We’re spending a few days in Calgary again enjoying a little Drew time. Over the past couple of days, Grandpa did some babysitting while I accompanied Melaina to a medical appointment and we checked out some January clearance sales. What fun we had picking out teeny, tiny outfits for the baby girl that she’s expecting in April! This afternoon, we’re babysitting while Melaina and Aaron are on a date together.

Drew loves to imitate the adults in his life and it seems that whatever I’m doing, I have a little helper close beside me. Such fun!

Our personal interest in the country of Haiti, which was devastated by a massive earthquake on Tuesday, is twofold. First, we have three teenage nephews who were born there. Given up by parents who had no hope of being able to raise them in this, the western hemisphere’s poorest nation, they were adopted by my sister and her husband. Last summer, Linda, Jeff and the boys traveled back to Haiti on a one week mission trip with the New Missions organization.

Daniel, Jonas and William

Our second attachment to Haiti is Marie, the 15 year old girl who we have been sponsoring through New Missions since 2004. For $31 a month, we have been able to offer her an education in a country where only 2% of the children finish high school and about 40% of the adult population is illiterate. In addition, she receives regular health check-ups and medical care, a nutritious hot meal every day and gifts at Christmas and her birthday. I believe that we are also offering her hope for a better future. In one of her recent letters she mentioned that she wants to be a nurse someday.

My sister, Linda, meets Marie while on a missions trip to Haiti in July

New Missions is a non-profit, non-denominational Christian organization centered on the Leogane Plain, 30 km southwest of Port au Prince and even closer than that to the epicenter of this week’s devastating earthquake. Started by George and Jeanne DeTellis in January 1983 with five tents under a grove of coconut trees, it has grown to include 21 churches, 22 elementary schools, a high school, a medical clinic, a Bible college and a business school. Funded entirely through donations and child sponsorships, it employs over 300 Haitian nationals who were raised through its ministry and who now serve as teachers, pastors and administrators. Today, over 9000 children attend New Missions schools. The ministry has recently expanded into the Dominican Republic.

We have been in constant communication with New Missions over the past couple of days through their website, email and Facebook. Though we have not had specific word concerning her, we have reason to believe that Marie is okay. We do know that the missions team is safe and that they have enough food, water and diesel fuel to last a month. We also know that

• a kindergarten teacher died
• the deaths of four school children have been confirmed
• two elementary school buildings were damaged beyond repair
• the medical clinic building is damaged beyond repair
• the mission’s main office is damaged beyond repair
• two churches are damaged beyond repair

The remainder of the buildings are being evaluated to determine what other damage has occurred. In addition to food distribution which started the morning following the earthquake, a top priority is to hire nurses for each of the school locations to provide medical care for children who may have been injured in the earthquake itself or who may suffer from illnesses or infections in its aftermath.

Reporters tell of an eery quiet in the usually noisy city of Port au Prince where stunned Haitians walk the streets in silence but on Wednesday morning New Missions’ president, Timothy DeTellis, described Leogane this way, “The amazing sight in the middle of all the tragedy was villagers singing songs of praise along the road last night.” I am humbled.

Several months ago, I wrote a “You know you live in a small town when…” blog entry. Today, I have something to add to it. You know you live in a small town when you wake up to find two moose in your backyard! That’s exactly what happened today.

When I opened the blinds, I first noticed that what had been pristine untouched snow yesterday was no longer. Something had obviously happened around the tree in the backyard. Then I noticed the huge moose just over the fence in the neighbour’s yard. Usually flocks of bohemian waxwings swoop into town and strip the mountain ash trees sometime during the winter. They haven’t come yet though and when they do, they’ll find that the lower branches of our tree and the neighbour’s have already been cleaned off. We watched for quite awhile as the mother moose and her nearly grown calf wandered back into our yard and casually finished their breakfast. They were obviously aware that we were watching but seemed quite unconcerned.

Eventually they stopped nibbling and stood totally still for a few moments. We could almost hear them thinking, “Hmm… maybe we should have left before it got so light out. How are we going to get out of here now?” Then they turned in unison and made a dash between the houses and out onto the street. I ran to the front window just in time to see them cross in front of a startled neighbour who had just turned the corner in his pickup truck. Fortunately for all concerned, he managed to avoid hitting either one of them but I suspect that it took awhile for his heart rate to return to normal! The huge animals ran down the street, across a yard and into the bushes that mark the edge of town leaving several piles of moose poop in our backyard and something exciting for the neighbours to talk about! Almost immediately, our phone rang and the neighbour across the street laughingly told me that our “pets” were out!

As fun as our morning moose experience was, here’s a link to an even better one.

Fifty years ago today, on Jan. 2, 1960, I attended my first wedding. After 23 years as a widow, my grandmother, or Nana as we called her, married my Grandpa. I don’t remember much of the evening ceremony in the Anglican Church at the end of her block but I do remember the small reception that followed at Nana’s house. I remember people asking me if I was tired and insisting that I wasn’t even though it was long past my bedtime. I remember drinking all my juice before the toasts began and my mother rushing to refill my glass so I could raise it in honour of the newlyweds.

I have many other memories of my grandmother; visiting her at the firehall where she was cook, coming home from school to find her helping my mom with the ironing, going to her house for lunch on rainy days because it was much closer to my school than ours was, and staying with her when my parents had to be away.

It was on one of those occasions that I first met Grandpa. My two younger siblings and I were staying with Nana while my parents traveled to a specialist with our older brother who had suffered a brain injury as an infant. We were in bed one evening when a knock came to the door and amazingly, my usually strict grandmother allowed us to get out of bed to meet the kindly gentleman who had brought ice cream to share with us! We were instantly smitten and couldn’t have been happier when we later learned that the two were to be wed. Until their marriage, Grandpa was a bachelor with no children or grandchildren of his own but he took to the role with flair, teasing us, buying us treats and teaching us to play cards. We’d always loved going to Nana’s house but it was even more fun once Grandpa was there!

The funny looking kid is me with my parents and my grandparents on their wedding day!

When Richard and I lived in Japan, we had the privilege of being adopted as grandparents to a darling baby boy born just 6 weeks after our own grandson, Andrew, back in Canada. Loving Ayumu and holding him in our arms filled an empty spot for us and as we watched him grow, we could imagine the stages that Drew was going through. Since returning to Canada, it has been the reverse. As we watch Drew grow, we see the stages that Amu-chan is going through.

Ayumu’s parents, Seiko and Atsuo, are also very dear to us and we have kept in touch via internet and telephone. At the end of May we received the exciting news that we would have another grandchild in January! The baby wasn’t due until the 14th but we woke this morning to find a message telling us that while we were dancing the old year out and the new year in, on the opposite side of the globe Seiko was giving birth to her second son! The baby doesn’t have a name yet and we’re still anxiously waiting to see pictures but we are proud and excited to be the chosen grandparents of a New Year’s baby! It certainly won’t be difficult to remember his birthday!

Richard & Amu-chan on our last day in Japan

We had a wonderful Christmas! Of course, sharing it with our grandson, Drew, added to the fun. On Christmas afternoon, we introduced him to sledding on the little hill beside our yard. Gram, who well remembers sledding down hills near the University of Calgary on borrowed cafeteria trays, had a blast and apparently so did Drew. Melaina reported today that he was scooting back and forth across the floor sitting in her dustpan!

Nathan broke some great cross country ski trails out on the golf course which he and I enjoyed thoroughly. Many board games were also played. Nathan arrived with his games packed in a big Rubbermaid bin. After unpacking them into the bottom of our games closet, he introduced Drew to the bin and it became a favourite plaything for the two of them.

Of course, there were presents on Christmas morning. Before we opened ours, we enjoyed a visit with Matt and Sam via webcam. Matt’s reaction when he helped Sam open his present from us was absolutely delightful. Matt is a die hard Edmonton Oilers fan so we sent Sam a baby sized Oilers jersey! Drew, who has always loved playing with pots and pans was delighted with the play kitchen that Mommy and Daddy gave him. Of course, the box that it came in was also lots of fun to play in and he loved finding Gram and Uncle Nathan when we hid in it! The kitchen went home to Calgary but the box is in our basement waiting for his next visit.

In addition to playing, I spent lots of time in the kitchen. Though I’m not usually quite so well organized, I wrote up a menu in advance for the days that everyone would be here and made sure that I had all the necessary ingredients on hand so I didn’t have to waste any time grocery shopping. We definitely ate well! Not only did I do lots of baking before everyone arrived but Melaina brought about a ton of it with her! Then there were our traditional Christmas meals; tourtiere on Christmas Eve and, of course, turkey on Christmas day. Christmas dinner probably isn’t the best time to try out a new recipe but the carrots lyonnaise that my aunt introduced us to recently turned out very well. Escargots in mushroom caps has also become one of our Christmas traditions. We enjoyed those on Christmas evening after the turkey had had time to settle. Boxing Day was my day to relax a bit. I used the breadmaker that my aunt gave me recently to make fresh buns to go with the delicious french onion soup that Melaina made for lunch. My sister, Linda, her husband and their two youngest teens arrived later that afternoon with a cooler full of their Christmas dinner leftovers. We combined them with ours and enjoyed another feast. In fact, it was such a success that we might try it again another year. Someone recently told me that feasting is just one letter away from fasting and that’s what I probably ought to be doing now!

The house is quiet again and life is returning to its normal routines. We made some beautiful memories though and in the midst of it all, we took time to remember that Jesus is the reason for the season. I took part in the Christmas Eve service at church and we were all there again on Sunday morning.

Christmas is three days away and I’m ready and waiting. The cards are sent and the shopping done. The tree is decorated and the presents wrapped. Though I’m not usually very domestic, I’ve baked up a storm… nuts and bolts, shortbread, butter tarts, macaroons, toffee, and squares are ready to be eaten! Yum! Since preparing for Christmas last year involved packing our backpacks and heading off to Vietnam and Cambodia, it’s been two years since we last enjoyed all these holiday traditions.

Yes, we’re definitely ready but it’s really been today that I’ve been waiting for. There’s a little bed in the corner of the guest room, the booster chair is in the kitchen and the baby gate is at the top of the stairs. (Gram visited a few garage sales this summer!) There’s a basket of toys in the livingroom and some bright little bath toys just happened to jump into my grocery cart as I picked up some last minute supplies this morning.

This will be our first Christmas shared with a grandchild and oh, are we ready! Melaina, Aaron and Drew are arriving from Calgary today and Nathan from Edmonton. Matthew, Robin and Sam will be spending Christmas in Vancouver but the webcams are ready so that we can share some of our Christmas with them. Yes, Gram is definitely ready and waiting!

Widespread use of the internet began about fifteen years ago. How quickly we have come to depend on it! Facebook was launched on February 4, 2004 and already there are over 200 million users worldwide. I depend on email, love to blog and am the first to admit that I’m seriously addicted to Facebook. I only use it for communicating and sharing photos though. I don’t play any games and can’t be bothered answering the million and one crazy quizzes that circulate.

I must admit that when I don’t have access to the internet, I feel somewhat lost and when our service is down, which seems to happen quite often, I get frustrated! On Thursday morning, both Richard and I used the internet with no problem but by early afternoon it was no longer working. This usually indicates an area wide problem but calls to friends living close by assured us that they weren’t having any difficulties. This time the problem was ours alone.

I called our service provider and was able to talk to a real person almost immediately. He was annoyingly cheerful and not a lot of help. After having me disconnect and reconnect the modem, he agreed that we did indeed have a problem and offered to schedule a service call for Dec. 23. Five days without the internet! I don’t think so! When I indicated politely but rather strongly that I was appalled by such poor service he said that he would make note of the fact that we would like a service call sooner if it was at all possible.

The following morning, we climbed out of bed, glanced at the modem and discovered that all the lights were on. Richard fired up his computer and amazingly the internet was working again! Hallelujah! Just before 11:00 a.m. two servicemen showed up at the door and I assured them that everything was good. I told them that I was surprised to see them and that I hadn’t phoned yet to report that there was no longer a problem because I wasn’t expecting them until Dec. 23. One of them showed me their work order which indicated that the problem had to be fixed that day! I guess expressing my dissatisfaction as I did made a difference after all.

Two hours later, our connection failed again! Urgh… I was back on the phone again. A very pleasant rep put me on hold while he contacted the dispatcher to find out whether or not the servicemen were still in our area. Unfortunately, they were not and since they don’t work weekends, the soonest we can expect any help is Monday. In the event that that doesn’t happen, we’re once again scheduled for a service call on the 23rd!

We would happily change service providers but in a rural area like ours, options are limited. We presently receive high speed internet via cable. We could get a satellite dish but we don’t really want to do that. We’ve considered an internet stick but since we’re located some distance from a cell phone tower and service is very weak here, I’m not sure that that would work either.

Fortunately, until our service is restored, I’m able to “borrow” wireless internet from a neighbour using my laptop. (Have I ever mentioned how much I love my laptop?) Unfortunately, however, Richard isn’t able to use the desktop computer to access his online poker games or to do any of the penny stock research and investing that has become one of his favourite retirement hobbies.

Once the problem is finally resolved, I’m planning one more phone call to our service provider to negotiate a reduction on our next bill. Once again, I’ll remember to be polite but I suspect that I’ll have to make my request somewhat forcefully!

Though the blog has been silent for the past two weeks, it’s not due to a lack of things to write about. Rather, I’ve been keeping so busy that I haven’t found time! Unlike past Decembers when I, like all my teaching colleagues, was busy with Christmas concerts and other school related activities, my time has been full of reading, traveling and visiting as well as all the usual Christmas preparations.

Richard and I joined the local library this fall and I’ve been catching up on books that people have recommended over the past couple of years. The Sedgewick library is relatively small but through interlibrary loans we have access to books from throughout the province. I recently read Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace, One School at a Time. It’s the story of American mountain climber, Greg Mortenson, who first traveled to Pakistan to challenge it’s hightest peak but went on to became cofounder of the Central Asia Institute and commit his life to building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The book was written by Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Today I finished reading Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created It’s Own Lost Generation by Michael Zielenziger . Recommended by our daughter-in-law after her two year stint teaching English in Japan, it offered many interesting insights into things that we observed while we lived there. In between these heavier tomes I’m also enjoying some lighter fare, novels read for entertainment value only.

A week ago Monday, as others headed off for school, we tossed our suitcase in the vehicle and left for Hinton where we enjoyed a mini family reunion of sorts. Our 25-year-old nephew, Martin, a conservation officer working out of Dawson City, Yukon was graduating from the Western Canada Law Enforcement Academy. His parents, Richard’s sister Jan and her husband Grant, who live in Whitehorse, flew down for the occasion. Since they seldom see the rest of the family, they invited all of Jan’s siblings to celebrate with them. The lobby of the hotel where we all stayed had a toasty fireplace surrounded by couches and armchairs where we all gathered and spent lots of time catching up on one another’s news. We also enjoyed some fantastic meals together and, of course, watched proudly as Martin marched with his classmates and received his badge. It was especially nice to reconnect with him and his younger sister, Stacey, who we last saw nine years ago! For security reasons, I can’t post a photo of Martin in his uniform but I assure you that he looked very dashing!

Richard (2nd from L) and his siblings

On Wednesday, the family dispersed and we headed an hour west to Jasper where we enjoyed a great visit with my aunt. When we got there, she had just arrived home from her Wednesday morning walk with a group of friends. In the summer, they enjoy the trails around Jasper and in the winter, they walk in the arena. Not bad for a lady who recently turned 86 and who had a hip replacement after falling on an icy street two years ago! I hope I’m as agile when I reach her age. Auntie Norma and I have always been close. In fact, she likes to tell people that I’m the daughter she never had! While we were there, we spent lots of time watching curling on TV. While she rooted for the Glenn Howard rink (her youngest son is also named Glenn Howard!), Richard and I cheered on Kevin Martin and his teammates. Kevin grew up in Lougheed, the community where I taught school for many years and we know many of his relatives who still live in the area. We were victorious, of course, and will enjoy watching Kevin in the upcoming Olympics.

Now we’re home again and Christmas is just around the corner but that’s a topic for another day!

It’s snowing on my blog again! What fun! It’s just a bit of serendipity that WordPress makes available during the Christmas season.

We usually have real snow to stay for the winter by around Halloween. This year, however, November was exceptionally warm and dry. I quite enjoyed the longer than usual fall but as the end of the month approached and our drama season came to an end, it was time to start thinking about Christmas. I found it difficult to get in the mood without any snow but the day before the calendar turned to December, we got just enough to cover the ground and turn everything white.

I’m not really a fan of winter but there’s something fun about snow. I’ve always loved being the first to leave my footprints on freshly fallen snow and I’m wondering, are you ever too old for snow angels? I remember the fun of creating snowmen and other assorted snow creatures with the children when they were young and I’m hoping the weather isn’t too cold for sledding when Drew is here for Christmas. We have a little hill just off one side of our yard that’s perfect for the littlest sledders.