Welcome to Our Web Page
When this web page began more than twenty-five years ago, it described most of the activities of our whole family. Now that most of our children have flown the coop, it is mostly about what Ann and I (Dave) have been up to. I update it most weekends. We save all the messages over the past year in an Archive along with links to what we were doing ten and twenty years ago.
You can click on the pictures above to get a bit more information about each of us.
Sunday December 28
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Our Christmas tree
We hope that you have all had as joyous and relaxing Christmas as we have. Ours started out green but turned white as the day went on. It has been very cold over the last few days so the snow is still holding on though there is not all that much of it.
We had our usual gathering on the 24th with Paul and Catherine, Ingrid, Mike and Alex, Kim and Glen, and Carl and Roxanne attending. A whole salmon, tourtière, and the usual array of salads, cookies and cakes were served and, of course, we played Town, River, Mountain with my brother Simon in Bracebridge and a Renfrew contingent joining us by Signal.
On Christmas morning, David, Ann and I made Eggs Benedict for breakfast — I was in charge of the Hollandaise and blew it the first time and had to redo it — and then opened presents with a Signal link to Renfrew. The rest of the day we spent relaxing and napping and playing with new toys. I found time to cook a small turkey for dinner finished off with a bûche de Noël from Gourmandises Avenue. We have plenty of leftovers to sustain us over the coming week.
As usual, we were invited to a number of social gatherings both in the lead up to and aftermath of Christmas. Last Saturday, we went to Carl and Roxanne's solstice party and the Thursday before that, we were at our biking friends Bob and Mary's annual walk around their neighbourhood to see the Christmas lights followed by cider and goodies in their condo. The day before that, we walked with the Roadents around the Armdale/Jollimore area followed by coffee and treats in the common room at Erika's condo. Ann came down with a cold a few days ago so we had to give our regrets to Susan and Dave's annual Boxing Day open house (but David went) and also to Linda and Kevin's puzzle day yesterday.
On the Friday before Christmas, we went to a performance of The Messiah by Symphony Nova Scotia with a couple of local choirs. It was conducted by Joel Tranquilla who is also the director of the choir at Grace United of which Ann is a member. Our friends Glen, Pauline, Martine and Blaise also planned to go so we arranged to meet at Chef in the Kitchen, a small Turkish restaurant close to the concert hall, beforehand. However, there were high winds and heavy rain that evening and, just before we were due to leave, the restaurant phoned to say that they had lost power. We quickly revised our plans to meet at the Resolutes Club instead. Then Martine called to say that she and Blaise had also lost power and they were going to help their daughter and infant grandchild instead, so Ann invited Marilyn to join us with one of their tickets. In the end, we enjoyed both dinner and the concert.
The Emera Oval is now open but we have only managed to go skating there once so far. Either rain, before Christmas, or cold, afterwards, has made it unpleasant and a hockey tournament at the RBC Centre also took away that option.
Today is my birthday so I have been allowed to do pretty much as I pleased all day. Ann cooked waffles for breakfast after which I opened my presents. Since then I have been relaxing and reading books that I have received. This evening we are going out for dinner at Da Zero Ristorante, and Italian place that we have not been to before.