and has weathered several chest colds without going into crisis. It was all such an intense experience that I wanted to preserve the record of it by posting some of my group emails from the time.

__________________________________________

From Nov 15, 2004

Hi Friends,

To bring you up to speed.

Please excuse this impersonal way of communicating, but I know it will exhaust me if I have to answer all or some of your inquiries of how was my high school reunion with the sad tale of it turning into an emergency stay at Royal Columbian for Miles and I.

We left him with my nurse sister-in-law five minutes from the hotel where the reunion was. We knew he was having some breathing issues but thought home-administered ventolin would do the trick, or at least fooled ourselves into believing that so we could steal some hours of enjoyment at the reunion we'd worked so hard to organize.

(A VERY successful and fun party, btw. Over 340 grads from our class of 800,
everyone out to have good time.)

Anyway, I checked at 9 pm and things weren't going well, so I brought my very own emergency doctor from the reunion, the kind and sober husband of a fellow grad, and he assessed Miles at my brother's house. A doctor and nurse in the house! How's that for service?

But Miles was struggling to breathe, so it was off to Royal Columbian, and six hours of waiting in a tiny pediatric cell in emergency, with consults by residents and doctors and med students and pediatrician, and a spooky ride through the dark hospital to the X-ray (Miles' fourth!) and torturous blood work at 3 am, finally admitted to Ped Ward at 4 am, bed for me, exhausted, at 4:30 am (I wouldn't have minded staying up that late if it was to party at the reunion!)

Spent Saturday and today until noon in the ped ward, in treatment and being monitored. They're calling it childhood asthma, say this latest attack was triggered by a cold, and that any infection is viral and won't respond to antibiotics, so we're treating with asthma medication.

He is much better now. I really wish I could have enjoyed my reunion more but those kiddies do come first.

The new tally of medical professionals who've looked at/cared for Miles in the last two months:

Six generalish-type physicians, including ER docs, including the friend at my brother's house.
Five pediatricians
Three residents
Four med students
At least a dozen nurses. All nice, but the RCH ones were pretty burnt out.
Apparently there have been cutbacks on the ped ward.
At least four steal-your-blood, attack-with-needle lab technician ladies.

It's not like we're extra attention-seeking, it's just happened that way because of the three hospitals we've been in.

Thank Tommy Douglas for Medicare!

I hope the Anne/Miles Lower Mainland hospital tour of Fall 04 is over now!


Anne

______________________________________________________________________

Dec 16, 2004

Hospital tour continues


Dear Friends, Family, Colleagues,

(not that those labels are mutually exclusive in many cases!)

Just a quick update to save repeating myself. Miles and I just spent another three days in the pediatric ward of Abbotsford hospital (or as I call it, “baby jail”: it has striped pyjamas, bars on the cribs, bad food, and everything!).

He went into respiratory crisis again on Monday afternoon and we went to Chilliwack emergency, were stabilized and sent home, but we soon realized he was still in crisis, so went back, treated again, and eventually transported by ambulance (again!) to Abbotsford, as we have no pediatric ward in Chilliwack.

They tested for something called RSV (as they always do) and he tested positive this time, so we were isolated in a four-bed room with other RSV cases. It’s basically a virus that acts like a cold for most people but really latches on to some babies and toddlers, especially those with compromised breathing systems, such as our poor little guy.

Miles and I had a really rough night the first night there, ventolin treatments every hour, scary low oxygen scores, sitting up with him to keep him breathing better, and not much sleep.

Things were a bit better Tues as we were able to sleep and recover a bit. Miles spent the whole 60 hours or so attached to oxygen through the nostrils with a 10-foot “leash”, so his movement was rather limited. He is so good natured that he took this very well and accepted his limitations with grace.

The rest of our time there was an exercise in patience as we waited for his oxygen levels to improve enough to wean off the oxygen feed and be liberated and go home. I’m getting better at this waiting game, and decided to look at the bright side of our situation:

· We once again received excellent medical care from many caring nurses and doctors (our pediatrician count is now up to EIGHT!), including some fine UCFV alumni.

· I got to spend many precious hours with my son when I would usually be working.

· Got to call on friends and family for care and takeout dinners and lunches and care for our girls and they delivered! And colleagues at work pitched in for me. Thanks all.

· I finished two whole books and almost a whole jigsaw puzzle! How often do I have that much leisure time!

· As usual, Miles, just by being his sweet self, charmed nurses, doctors, and hospital visitors alike as he stood at the door looking balefully out at the rest of the ward, tethered by the nose to his oxygen machine.

· Had a nice bonding/mentoring time with a young mother who recently emigrated from India, as we were confined together for three days. The most comical part of this was teaching her Jingle Bells and trying to explain the lyrics to her. (“Dashing – it’s kind of like running. A sleigh – you get pulled on it... through the snow… by a horse… well, I’ve never actually been in a one-horse open sleigh, but it sounds fun. Bells on bobtail ring… well, you put these bells on the horse’s tail… I guess you bob the tail first. Bobbing, it’s kind of like a haircut… anyway, the bells ring, that’s why they sing Jingle Bells!")

· This being a prime time of year for taking pity on waifs, and the kids in hospital being especially waif-like, Miles came home with FOUR corporate-sponsored presents this time. And since I give Telus, A&W, and Starbucks lots of money the rest of the year, I don’t feel guilty about receiving!

We’ve now spent nine days in a ped ward and four or five days in emergency over the past three months. Definitely enough already! And yes, despite my attempt to maintain a positive attitude, this definitely does all suck!

So, here we are, back at home and hoping.

Oh, and if we're late with your Christmas card or present, now you know why!

Thanks for all your kind thoughts and wishes.

Anne


_________________________________________________

From June 12, 2005, the day before he turned 2!

To those who knew, those who didn’t, and all who care:

After just getting comfortable with Miles’ health (six months hospital-free!), we got to go on that wild journey again.

Miles took a sudden downward turn on Thursday. I was called home at noon by Daryl, who had a very lethargic boy on his lap. I gave him ventolin and got him to sleep, and after he woke at 2 and was still struggling to breathe, I drove him into Chilliwack Hospital.

Then it was hello to our old friends the nurses, yes we're here again, been six months this time, yes he's grown. They gave him more ventolin, did an X-ray, checked his oxygen levels -- not great -- so off again with the ambulance men to MSA Hospital in Abbotsford, where I again met nurses we'd had before, along with a hunky and very-good-with-kids resident doctor who was great with Miles, and a competent young woman pediatrician (who didn't believe me when I told her she was our ninth pediatrician in eight months -- "but we don't have nine pediatricians in Abbotsford," she said. "Oh, we don't confine ourselves to Abbotsford," I said. "We have medical crises all over the Lower Mainland.").

Back to the skinny little cot that Miles insists on sleeping with me in, and various forms of baby torture, such as holding him down for oral meds and strapping oxygen nasal prongs in and taping them on, then at midnight taping his pajama sleeves shut because he'd been tearing at his prongs in his sleep.

Roommates my first night were a nice quiet family and some obnoxious woman who was very sick herself and who let her very loud daughter watch very loud TV while she tried to sleep and her daughter kept saying (yelling) "Mama, why are you resting? What's resting Mama? Why are your eyes closed?"

Miles had ventolin every hour that first night, lots of fuzzy waking-up moments with beautiful young nurses hovering over us -- maybe Daryl should have been there for that. The next day he was in pretty good spirits (he's amazingly resilient) and played while tethered at the nose to his oxygen for the first half of the day and gradually improved.

The room, mercifully, emptied out, and I enjoyed a bit of resigned peace -- yes, I'm under extreme deadline pressures at work; yes, I was supposed to drive an old lady to Convocation at UCFV; yes, Miles was supposed to have a birthday party in two days; yes, there was likely a very old cowboy whose phone number I'd lost and who couldn't talk very well anyway (stroke I think) planning to show up for the cancelled party with a pony and how would I contact him; yes, Emma's birthday comes the day after Miles' and she needs presents -- but I couldn't do a damn thing about any of it, so I read my book while he napped, and enjoyed his company when he was awake.

But it was too good to be true (if hospital stays can be construed as good). First in came nice but very loud four-year-old boy and his mum, also suffering from asthma. Disturbing but tolerable. But soon after came nice baby with hillbilly family from Hell. Teenaged mum, teenaged dad, grandma about my age with two tiny girls of her own, all making their presence very known in the space beside me. I drew the curtains quickly, but they kept getting undrawn because we had to share the chair for giving our babies treatments.

Very obnoxious dad complained that nothing or nobody was going to stop him from being there -- restraining order or not. Then he was dispatched to get dinner, and came back bragging of having ridden his bike to the pawn shop to pawn something to get enough scratch for dinner and cigarettes, but he was 35 cents short for cigarettes, and they had to share one Subway sandwich, and proceeded to argue about how many chips each got. Meanwhile, the baby's mini-aunties were generally adding to the screech level in the place and grandma was complaining about wasting money on Subway when she'd brought peanut butter for them all. Believe me, I would have loved to have skipped all this sociology-by-eavesdropping!

They all left except mum and baby and I thought things would settle down. Miles went to sleep on me on the world's skinniest and most uncomfortable cot, and proceeded to sleep through his every-two-hours treatments right til morning. Meanwhile, hillbilly baby (bless his heart and I'm not blaming him) proceeded to scream FOR THE ENTIRE 15 MINUTES every time he got a treatment, in the chair two feet away from my head. And nice-enough-if-loud (during the day) four-year-old boy turned into a demon every time the mask was applied for his treatments, screaming "TAKE IT OFF MUMMY,TAKE IT OFF!!!!" over and over and over and over and over and over and over again for ENTIRE 15 MINUTES of his treatment. And sometimes these boys' treatments coincided!

(I clenched my jaw and survived, squished into my very uncomfortable cot, thinking, "I definitely deserve some type of medal for this part." I also had a dream that I was back in my single bed at my parents' house and lobbying to be given one of my brothers' bigger beds as I had this toddler sleeping on me now.)

Mercifully again, both these boys were discharged the next morning (not before I got to hear about hillbilly Daddy having to take anger management classes before he could live with them), and by this time Miles had improved enough to be let off his oxygen leash, and could roam the whole ward. We were just waiting to see if he was stable enough to be sent home (meaning, could go to once every four hours ventolin treatments). He was freed at 6 pm last night and we came home to our big bed. Even if I had to wake up at 2 am and 6 am to give him treatments it sure beat the night before.

Birthday party cancelled (luckily, old cowboy's daughter had phoned us to cancel his gig as her dad is too old to supervise pony rides anymore) but we're very happy to be home. Took Miles out to two stops on the Ryder Lake Ramble (a farm-visiting day in the hills south of Chilliwack) and he got to see donkeys and llamas and a big horse before coming home for his next meds.

So that’s the update. Hope this is not a continuing saga, but I’m grateful for all the help and good wishes we received once again.

Anne

Anne1

Anne1
Originally uploaded by Rosedale Annie.

Just wanting to add a relatively recent photo of me.

Moon over Cheam

Moon over Cheam
Originally uploaded by Rosedale Annie.

Moon coming up over Mt. Cheam in Rosedale, outside Chiliwack, at around 4:15 pm on Dec 2, 2006. I was just lucky to notice it in time to get out there and start shooting.

Crazy Russells too

Crazy Russells too
Originally uploaded by Rosedale Annie.

Nice to get those cousins together once in a while.

Majestic Mt. Cheam, Chilliwack (Rosedale)

Majestic Mt. Cheam, Chilliwack (Rosedale)
Originally uploaded by Rosedale Annie.

Was pretty beautiful around here this week.

(A letter to the India Russells that the world can share)

Dear all you India folks,

I’m writing you in the middle of a blizzard. We are housebound today, supposed to be out at a kids’ play at UCFV with Mum (Dad was to hang out with Daryl and Miles) but it’s all cancelled.

Emma was all excited about going out in the snow first thing, and it wasn’t blowing hard or snowing then, had just snowed overnight, so all of us minus Molly went for a little walk, toboggan pull, around the farm we’re on. The cows looked cold and bewildered, as did Moby, our grey cat.

Then later I had to go out and get the eggs from the henhouse (our neighbours are away) and when I came back in my gloveless hands were so cold that I realized I don’t ever want to be trapped outside in a blizzard!

This has been a big weekend of movies for us. Friday night the kids and I went to Happy Feet, the latest animated feature about a penguin who dances instead of sings his mating song. Quite well done, with some dark undertones and ecological messaging thrown in with penguins singing Prince and Queen songs.

Last night Daryl and I went to see Brad Pitt in Babel, about him and his wife trapped in Morocco as she is hit by a sniper on a bus, their children back in San Diego going on an adventure with their nanny to her son’s wedding in Mexico, and a deaf mute Japanese girl who you don’t know how she is all connected until the very end, and two Moroccan boy brothers. One of those films where you really have to pay attention. The theatre heater wasn't working so we were warm on top in our big fleecies, but had cold legs by the end and when we went to Bravo, our local bistro, we had a really nice mushroom/cream/wine soup as our first course to warm up before tapas of bison ribs, scallops and bacon, crab cakes, and avocado/shrimp/crab salad for dinner, along with exotic martinis. Nice night out!

We also watched You, Me, and Dupree (with Owen Wilson) on Fri night at home, and I have Ice Age 2 and Nacho Libre lined up as well. One way to beat the rainy (and now snowy) November blues. My other favourite cure is to declare November Red Wine Month, and sample a different bottle or two every weekend.

It has been raining and raining and raining and raining all month, after a dry and gorgeous Sept and Oct. Yes, we need the rain, but talk about extremes!

Only one worrisome episode with our house – we didn’t have the stairs to the basement made yet, and no door installed, and the rain swept the mud into the basement and throughout the whole place, clogging some drains. Our contractor THINKS he has fixed it with a new trench to the slough to draw water away. Sure hope so!

Other than that the house is great and beautiful. Being drywalled right now. Those photos aren’t so exciting so may not post them. Just a bunch of beige walls.

We have chosen lots of nice colours for our walls. A yellow and green palette for main rooms. Molly’s room will be turquoise, Emma’s bright green, and Miles’ blue (their choices). Our bedroom will be lavender, like the last one.

Have bought a new gas fireplace (is installed) and a new gas stove (electric oven/gas top), and a giant clawfoot bathtub – our indulgences. Going for hardwood most of the top floor, laminate in the bedrooms, and carpet downstairs. Able to afford this because Daryl’s trading some design work with the carpet guy.

Hopefully we won’t be too overbudget, and will be in sometime in early January. It’s fun but kind of nerve-wracking to be doing this, as you know.

Molly’s doing tres bon in French Immersion and enjoying meeting new kids and having a new environment. Has to take three buses to get to school but doesn’t mind. Is also busy with school soccer (that’s over now), ordinary soccer, and school volleyball, and soon Destination Imagination again. The bus ride will be down to one when we move back home. Emma is thriving at her school too, and getting better at soccer, although they’ve been rained out for weeks now. She really likes living next door to our friends, who have girls one year older and one year younger, and will miss her freedom to roam when we move back to our little block.

We’re all looking forward to skiing. Have three days booked at Sun Peaks in early Jan with several families from around here.


Don’t have concrete Christmas plans yet, except that we’re not going to push to be in our house. Will take our time moving in and doing stuff after Christmas.

Miles is doing very well. Can be a real pest to Emma when he’s bored, but is sweet most of the time. No asthma troubles at the moment. He’s talking about all sorts of things, really into both snuggling and wrestling, riding a little two-wheeler with training wheels, doing intricate Playmobil set-ups of his ark animals, being read to, and dancing. He talked about Ava’s upcoming birthday party for weeks and was the smash of the party with his dance moves when it finally arrived! Going to music-garten and gymnastics classes and loving them both.

He’s had a big year. Finally totally weaned in April (at 2.75!), toilet trained in August, sleeping in his own bed (sort of) in the fall, sitting in a big person chair at dinner, wanting to use a knife to cut his food.

He had a friend over last week and they totally tore apart his and Emma’s room, dumping toys everywhere (partly because we didn’t supervise while we were eating dinner). Took days to clean properly. But on his own he’s pretty calm.

Daryl has been the chief interior designer of our new house. It’s really hard for us to get out together without kids, so he scouts the suppliers and either makes a decision or brings home samples for us to discuss. This along with his work has kept him quite busy so they gym has slipped a bit but he plays indoor soccer one night a week and I’m encouraging him to hit the weights again and get buff.

I’m trying really hard to squeeze my fitness in too. Badminton on Tuesdays, a half hour on the bike during their gymnastics on Wednesdays, a fitness swissball class on Thursdays, and runs or rides as I can squeeze them in. Have been diagnosed with early stage arthritis in my knee though, which is quite alarming to me.

We went down to Mum and Dad’s to see the Williams Lake Russells last Fri, as you know. That was a quickie but good visit. Nice to catch up a bit with all them. Miles was shy at first but tearing around with cousins soon enough!

Well, that’s most of the news from here.


Love,
Anne

Wasn't that a party!

Trite, but true! Daryl and I have been very fortunate to make so many friends in our 15 years or so in Chilliwack, and we've never had a house big enough to invite them all over at once.

So for our mutual 40th birthdays we rented the Camp River Hall, just up a confusing bunch of winding roads from us, and invited people from all our many circles of friends. There was Lillian, who Anne met the first week she started working at UCFV when her boss set them up in a landlord-tenant relationship (and the friendship clicked immediately). There were folks we barely knew, having made their acquaintance recently through soccer or friends of friends.

And there was everyone in between, from UCFV, from the East Chilliwack community, from soccer, from Agassiz, from Rosedale, and from our crazy bunch of miscellaneous cool people we've met in our adventures. There were token family reps -- Mike, Karen, and Ava (thanks for making the trek!) -- and our old pal Iain from our semi-wild youth. There were two married couples who Anne and Daryl helped matchmake and some children who resulted.

Talk about children! Good thing it stopped pouring rain and we could pour them out the door! Anne had grabbed the bubble stuff from home at the last minute, not believing but hoping that the deluge would stop. Her friend Cheryl kindly picked up glowsticks and a pinata from Superstore. Throw in a soccerball and 40 or so kids were amused for hours.

Daryl's meticulously planned "groove it" and "move it" playlists set the mood for the evening. Everyone's food and the beautiful cakes kept gave us sustenance. The friendly bartender kept Anne supplied with greyhounds and seabreezes so she didn't get too thirsty with all that carousing.

Skits, dancing, and the great hodge podge of throwing all our friends into one big pot and finding out who knew whom and watching new conversations start were all part of the fun.

Miles embodied the spirit of the evening, throwing himself fully into the fun, whether it was bubble blowing, pinata bashing, random chasing, "move it, move it" dancing, or leading us in a joyful impromptu "chicken dance" conga line. Molly and Emma were hardly seen all night as they joined in the kid mob revelry.

Thanks to Ruby for the cake, Cheryl H and Ruby for the decorations, Cheryl H for last-minute supplies, Lydia and Ruby and Verna and Sondra for the skits, Jack for painting the red hats, Katie, David, and Pam for the babysitting, Susan T for the photography, Sue GH for the speech, everyone for the food, everyone for cards and presents, everyone for coming and making it a great time, and Zoe, Bradley, Vicki, and Iain for sticking it out until the very end with us!

Imaginations run wild!

Some scenes from Molly and her friends' Destination Imagination presentation, for which they won first place at the Fraser Valleys. They had to build a device that propelled balls and another that caught them and sent them back. The challenge was called Back to You, and they also had to incorporate a skit into it, with a them of things going back and forth. They chose to do a sendup of Romeo and Juliet, in which Romeo and Juliet hated each other, and the parents liked each other. Molly was Juliet. Way to go Wyatt, Jessica, Molly, Simon, Kaylee, Ben, and Sarah!

Especially for you far away Russells

Some pictorial highlights of Christmas and Boxing Day 05. Sorry about the duplicates. This posting photos can be a tricky business! Click the photos if you want to see them as larger images.

We missed the India Russells and Williams Lake Russells, but managed to have a good time anyway! After the usual extremely busy pre-Christmas social season and heavy back-and-forth freeway travel of Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, we have spent the last week taking it extremely easy, partly influenced by chain-illness: first Molly, then me (slightly), then Miles, now Daryl. No crisis for Miles. Hurray! He was feverish for a day, then declared at 10:30 pm: "Me better Mum!" and proceeded to play with his new choo choos for an hour.

(The Thomas train set was definitely the highlight of the Christmas season for him, although he's also enjoying balancing on the new skateboard that Santa brought for Daryl and him, as is Emma! Molly had 100 songs downloaded on her new iPod by noon on Christmas Day, Emma is enjoying various crafty presents, and I'm ploughing through books and CDs and both Daryl and I are digging our newest Nikon! And we're all enjoying playing with the choo choos!)

I don't think I've cocooned as much as I have the past six days in years. Lots of reading, doing jigsaw puzzles (my favourite mental relaxation), watching movies, and being clung to by and cuddling with Miles. Once I got basic chores out of the way and decluttered a bit, it was really hard to get used to only having to choose between fun options. Do I read another chapter of this gripping novel? Go back to my addictive puzzle? Play a game with the girls? Or browse through my new historical atlas of the Lower Mainland? Got to the gym once, on a lovely leisurely bike ride one afteroon, and on a few nice walks, but not as much exercise as I wold have liked, partly because of my chest cold and partly because of a couple days with a sick boy. Daryl and the girls did get skiing to Manning once.

Can highly recommend the fictional autobiography of conjoined twins, The Girls, by Lori Lansens.

Out to face the world again tomorrow!