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2007 Olson Christmas Letter
Merry
Christmas everybody!
The Christmas tunes have been jing, jing, jingling in our
house for several weeks now and the anticipation is
building. This will be the first Christmas in our new house
and we're planning for an old fashioned, Griswald faaaaamily
christmas in the Olson home!
The
theme for 2007 for us was definitely “Everything New!”. We
began the year in a new province and new house with a new
baby, new business and a new nephew. It has also been a great
year for learning – about our new environment and about
ourselves. Each day has brought new, sometimes difficult,
challenges though all of these have been rewarding and
exciting.
Our
new business Grand Ventures Inc. has passed its one year
anniversary and it has certainly not been boring! During this
first year we purchased three buildings with a total of seven
rentable living units. Each of these required some level of
renovation so both Ana and I have done a tremendous amount of
learning in the area of “remodelling arts”. Thankfully we've
had Ana's dad John to help us, who is a master handyman and
always willing to teach me a new Portuguese swear word to help
ease the pain when I've stroked my thumb with yet another
misguided hammer swing. As expected, finding great deals on
properties is difficult and one must look at dozens and dozens
of places to find any with potential. We were both doing the
business full time up until September when I came across a
local job posting which was in my area of expertise. We
decided together that I'd take the job, even though it is full
time and will obviously reduce the focus on the business, but
we’ve found that it’s actually providing a better work/home
balance.
My
new job is with the City of Brantford and I am the resident
“JD Edwards” financial system expert which is sort of like
being a Pakistani bus mechanic – you don’t exactly know how it
works or what sort of motley glue holds the parts together so
you just pound it with increasingly heavier wrenches until it
starts running again. This new position also means I am now
officially a government worker which obliges me to work slow,
play sick, leave early and arrive late. I’m hoping to imitate
my father’s roaring success as a lifelong government worker
and achieve “Massive Passive Cash Flow”. In other
words, getting paid and not having to show up.
Also in September, Ana was fortunate enough to go back to her
old job at WestJet but in a part time casual arrangement
working from home. It took a while for her to adjust but now
she can easily be plucking her eyebrows, yelling at Stella,
slapping Magnus with a wooden spoon and documenting business
processes all at the same time, making it all appear nearly
effortless in the process. So now we're both back working at
jobs but also managing and expanding our own business at the
same time. At this rate, within five years we’ll be hiring a
business manager, shipping the kiddies off to some UK boarding
school and sailing off in love to the Caribbean. Whooops,
just fell asleep at the keyboard for a second there, was I
dreaming?
Our new home is everything we wanted and more – plenty of
room for the kids and for visitors (hint hint). We were
hesitant to go down the “building new” route, but we had a
fantastic builder and are so happy with the final product that
there is nothing we would change. The town we live in, Paris,
is a quiet town (population 10,000) with an old fashioned high
street that includes a bakery, hardware store, pharmacy, pub
and coffee shop. If there were only a couple grain elevators
at the end of the street it would look just like Foam Lake,
Saskatchewan by god! It has been great living as a family in
a place we had always loved to visit as a couple.
Magnus
and Stella are beautiful, smart, crafty kids who keep us on
our toes, usually because there’s broken glass around. Stella
is the most precious little girl and is very fond of constant
attention from her parents and grandparents. Magnito is very
independent but also a very loving little boy. When he meets
somebody new he likes to introduce us as “this is my friend
Mommy and this is my friend Daddy and this is my friend
Stella” which is music to our ears. He also considers Stella
his “best friend” and Stella thinks he is the most wonderful
thing in the world. I spent a lot of time with Magnus doing
fatherly mentoring, also known as “early programming”. He is
only 3 years old but can already subtract two beers from
twelve (one for daddy, one for grandpa), pick his nose and
wipe it on the inside of his pant leg, ask strangers to
“please pull my finger”, and can hum at least three “System of
a Down” songs. Ana has asked me to leave Stella’s mentoring
up to her, though I’m still not sure why.
We continue to travel as much as possible but, as expected,
the arrival of number two has slowed us down a little. This
year we did one major trip to the Azores for two weeks, then
shorter trips to Saskatoon, Newfoundland, Regina, Ottawa, New
York and Tampa Bay. It’s funny, even though we weren’t
working in “normal’ jobs this year we seemed to have a lot
less time to travel. Next year we hope to do a couple
overseas trips then a whole lot of local adventuring here in
Ontario, which is sure to include some sailing, camping and
fishing. Ana will also be sure to continue her retail assault
on Ontario, pillaging every Value Village from Thunder Bay to
Niagara Falls.
It’s always a treat to look back at this time of the year and
reflect on how blessed and fortunate we are to be healthy,
happy and have such wonderful friends and family.
We wish you all health, happiness and humour this Christmas
and throughout 2008.
Kris,
Ana, Magnus & Stella
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