Christmas Letter 2006

January 2007

We find ourselves post Christmas and are feeling warm, relaxed and very well fed-the perfect time to sit down and write you our news!

It was again a busy ski year. Since joining Mansfield ski club in December of 2006 we made the weekly trip up to Alliston. The kids took skiing and snowboard lessons, Jaime joined the ski race program and Carol enjoyed getting rid of everyone.

We again did a ski week at March break this year in Sutton, Quebec. We got a large dump on the first day, which gave us lots of snow to play with.. Because of all of that snow there were moguls everywhere, which everyone enjoyed EXCEPT Carol (she claims her knees are too old!). The kids are now better skiers than their parents and were usually waiting for us at the bottom asking us “what’s wrong?”.

And if the moguls were not enough at Sutton, Carol and Jaime and friends Janet and Stephen, headed off to Denver, Colorado to catch the last week of skiing in April. We had a 2-foot dump of snow at Breckenridge and Vale. There were moguls everywhere reluctantly curing Carol of her moguls phobia. A must do for any avid skier. This has everything: a great “real” ski village, amazing restaurants, a chairlift taking you 13000 ft to the top and amazing scenery, and all within a 3 hour flight from Toronto. After Jaime’s knee surgery he was concerned whether he could ski again. He annoyingly boasts, “ I’m back baby, I’m back!”

In the summer we made our Tri-annual pilgrimage to Espana.  This time aside from visiting relatives near Madrid, we enjoyed visiting the Basque country in the north, one of the many Spanish wine regions (Rioja), Alicante on the Mediterranean, and Majorca. The last week was spent in Manjiron, a mountain village outside of Madrid where Jaime’s father and cousins were raised. Carol got to experience her first fiesta (the kids had been to one with Jaime a few years ago) and the music kept things going until sun-up!

  

After our return to Canada, we had a few weeks of work and then we took some days to go on a canoe trip to the Massassaga River. We had perfect weather and a wonderful time. Katie and Cam are seasoned campers and even Carol had to admit she enjoyed it (now that she is armed with her cushy camping mattress and pillow!). Jaime created some gourmet-worthy camping meals, such as Spanish Paella (which the snapping turtles enjoyed too, I might add).

Back to school, and Cameron is in his final year at Junior Academy. Being a Grade 8 upperclassman there are certain rights and privileges, such as being able to eat lunch off campus. He has been saving his allowance diligently for these outings, and looking for other babysitting jobs. Cam is playing hockey at Leaside, and is getting more involved with his drums, and enjoys escaping on his mountain bike.

Katie is in Grade 5 at Claude Watson School, and is enjoying the challenges that the school and the arts curriculum is bringing her. She is also into a variety of things after school: hockey, synchronized swimming, singing and piano. She is very keen to get started on the snowboard lessons, and we have a feeling she will give up skis for good soon.

Carol is still making the trek to Credit Valley hospital, but is still enjoying the challenges there despite the commute. She has been tailoring her education this year to courses and conferences to help her with the administrative role she has signed up for (she is committed to doing the chief position for 3 and a half more years). It has been a learning process to be sure! Fortunately, therapy sessions with Jaime are pretty reasonably priced and she enjoys her ‘getaways” with the family and her girlfriends as therapy as well!

Jaime is on the job hunt this year, and has been enthusiastically exploring lots of options. Nothing official yet, but several prospects-we will keep you posted! The only problem with working full time is it will cut into his camping and hiking outings with the guys! This year he and the “Coeur de bois” travelled to the Massassaga River and to the Adirondacks.

We have enjoyed reading many of your letters and cards and hearing your news. We hope this letter finds you all well, and we wish you a very Happy New Year!

With Love,

Carol, Jaime, Cameron and Kate