Let’s review where we left off last year. Christmas day – one of the finest Christmas trees ever seen by my eyes was sitting in our living room. Ironically we were not hosting any kind of gathering, so the tree was seen by a select few who visited us over the season. All too soon, it was time to take it down, and pave the way for another chapter in the “Annual Christmas Letter”.
Ramstein came into my life. No, he isn’t a dog, or a big burly German girl, but rather a musical band. All the songs are in German, so I started learning a few words. Thank goodness that on the web there are translations of his work. Gracia continued with her skating and Won Silver at a competition in High River. I remember since it was the same day that Canada won Gold in hockey at the Winter Olympics. Did we get the loonie back from under the ice?
One special day in March we got the rock delivered for our patio. I actually left work early to see it arrive. “Wow, 4 tons of rock!”. I found that all of my friends were busy when I asked them to help me move it to the side of the garage and out of the way. In fact, they have been busy ever since.
Spring broke out and we began to dig the patio. there were a couple of working bees that got the dirt moved, gravel moved and rock moved. I do remember that the kids moved their weight in dirt – good job! The patio was well under way when we headed out east for a vacation.
Our summer vacation. (Do I want this to be a 4 page letter?) Let’s summarize it: We drove 6000 km not including trips to Huntsville. The End. Or how about this: Tom, James, Ian, Heather. Laurie, Cathy, Dave, Lisa, Gracia, Kiersten, Royce, Daniel, Erin, Fauve, Cameron and one guest who by the way, is now completely insane (along with me), Bobby Gardner. Now according to my bad memory, the island is about 0.5 acres. Given the number of people that were there, that works out to be roughly 10 square meters per person, and 10 million gallons of water – which is why we spent most of our time in the lake.
Laurie finally ratified the treaty with Kiersten which will provide the Hepburn household a cleaner living environment through the use of the toilet (opposed to diapers). The signing of the treaty was witnessed by Colin, Bill (an expert in “Treaties”) and Wacky Jacky, while Heather protested outside the meeting room.
I agreed that when the rocks in the back yard froze to the ground, thus preventing me from continuing on the patio I would start work on the basement. Laurie promptly walked outside and stared at the rocks, whereupon they froze. We started work on the basement “right on schedule”. For the few who will be here over the holidays, you will see the completion of Phase 1 in the basement development plan. For the rest of you, we want to wish you a good holiday and fun new year.
Thomas G Hepburn – Author
Laurie D Hepburn – Editor
Gracia E Hepburn – Research
Kiersten E Hepburn – Proof reader