November 25, 2009

Hello to all:

 

It is such a beautiful day out today, (Nov 18, 9 deg) I feel like I should be cleaning windows rather than starting my Christmas letters.  Last year at this time we had snow, and it never went away.  I sure hope this lovely weather continues for some time yet.  Now to let you know what we have been up to this past year.

 

In January, we spent a week with my nephew Tyler, while Ron, Dianne & Jenna went to Disney.  Since Tyler is now in high school, they felt he shouldn’t miss school for that long.  As it turned out they had a snow day during that week.  And wouldn’t you know it, it was Tuesday and our dance in Lambeth was also cancelled.  I was really disappointed, since one of the bonus’s being in Dorchester was for us not to have that long drive home after our dance…..

 

Mid February Brent called giving us great news “ they were pregnant”.  They had just come home from a trip to Jamaica (the same place they were married at).  They had gone for “their best man’s wedding.  Jolene was due in September.

 

We took a trip to Punta Cana last February. Dan’s sister Carol and her boyfriend Brian joined us, along with Dan’s Mom and another gal Marg, who shared a room.  We had a fantastic 2 weeks.  The weather was great, only half a day of rain the whole time.

The only downside of the whole vacation was a call from my brother Ron, telling us that Mom Nellie had passed away.  They delayed the funeral till the day after we got back.  We had been visiting Don & Nellie each Tuesday when we travelled to Lambeth to dance.  We would take some kind of casserole and have supper with them.   Since then my Aunt Betty has been staying with my Dad Don for most of the time.  She goes back to Windsor whenever she has doctor appointments. 

 

Six weeks later (April 23) my Mom Annie passed away too.  Boy, two whamo’s in a row.  Both our boy’s and their families were able to attend the funerals.

 

Again in May this year we attended the Toronto & District Dance Convention, which is three wonderful days of dancing at Brock University in St. Catherines.  Also we had a three day weekend in Port Glasgow.  We always have such a good time, and we love the B & B that we stay at.  On the Monday we carried on to Windsor to visit Brent & Jolene.  While there, Dan did some painting in the house, and I did some cooking - made turkey pies, butter tarts etc. for the freezer.

 

The beginning of June, I ended up in the hospital with kidney stones.  I was fortunate enough to pass it within a few hours.  I got up around 5 am with stomach discomfort, and then the pain continually was getting worse. Dan knew immediately (from previous experience) that it was kidney stones, and so we headed to the hospital.  Hopefully I don’t have a reoccurrence for a LONG time!

 

In June we attended a weekend dance in Little Current.  Dan drove Mom Roy’s car, and I went with Lee & Sharon.  The six of us met in Tobermory and had lunch before taking the ferry to South Bay Mouth.  Taking the ferry, gives us a couple of hours to relax on the boat.  Once we arrived in Little Current, Mom carried on to Sudbury to visit family.  She stayed a little over a week, before driving home.

 

August long weekend, we were so lucky to have Mikayla and Sierra come for a holiday all by themselves! Mommy & Daddy were holidaying in Teeswater, in order to attend some of the Old Boy’s festivities.  We had a wonderful time, and the girls were so good.  They loved the pool, the walks to the park, and the picnic lunch we had.  Hope we can do it again next summer.

We went to visit Brent & Jolene in August.  I was doing some sewing for the baby’s room.  Dan was helping Brent shingle the roof.  After leaving there we headed to Mikes in Georgetown.  We attended his graduation in Brampton.  He chose to go into firefighting.  He certainly enjoyed the fire investigations, but in order to progress any further he needed experience in firefighting as well.   Mikayla went with us, and she was so excited to see her Daddy be presented with his certificate.  We had front row seats.  And boy it took a long time for them to get to the R’s…  She didn’t think his turn was ever going to get there.   

 

(back again Nov 22)

Sept 14 – our newest granddaughter arrived – Kaitlynn Marie weighing 7 lbs. 10 oz. and 19” long.  We went down a few days later for a visit.

November, 2009 -->>

Kaitlynn’s first visit to Kincardine was the weekend after Thanksgiving. My sisters in law, Lynda & Carol were giving her a baby shower.  They received wonderful gifts.  It was a lot of fun.  Mikayla & Sierra just love their new cousin.  Sierra has no problem saying Baby Kaitlynn as she has a little friend at the sitters with the same name.

 

Since none of the kids were coming home for Thanksgiving we had one of our dancing couples from London come to spend the weekend with us.  We had a very relaxing time, and they enjoyed seeing some of this countryside.  Dan & Ed worked on their music as well.

 

We went to Mike & Denise’s for Halloween, since Mike was working; they needed someone at the house to hand out candy.  They live in a young neighborhood and have three schools within a few blocks.  No children are bussed to any of the schools, so you know how many kids could come…..    I went out with Denise, and the girls.  I took Beau on his leash, so he wouldn’t be barking every time the doorbell rang.  The girls had a great time, but boy was it cold…. Sierra dressed as Elmo, and Mikayla was a princess. They really enjoyed themselves!  Back home, I left our candy with our neighbor to hand out.  Eight kids showed up.  The next day they had Sierra’s 2nd birthday.  She received lots of Elmo items.

 

We are heading to the Dominican Republic in December for two weeks. We had intended to go back to Puerto Vallarta but we didn’t book in time.  Oh well, now it will be Riu Mambo.  I know of someone else who went there a number of times, and enjoyed it.  Sun, pool and relaxation!  We get back home on the 22.  We will be ready for Christmas before we leave except the last minute food preparations.

 

Yesterday I finished my Christmas sewing, so this week I will work on my Christmas letters.  Next weekend we go to Windsor for a Swosda dance, and will stay over with Brent’s till Tuesday, then head to London to our weekly dance.  Next week after we are back, I will do whatever food prep I can for Christmas - Tourtière’s, freezer desserts.  I don’t think I am making my Chelsea buns for Christmas morning.  None of us need all that sugar!

 

We put our house up for sale this summer.  We thought we had it sold as we worked with a couple for about 7 weeks going back & forth, deciding what would stay, & what would go, etc.  After they had their mortgage approved, we had a closing date agreed upon, they backed out.  She is an engineer, and had been offered a job at Bruce Power. She had hoped her husband could find work as well.  Since nothing was coming through for him, they decided to cancel the sale.  We were very disappointed, since we had put an offer on a lot.  In order to finalizing things, we agreed to their closing date,  then went ahead and moved the closing date up on our lot in order that the builder could get started with permits etc.  So for now, we have a For Sale sign out front.  I guess if it is meant to be, it will happen.  Pools weren’t a priority this part summer since it was so cool.  Hopefully next summer will be warmer and someone will be looking for a pool.  The real estate agents said there wasn’t one home with a pool sold last summer.

 

Last weekend we had a dance clinic scheduled to be held in Clinton on the Sat.  We were about 1 hour into it, and Dan ended up with Kidney Stones.  I ended up taking him to the hospital.  We had to cancel the remainder of the class.  I guess on the bright side, if it was going to happen, I’m glad it happened here, and not while we were out of the country….  He passed it on Sunday.

 

In February we plan to go back to Puerto Plata going to a place called Blue Bay Villas.  Mom Roy is coming along as well.  She is still hoping to find someone to share her room.  Marg the gal that went with her last year, might go, but has family issues and doesn’t want to commit just yet.  Another friend of ours who lost her husband last year is also considering it.  She too has a family member who is very sick and wouldn’t commit yet either.  So hopefully she can find a room mate.  She has her room, so as long as there is a seat on the plane a booking can take place.

 

Last Thursday the Kincardine Little Theatre put on a play – Annie.  Mom, (our friend Mary) Dan & I went to see it.  It was really well done.  We usually try to see all their productions. 

 

We wish everyone at your house a Healthy and Safe Christmas season and all the best in 2010.   If you have access to the internet, be sure to visit our Family Christmas Web Page to see some pictures of the little ones. http://www.bmts.com/~dan.roy/xmas/index.htm   Love Rhetha & Dan

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