Our Christmas Letter

Here is the letter we sent out with our Christmas cards this year!!

Happy Winter, Merry Christmas, Season’s Greetings…we prefer “Merry Christmas”!

It’s been a year already? How the time does fly…and how much we seem to be able to pack into 12 months!! I’ll highlight a few happenings & blessings for you!

We are a busy little family! Our children ensure lots of activity and zero boredom – I vote “naptime for all”, but sometimes the boys don’t really seem to be on board with that. Having said that, I am blessed to have two boys who STILL nap, although Joshua is showing signs of giving up his nap altogether. That will be a day of mourning for me. There, is, however, the time of day, co-ordinated with Dustin’s nap, known simply as “quiet time”. I shall be taking full advantage of that in the coming months!

Joshua, now 3 ½, continues to amaze us with his insights, observations, and interpretations to all sorts of situations. He was old enough to attend our church’s Vacation Bible School this summer – a highlight for him! It’s like a little 3 hour day camp, every day for a week, where the children learn Bible songs & stories, do crafts, play games, and have a snack. Joshua was quite exhausted by the end of the week – he was falling asleep on the van ride TO the church! Having graduated from the nursery, he now happily attends Sunday School every Sunday. Joshua has learned how to print his name, loves to “read” and delights in word recognition, and is learning to tell time. He’s a genius!

Dustin is…well…Dustin. He is a completely different ball of wax from Joshua. He is one mischievous little boy!! We used to call him our little urchin, and one day I decided to look up the meaning of the word “urchin”. The definition, according to the source I found, was “mischievous child”. A perfect fit. Dustin is a climber, runner, big eater, and charmer. He is now big enough to know how to push Joshua’s buttons, which means I am playing referee a lot of the time now. Dustin is not talking as much as Joshua did at this age, but he is incredibly expressive and stubborn and won’t stop until he knows we understand him. It’s a good thing we’re doing sign language with him!

The boys are busy four mornings a week – Tuesday mornings, they go to the church’s childcare while I am at Bible study; Wednesday morning we’re running off to Playradise, a giant indoor playground that our church sets up for community families; Thursday morning will find us at Moms & Tots Playspot at an arena close to our home, and Sunday morning is church nursery & Sunday School. With all of that, I’m not interested in trying to squeeze in “just one more schedule activity”. I need some spontaneity in my life, as do the boys!

Graeme is doing well with the pharmacy. It’s overwhelmingly busy at times, but the lack of space just won’t allow for any more bodies. So we keep praying that the staff we do have will become even more superhumanly efficient than they already are. Last night we had our staff Christmas party, complete with spouses & children, and we had around 26 people here. It was hard to get an exact count with all the children running everywhere! We are blessed to have the employees we do. Graeme has also recently gotten involved in planning a ministry event in our church, planned for February, as well as getting his hands dirty with volunteering to be part of the Men At Faith In Action (you figure out the acronym), a team of men who will be called up on to do small maintenance tasks or building projects at the church. I am more than pleased to see him get involved in things other than the pharmacy and home life. He needs an outlet, too!

I am still attending Bible study at our church. We just finished up a series by Beth Moore called Believing God – but even though the series is officially over, I have much to complete by way of homework, and much to put into practice. What a journey!! I also left the community choir I was in last fall (2006) and joined our church’s worship ministry – I sang in the choir, and then was asked to be part of a 6-voice ensemble that sang for our Easter Service, which was a huge highlight for me. I also sing on “front-line” about half of the Sundays. A new worship pastor started at our church in the fall, and he is a joy to work with and work under. It’s nice having someone else tell me what to do for a change! He put together a choir and we sang for an Alvin Slaughter concert – what a rush!! That was an incredible joy – an experience I won’t ever forget. If Alvin Slaughter ever comes back to town, I will most certainly do what I can to be in the choir again! I will close out the year with singing at church this coming Sunday, as well as for our church’s Christmas Eve service.

Our church went through a crisis this past summer/fall – our senior pastor was struck down with a heart attack in mid-August, and then a massive stroke three days later. We have prayed for a miracle – and we got one! It’s the first time I’ve witnessed a miracle of this sort – but God has truly worked in Pastor Rick’s life. Although Pastor Rick still suffers from aphasia (difficulty with speech) as a result of the stroke, he is improving every week, and even preached two Sundays ago! The doctors and other medical staff are simply amazed – a man who was at death’s door twice in one week, now preaching and almost fully functional? It was nothing short of a miracle. My words fail to convey the gravity of the situation, but our faith has sure increased in these past months!

In June, we gained a new sister! Graeme’s youngest brother, Jordan, tied the knot with Carly, and then quickly whisked her off to Hinton as he started his first year of residency for medical school. They’ll be back this coming summer, and hopefully they’re back to stay! Graeme was a groomsman in the wedding, and Joshua & Dustin were ring-bearers. Dustin was in a decorated wagon, and Joshua pulled him down the aisle. SO cute!

Also in June, right after Jordan’s wedding, we took a trip to Victoria with the boys. It was a much-needed break from the rigors of life here – especially for Graeme to get away from the pharmacy. We had a great time – it was only a week – but we enjoyed the parks, the harbor, the museums, and for me, the gym at the hotel we stayed in! Joshua still thinks it’s “our” hotel in Victoria, as if we own that room or something! It was sooo nice to get away.

In August, we moved. Yup. Again. What were we thinking!!??!! Well…we were thinking that it was time to fulfill a dream of ours, and invest in an acreage. So, we now live **information deleted** – a perfect distance. We have a 1 ½ storey home on a 3-acre lot, well-treed, nice rolling yard (nice little hills for tobogganing), a fire pit, a tire swing courtesy of Graeme, a hammock courtesy of Graeme’s birthday, an apple tree with monstrous apples, and a lot of space for the boys to run! We enjoy the peace…the darkness at night…the fresh air… The move-in was not without its headaches and setbacks, but we think we’ve overcome them for the most part. With decorating the tree and the house for Christmas, it’s finally feeling like home. We are starting to be able to do projects because we want to do them, not because we have to.

I may be facing knee surgery sometime this coming year – I had an MRI a couple of months ago, which showed a torn meniscus with some cystic growth at the back of the knee. That would explain the recurrent intense pain I’ve been having whenever I do even simple things like bike riding or walking with the boys!! But, I have to exercise – I’ve already been set back enough as it is – and so knee surgery is probably the only option I have to turn this thing around and get back on track with my workouts (and therefore energy and everyday life). I will be seeing a specialist of some sort sometime in the new year – the referral has been made, and now I’m just waiting for the phone call.

We have been blessed this fall with fewer big events, and we’ve been able to focus on taking care of the house and getting our country life started. It’s been an adventure, and we’re just thrilled to be living out of the city again. We are looking forward to Christmas celebrations with family & friends, winter wonderland fun-time with the boys, cross-country skiing on our property (okay, that’s just me), and simply enjoying some time as a family…maybe cozied up in front of the fireplace with a mug of marshmallow-topped hot chocolate…

We pray that you will be blessed this Christmas season, just as we are blessed in our reflections on the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. May your new year be filled with joy, peace, growth, renewal, and refreshing! Rejoice!

In Christ,
Graeme, Melissa, Joshua, and Dustin