An Evening with the Jorssen's

Boxing Day saw a group of friends and family getting together at Dave and Lorette's place for good cheer and great food (as usual!). We missed Greg and his family - the baby wasn't feeling well and they had to stay home. And Gerry must have been having too much fun with his friends - he had an earlier party to go to - and we bailed out before he could make it. Robert's daughters, Kelsey and Deirdre were here from Calgary and Ottawa respectively for Christmas and it was nice to visit with them. And Phil was sporting his new glasses!

Christmas Day

Christmas dinner was at Stan's brother place (Ken and Muriel). The house looked like Santa Claus brought a WHOLE LOT OF PRESENTS to all of the children! I heard one of them say "I love Christmas - it's the bestest day of the year!" Memories for a lifetime.

Star, Jocelyne and Stan

Star and her 'foster' parents at the Celebration of Light fireworks last summer.

Pre-Christmas Get-Together at Silvanna's

...and Star in a to-PEAR-iary TREE...

Here are those tattoos that were displayed by Shirley and Pete at Charlee and Ric's Christmas Party!

Christmas Party

Ric and Charlee had their annual Christmas Party last night - a meeting of old friends: Phil and Sandi, Tom and Starr, Roy and Helga, Dave and Lisa, Sophie, Margaret, Pete and Shirley as well as ourselves. Pete and Shirley showed off their new tattoos! By the way, that's not Ric with Charlee!

Big Ben

Nicole and PJ's Big Ben passed away yesterday. We never knew his real age as he came from the pound fully grown. The vet thought he would have been between 10 and 12 years old. His first few years were spent in the city which wasn't really his cup of tea. He came into his own on the farm and he really blossomed both physically and psychologically. He will be sorely missed by humans and beasts alike. He is being cremated and his ashes are coming back to "his" farm where he will forever oversee all of the other critters.

Missy Pots also has left us within the last week. The last little while has been tough on the girls losing two much loved pets. Missy Pots was a great cat with a very unusual look - she was a match to Willie with her white body and black, yellow and white head and tail.

Anniversary/Birthday Weekend

On the weekend of December 10th, we went to Seattle and spent three days and two nights in a condo in the heart of downtown. It has become a tradition for us and our friends, Sandi and Phil Blake, to do something special around the 14th of December which is our wedding anniversary and Sandi's birthday. We had a fantastic time taking in the sights and, naturally, shopping. We were lucky to find out about a restaurant named Anthony's on Alaskan Way. It was so good and reasonably priced that we had dinner there two evenings in a row.

Nicole and I

Where there is a horse, you will find Nicole! Taken in main shopping area in Sedona.

Trip to Sedona/Santa Cruz, Nov. 2005

Stan and I drove down to Sedona towards the latter part of November to spend American Thanksgiving with Pj's family at Ellen's and Kathleen's place in Sedona, AZ. Ellen is PJ's sister and Kathleen is her partner. Also there were Karen and Doug and their children, Mary-Rose and Kyle; Colleen and Al and their children, Anthony and Gaby. Naturally, Pj and Nicole also were there having flown in from Uxbridge, ON - a little break before the northeast winter weather sets in! And, we must not forget Dakota ! We had a wonderful time. The weather cooperated and was in the 70's and sunny the whole time we were there. We left for Phoenix on the Friday evening after Thanksgiving dropping Nicole and PJ at the airport and we spent another couple of days at the Phoenix house before heading towards Santa Cruz and a visit with Christine and Kenny who, unfortunately, missed the family reunion. We had a too brief but great visit overnight with them and then headed home.

PURPOSE FOR BEING

Thought I would use this little piece of the internet to keep track of what is going on in our lives. Will keep it positive and highlight the good stuff. Motto being, forget about yesterday and tomorrow - enjoy today to the fullest!