SEASON’S GREETINGS 2007
FROM OUR FAMILY
TO YOURS


Well here we are once again into the festive month of December with Christmas fast approaching. Before we know it, Christmas will be behind us for yet another year! It doesn’t seem like a whole year could have gone by since I last wrote up our yearly Christmas letter for 2006 but according to the calendar it has. I guess the old saying of “the older one gets, the quicker the time passes” is true! I must be really aging as time is sure speeding by!! I have always loved the Christmas Season, haven’t you? There is always the hustle and bustle of shoppers looking for that perfect gift for someone special (little did I ever think that one day I would be on the retail side of Christmas and serving all these busy shoppers). Many people have a smile on their face and a Christmas carol on their mind as they forge onward with their Holiday preparation. There are the gifts to buy, cards to make out, groceries to buy and baking to do as well as decorating the house (both inside and out) and wrapping the gifts. There are never enough hours in any given day so we all go flat out.

We are planning on staying home for a quiet family Christmas this year. Melanie arrives by plane on December 21 and is home until January 2 so will be with us abit longer this year - YEAH!! I imagine Ben will come out on Christmas Eve to spend the night as this is what he does every year but I am not certain yet where or what Rachelle will be doing for Christmas this year. She and Matthew are in a long distance relationship (he is in Nova Scotia) but are hoping to be reconciled in the new year. My Mother has been invited to my brother’s home for Christmas so that means she won’t be here. Tipper is still hanging in there and we are hoping he makes it through Christmas for one last family gathering. He turned 14 years old last summer which is very old for his type of dog and is getting quite frail but he is still as stubborn as ever and the beloved “baby” of the family.

Ben moved out of the duplex he was sharing with Rachelle this summer and moved in with a good friend of his. They have a basement apartment in a home on the Brackly Point Road just past the airport so it is within walking distance for Ben to Fortius, where he works. Late last year Fortius did a big layoff so Ben was unemployed for awhile. Fortunately though he was the first employee called back when they started up full production again. He is working all days now and he is liking this as it means he can go to all the Rocket games which he loves to do. In fact, he was offered the night shift not to long ago but declined due to his hockey games.

Rachelle is staying busy with Positive Change (which is in its 4th year of operations) and now has 3 office locations. She is in Charlottetown 3 days a week, in Montague on Tuesdays and now Souris on Wednesdays. She seems to keep getting busier and busier which is a good thing. In July she had a bad car accident when she hydroplaned on water and wrote off her car. Fortunately, thanks to being a seatbelt user, she wasn’t seriously hurt or killed. She was lucky. The car she bought to replace her Toyota is a silver Honda Civic Sport 4 door complete with sunroof and cruise control. She loves this car!! The end of October she moved apartments once again as she found the duplex expensive once Ben moved out. She now has a nice little one bedroom apartment in Harbourside in downtown Charlottetown. There is underground parking and is within walking distance to her office on Kent Street.

Melanie is still in Ottawa and taking courses at the University of Ottawa. She did not graduate this past June but plans on doing so May 2008. Her studies kind of got put on the back burner last January when the Editor in Chief of The Fulcrum resigned and she was voted in as the new Editor in Chief. This is a full time paying job so she was kept pretty busy adjusting to her new position. She is loving Journalism and is hoping to find a job in this field when she graduates this spring. This past fall she got to interview a person she has long admired - Rick Mercer, the comedian from Newfoundland and 22 Minutes fame. She is also planning a national journalism conference that will be held in Ottawa this January. She’s having a great time corresponding with some of the best journalists in the city. Melanie turned 23 in September and was very touched as well as surprised when her friends in Ottawa all got together to celebrate with her and gave her an Ipod. She just couldn’t believe they had done this for her!! She made it home in July for a brief visit but couldn’t stay long as she was between assignments (she had a job free lancing for a small alternative publication in Ottawa for the summer)

Lornie is still with Direct Energy and working long hours. There are 3 Direct Energy technicians on the island now so that is good as it lightens his load some. We are heading to Halifax for his Christmas party the weekend of December 7th and 8th. It will be nice to have a little getaway. He is really perfecting the art of hobby winemaking and I have to say that I enjoy the fruits of his labour! He makes from kits but he also does wine from scratch too. He makes Red Currant (we grow them), Cranberry (buys them fresh in St Peter’s), Blueberry, and this year he has put down a Plum (friends gave him the plums which he froze until he could make the wine), Raspberry (again, the berries were given to him) and a Grape (we went grape picking at my Manager’s home).

I changed jobs in May. Samuel & Co were moving locations and going to The Charlottetown Mall so I was not looking forward to the move as I hate that Mall. In May we went to Moncton for Lornie’s sister’s (Elaine) 50th birthday celebration. When we got home there was a message on our answering machine. It was from the manager of Tabi (a Canadian chain ladies wear store) wanting to talk with me. She offered me full-time work. I love Tabi clothes and have been shopping there since I discovered I could fit into their clothes over 5 years ago. She made me an offer I couldn’t refuse so I gave notice at Samuel & Co. Unfortunately though, shortly after I had given notice I was injured at work when a manakin hit me on my left shoulder - talk about painful!! I saw the doctor and was put off work for 10 days and sent to Physiotherapy. This meant I was unable to finish my shifts at Samuel and late starting my new job at Tabi. But, everything worked out okay in the end.

Lornie and I enjoyed a one week holiday this past summer on the Madeleine Islands, part of the province of Quebec. We rented a 2 bedroom house so Lornie’s brother Gerard and his wife Barb came with us. It is a beautiful spot, so peaceful and serene so a perfect location to getaway to and unwind! In September we went to Blackville, NB to visit our good friends Alice and Richard for a weekend. We had a marvellous time there and enjoyed many laughs and chuckles. Then, Thanksgiving weekend we did a getaway to Nova Scotia where we toured the South shore down to Yarmouth and then up through the Valley. We ended up coming home a day early as Lornie took sick with a virus which gave him a very painful stiff neck. I had to do the driving on the way home as he was unable to.

Here’s wishing all our family and friends a very happy Holiday Season and a new year filled with love, peace, prosperity, friends and good health. As we begin this special holiday season may we all stop for a minute and remember those who are not as fortunate as we are and to give thanks for all the blessings we have received. Let us all say a prayer that the following words some day will come true:


PEACE ON EARTH
GOODWILL TO MEN