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