2003 Christmas Letter
Two-thousand-three turned out to be another very busy and memorable year for
us, but a year in which most of what we did revolved around others, and especially
weddings. We would attend quite a few of them, and each was special in its own
way.
The nuptuals started with a bang in February: Paul
and Candy's small, picturesque
wedding was held on Waikiki beach in Hawai'i. Ceremonies included traditional
Chinese customs we'd never witnessed before. Because of the great distance required
to travel to the wedding, we were alone among Paul's friends to attend, and
happy to represent them.
Upon returning, Ann took up crocheting
again, and spent many, many evenings and weekends making wedding gifts for the
rest of the year. Her most ambitous afghan
to date went to Janevieve
and James for their May
wedding in Hamilton. We were involved in their wedding as we'd never been
in such events before. As 'unofficial photographers', we followed the bride
and groom from preparations until after we'd all danced the night away. The
following day, our duties expanded to filling Ann's hatchback with wedding gifts,
transporting them to the couple's home, and then assisting them with packing
their car to the gills for their honeymoon.
As summer started, the weddings became more frequent. At Janevieve and James'
reception,
we were invited to Liza and Derrek's end-of-June wedding
in Westport. It sported a Celtic theme, and the reception
was most appropriately at Tir Na Nog in our shared old haunt of Kingston.
With a wedding inserted into Ann's afghan schedule on short notice, the
gift didn't end up being completed until well into the fall after several
false starts. Shortly after returning from Kingston, Ross was Meaford-bound
to prepare for
Gordon
and Faith's July 4 wedding as Best Man and M.C. The mad couple of days were
topped off by a whirlwind trip to Midland, Owen Sound and finally Toronto to pick
up the official photographer - Ann - who was feverishly working on the train to
finish another
afghan in time for the wedding. Thankfully, the Friday morning ceremony
went off without a hitch (well, the bride and groom got hitched). That evening,
we returned to Ottawa, so we could fly out to Regina
for the next wedding on our schedule.
During our week in Saskatchewan,
we thoroughly enjoyed our tour of the more hilly south-western part of the province.
Highlights included the Cypress
Hills, a dinosaur archeological museum/lab,
and sections which featured the near total absence of human beings and their
trappings. But the most unique part for us were the glacial
flats in the Regina area, a joy to criss-cross in the red
Mustang we rented.
Meanwhile, Ann got a little closer to completing yet
another afghan each evening. The week was topped off with Bobby-Jo
and Greg's wedding at a beautiful church in Regina.
With the wedding pace slackening in August, we ventured east for a week's vacation.
Some of our university friends had moved out there recently, and so we decided
to reprise last
year's week in Nova
Scotia for some housewarming. The first half of the week was spent in beautiful
Cape Breton, where we toured the Cabot
Trail and enjoyed hiking
and whalewatching
in the National Park. We even got a look at the Marconi
National Historic Site, where Ann's company's namesake made his mark. Later
on, we travelled to Halifax,
for some touring and cavorting with our friends Jen,
Chris, Paul and Candy. Before leaving, we all celebrated Ross'
30th birthday together.
A couple months would pass until the final wedding of the year, and until yet
another
large afghan was completed. Our friends John and Anna held a
unique medieval-themed wedding on Thanksgiving
weekend. Like ourselves, most guests were dressed in period garb, and enjoyed
a sumptuous meal of roast pig, stuffed quail, Scotch eggs, peas porridge, tuna
cakes, and mincemeat tarts, all without the benefit of plates or cutlery. All
the weddings we attended this year were memorable in their own way, and certainly
John and Anna's will be no exception.
Of course, there was much more to the year than attending weddings. Both of
us continued with our hobbies and making improvements around the house. Besides
the afghans mentioned earlier, Ann made some pillows
as gifts, and many items
for the new babies in our extended families. To support the overwhelming
number of photos accumulating over time, Ross completed a new version of PhotoGenic,
our photo-management software, which we hope you'll consider beta-testing
if you have a digital camera or scanner. Around the house, Ross completed installing
the wired network into all of our rooms, and added a couple bannisters to make
it easier for his mother to get up and down the stairs. In the summer, besides
all the regular upkeep, we rehabilitated
our largest garden, which culminated in the use of just over a tonne of
mulch. Also, we kept up our ballroom
dancing lessons, which we enjoyed putting to use at some of the weddings.
We made other trips - one to Manhattan,
several
to
Toronto
and Go
Home
Bay
- and had a number of
great
visits
from
guests,
but there just isn't enough room to write about them all. However, the highlight
of the year deserves mention: our 18-day February vacation
in Hawai'i - surely our most photographed expedition to date. We hiked almost
200 km on Hawai'i's four largest islands, including along the sides of half-mile-high
sea cliffs, rare-honeycreeper-filled mountain rainforests, huge desert canyons,
and active volcano craters. We enjoyed the best humpback whalewatching ever,
trekked through an ancient lava tube, travelled to the top of telescope-studded
Mauna Kea, and ventured onto lava as it cooled and made its way to the ocean.
All the while, we stayed in quaint valley BnBs and a mountain cabin in the rainforest.
The day after Valentine's Day, we even witnessed sunrise at the top of Haleakala
on Maui, where Ross
proposed to Ann.
And so, we look forward to next year, while we make preparations for our wedding
and 10th anniversary party. The wedding ceremony, dinner and ball will be held
Saturday June 5, 2004, at our home in Carp.
