So, in the spirit of family Christmas letters, let me fill you in on our year in a nutshell...
New Year's Day is always celebrated in a most Canadian way, with a beach party at our neighbour's down the road. Then, on January 2nd we decided to... hahahahaha, just kidding... let's fast forward to March. Lawrence (Norm's nephew) and his partner Isabelle came from New Brunswick for a visit and some good skiing... fun visit as always... I'm hoping to see you both soon... hint, hint!
In April I turned 50. Sharrie and Mark came down and we celebrated with a family dinner. I immediately started experiencing hot flashes, mood swings, itchiness, mood swings, night sweats, moments of violent insanity... Sheesh.
Norm's bees swarmed twice this spring, and now we have 3 hives instead of one (yes, he caught them all!). Two are fairly weak and we didn't get too much honey this year as we had to leave most of it for their winter food supply.
In May my euchre group went to Halcyon Hot Springs for an overnight getaway with an awesome potluck dinner, soaking in the pool and many euchre games. Fun times with the girls!
Sad news for our family on May 18th... my cousin Debbie passed away suddenly. She always loved fresh tomatoes on toast at my mom's! Sob...
We went to Vernon in June for my sister Sharrie's youngest's grad. Congrats Bro... always the ladies man (proof in the photo below... thank goodness he cleaned the spaghetti sauce off his face when he graduated!).
It was a summer of weddings in our family. My second cousin Greg (Debbie's son) married his love, Carlee down at the coast. I wish we could have been there but we had made other plans that we couldn't change... sorry Greg. Some day we'll meet Carlee!
My cousin Kevin also got married. Jen, his wife, went from living with her dog Maggie to living with Kev and his four kids. Jen, you are a saint and we all love you!
We had Rosa (Norm's sister-in-law) and two of her grandsons (our great nephews) spend a couple weeks at our house in July. Norm and Rosa had bad colds so I was very grateful that I'd taken time off work for the visit... I bet I could lose lots of weight if the kids were here longer!
Rosanna (Norm's neice, Rosa's daughter, mother of these beautiful boys and one more), Hassan (her husband) and Adam (the one more that I referred to) came out for a few days to pick up Noah and Jacob. We had a house full (I think we need a bigger couch).
As soon as our company left we decided to paint the house.
Before... (we'd just started actually, so you can see the darker grey under the deck)
...and after! Although I'm still waiting for new lattice, deck rail, eaves troughs, snow dams and flashing. Sigh... and because I wasn't exhausted enough, I decided that my crappy flower garden, which got totally ignored and therefore overgrown and ugly, needed to be redone.
Midway... the after will be finished next year. Still pretty amazing if you look at both of them. Scroll up, now down, now up again, now down...
We got a cat this summer. I name him Sunny, but Norm doesn't like that name so he calls him several other things. He's old and sweet, and kills squirrels and mice (and occasionally birds).
In September, Joanne, Julie, Donna and I celebrated our 50th year in Vegas. What happened there, stays there, but suffice it to say we had a blast!
This fall I auditioned for and got a part in the chorus of Jesus Christ Superstar, a local production that almost sold out all 6 shows! This was the most fun I think I've ever had with 60 other people...
This is me delivering one of my two solo lines... I'm a reporter, questioning Jesus after his arrest, and I used my iPhone (that pink thing in my left hand) as a microphone. I'd taped my words on the back of the case in case I got nervous and forgot them!
Immediately following Jesus Christ Superstar I got a bad cold. A month later and I'm still unable to sing with my Wednesday night chorus, the Glacier Harmonies...
Norm turned 65 this November, and we had a small party to celebrate. He's totally excited that the bus to town is only $2 now instead of $2.50. As far as his days are concerned, he does yoga all morning - has been for 5 years now - and then putters in the basement or in his shop or with his tractor. He also enjoys watching TV and learning about history on the computer.
Yoga
Watching Netflix on his computer...
Working on the tractor...
Unfortunately, he's gotten a little too comfortable in his yoga pants and now they're a typical fashion accessory...
With love and best wishes for a healthy and happy 2013, Norm and Lonnie
