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2008
Olson Christmas Letter
Happy holidays! We had our first
real snowfall last night so it’s looking and feeling much more
like the Christmas season now – a perfect time to start on our
annual Christmas letter.
One of our big goals for the year
was to spend some time exploring Ontario, and if the mileage
on our van indicates anything, it’s that we probably
succeeded. We spent time in Montreal, Ottawa, 1000 Islands,
Niagara Falls, St. Jacobs, Leggat Lake, and several weekends
in the Grand Bend area on the shores of Lake Huron. This last
location has become one of our favourite places to go. The
communities of Bayfield, Grand Bend and Goderich are beautiful
“sea-side” towns with clear sand beaches, thousands of boats
and plenty of shops, bars and restaurants. We’re hoping to be
doing some sailing there soon, preferably in our own boat –
we’ll have to see if Santa comes through for us big time this
year.
This was a year of firsts for the
kids. Magnus started junior kindergarten in September at a
French immersion school in Brantford. The first few weeks were
not well received – lots of crying, temper tantrums, anxiety,
foul moods – and that was just Ana! For Magnus, it was quite a
shock to his system having to be on someone else’s clock and
adhering to an actual schedule; something we’ve never really
done with the kids. It’s been a good change for him, both the
social aspect and the learning. He’s also going to bed at a
decent time now so that’s been very therapeutic for the bags
which have developed under our eyes from lack of sleep.
We are almost certain now that
Stella is going to be the wild child of the two. In fact, I’ve
starting to look quite wolf-like with all the grey hairs I’ve
been sprouting. Stella dumps her milk on the carpet – boing!
New grey hair pops out of my chest. Stella leaps off the top
stair, unannounced, and flies through the air at me as I’m
climbing up. As I somehow manage to catch her and keep my
balance I feel a little boing - two new grey hairs pop out of
my head. Though she does drive us mental at times, she is a
beautiful, loving, daring little girl and she keeps all of us
on our toes. Her big first for the year was taking swimming
lessons, along with Magnus.
This was a relatively slow year
for travel for us, though we still got away a few times. Ana’s
folks John and Maria joined us for a week long trip to
Florida’s Gulf Coast in January then for Easter we traveled
back to Saskatoon for a fantastic egg hunt at Mom and Rick’s
place, complete with real chickens! Sadly, that will be the
last year for chickens; I hear they have now taken up
residence in the dark, icy depths of one of Mom’s freezers,
likely squeezed between the seven year old freezer jam and the
nineteen year old whitefish from Lake Diefenbaker. Speaking of
fish, we traveled back to Saskatoon again in June for the
annual fishing trip, which I attended while Ana and the kids
hung out at Mom’s place for a few days. At the tail end
of winter, we took a last minute trip to Nassau, Bahamas and
stayed at an all-inclusive resort. The kids loved it and we
loved it - what a great way to finish off the winter. We also
felt compelled to take the kids to the Atlantis casino and
show them the exact spot where their parents met ten years
before.
The summer soon arrived, and that
could mean only one thing – cousin weddings. First was Ana’s
cousin Stephanie here in Brantford, then over to Saskatoon for
my cousin Jeffrey’s wedding which, I have to say, had the best
music of any wedding we’ve ever been to. Lastly, Ana’s cousin
Nancy was married in Vancouver at the end of August and we
lucked out with sunshine every day. We even got to have a
quick visit with my uncle Mark and Linda while in Vancouver.
Lastly, in December Mom and Rick flew to our place for a few
days then together we traveled to Florida for an early winter
vacation. Unfortunately Magnus contracted a nasty stomach flu
on the way down so for the first half of the trip he was
blowing chunks and taking names. The second half was spent
making up for lost time and really enjoyed himself, but as we
arrived back to the Canadian cold he felt completely cheated
and confided in me that he was not all happy to be home as
Florida was simply better. Welcome to life in Canada, buddy!
We had plenty of visitors this
year. Barb and Gerry stayed with us for ten days in July –
what a pleasure to spend time with them again. The scariest
part was that it was over five years ago that we moved back to
Canada and bunked in with them in Calgary for several months
as we looked for work. Let’s see, no kids, no house, no
responsibilities, lots of quiet afternoons drinking wine on
the deck….my how things have changed! Thank god the jokes are
still the same. Later in the year my brothers and their
families came for a crazy long weekend including a wild night
at Oktoberfest in Kitchener/Waterloo, the only place in the
world where they ask you if you’d like gravy on your vegetable
plate. What dude wouldn’t take gravy for the veggies if
offered? Finally, my dad made it out to our place a couple
times, the kids are always so happy to have him here.
Our jobs and business ventures
are going well and we continue to learn lots everyday. Ana’s
had a very busy year with her work and enjoys it (most weeks).
She’s not the kind of person who handles boredom well so she
keeps herself very occupied. Time seems to be going very, very
fast for us these days, so one thing we’re working on is
figuring out how to slow things down a bit – we’re thinking it
may involve a sailboat and skipping work and school.
Along with the joy and happiness
this year was some sadness. We lost two dear friends this
year, both to long battles with cancer. Our long time family
friend Grace passed away, as did our good friend Anita in
Calgary. We will miss them both.
We now look ahead to next year
and what may be in store for us. Our life has certainly
changed these past few years - it wasn’t long ago that we
didn’t know where we would be living month to month, or what
we would be doing, or who we would be with – and we loved it
that way! We now find ourselves fighting against getting
sucked into a more average existence, and often not
succeeding. But for now, there are many other considerations
so we just try to keep our lives as adventurous as possible
while managing the routine. Our main goal in life now is to
spend as much time as possible with Magnus and Stella,
teaching them to love themselves and others, to never settle
for average, to learn as much as possible, and to never take
ones family and friends for granted.
As a final note from the “Paris
Olsons” we wish you plentiful blessings, rich lives and great
happiness for 2009.
Kris, Ana, Magnus &
Stella
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