Christmas 2009

Our warmest greetings from Fall River, Nova Scotia to you as Christmas Day approaches at an alarming rate!

The boys are now officially on Christmas break and with a lot of the busy-ness of getting things ready for the holidays finished, we are looking forward to celebrating the birth of our Savior and counting our blessings with our dear friends.

Our big news of the year is the weighty decision of moving to Edmonton...lock, stock and barrel! Well, that's not completely accurate since Leona and the boys will be living with her parents in St. Albert for a short time and Walt will be coming back to Nova Scotia to facilitate the house selling and finishing a project. Our "stuff" will be in storage until we find a place to live. Ella, our dog, will be vacationing at Walt's brother's place in Edmonton in the interim, of which we are eternally grateful.

After Walt's retirement from the military in 2007, a "final" move was part of the retirement package from DND. Nova Scotia has been a very gracious home for all of us and our boys are all born and raised as Maritimers....this place will always be a part of us regardless of where we live. The friends that we have made along the way we consider as our extended family; they have been a strong support and we have shared many, many laughs and tears. We aren't looking forward to leaving, but we are looking forward to the opportunities and adventures that await us. We will be leaving on January 21st, 2010.

In the meantime, life continues at a fast pace with three boys to keep us busy. Spencer is 15 years old now and has no trouble keeping himself busy with his voracious reading, fencing and social life. Lego is still his passion and music. He still plays the alto saxophone and this semester started working on the process of song composition. Keep those little ones in piano!

Lucas is in grade 7 and also involved in band. He is in the percussion section, which suits him, and I think he is humoring his mother :) His passion is basketball and he is busy with practices and games during the season and also goes to the gym after school twice a week to practice. His other interest is his ipod touch, which he purchased with his own earnings from working with his Dad this summer. We are kept busy ensuring that he doesn't become addicted to checking his email.

Ethan is 7 years old and in grade 2. He keeps us on our toes and is a sponge for information of which he is continually soliciting answers for all day long. Recently he informed us that, "milk is his staple"....yup, that's what we're up against! He enjoys sports and music and gave a great performance at his school's Christmas Concert that made us very proud.

A lot of changes for us in the coming year...we hope to see some of you along the way, and pray for you to have a blessed Christmas and New Year.

Love, Walt, Leona, Spencer, Lucas and Ethan

Golf, anyone?

Ella has taken a liking to an old golf ball that rolled out of the cupboard. She doesn't chew on it or, even play with it; she just puts it in her mouth and brings it to wherever she decides to lie down. It's quite funny. Anyway, I figure it's the Veldkamp side that's influencing her behavior!

A trip to the local Falconer

The boys and I were thrilled to visit the Halifax airport a couple of weeks ago and meet the falconer who is in charge of bird control on the runways. His name is Derek Forrest and he has a red-tailed hawk that Ethan is doing a project on at school. He was very kind to have us come by during his work day and he spent an half hour telling us all kinds of interesting things about hawks and falcons. Did you know that the falcon hunts in the air and the hawk hunts off the ground? And, the falcon humanely kills it's prey with a small puncture from the tip of his beak and the hawk tends to "play" with his food before consuming. Hmmmmmm.....who knew? Anyway, the picture speaks for itself.

We're moving out West...yeehaw!!

Yes, indeed, the FOR SALE sign has been erected in the front yard! After some agonizing decision-making, we have decided to begin a new chapter in our lives and move to the Edmonton area. Nova Scotia has been our home for 15 years and we have been privileged to have met many wonderful friends that have become our surrogate family (hence, the agonizing nature of our decision). But, our extended family are a good reason to supplant ourselves, and we're looking forward to getting to know all our cousins, nephews and nieces, aunts and uncles and grandparents even better. Keep posted...so far the house has been on the market for 2 weeks and we've had 7 showings (realestate lingo for: strangers wandering through your home poking through the closets)...hopefully it won't take too long.

Ethan lost a tooth!!

Ethan lost his first tooth the other day after a week of it teetering on the edge of his gum. It took a gentle nudge from Walt, and then it was out! Very exciting. The tooth fairy left a significant sum for the tiny tooth setting a worrying precedent for the next couple of years.

Ski Day

Last week Wednesday we all played hooky from our daily schedule and spent a terrific day on the ski hill with the entire family...plus one...Kevin, Lucas' friend. Lucas is the only snowboarder in the family so we felt bad leaving him in our dust all day!

The temperature was well below freezing, but the ski was blue and clear and there was a decent amount of snow. It felt great to be outside, enjoying the beautiful scenery and each other. I have to admit, it took a lot of effort to get everyone geared up for skiing, but it has been worth it.

Hope you're able to enjoy the winter too!

Happy New Year

Is is now January 3rd and the past two weeks have been a great mix of spending time with friends that we haven't seen in awhile and also some lovely quiet days (not so quiet, really, just nothing-on-the-agenda days) that gave us some family time to watch a movie, play a game, or just eat. Speaking of eating, our holiday gathering was our annual oliebollen feast which is enjoyed on our back deck on New Years Eve day. Walt made 178 oliebollen and after having friends drop by and help us celebrate, we still have a few leftover.
But they make good leftovers and we've had them for breakfast and lunch over the past few days.

New Years Eve night we had some friends over too and Walt made a delicious peanut sate with chicken and pork with salad, fresh bread and wine. We set off some fireworks to celebrate the Dutch New Year since we are too old and weary to make it to midnight. It's amazing how a few fireworks bought at the local gas station can cause us to be so transfixed!