December
12, 2019
London, Ontario
Season’s Greetings from Carolle and John
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| Carolle and John at Louise and Bill's Wedding, Nov. 17 |
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| Miles Nicholas Palmer |
Miles Nicholas Palmer was born to Laura and
Matthew on September 21st! Laura is off on parental leave from 3M,
but she and Matthew are sharing some of the parental leave so that Matthew will
be able to be at home with them some of the time, too. They both love their jobs at 3M.
Matthew’s older daughter, Cordelia, is in
her third year at university, acing modern languages. During this past year she
and her partner, Amber, moved in together. Cordelia expects to finish
university in a little over a year and then go on to teachers’ college.
Phebe, Matthew’s younger daughter, is back
on track with her schooling, earning As and A+s, and she is now enrolled in a
special program at university where she can finish her high school credits and
begin taking university courses. She loves doing all the independent research.
Her partner, Nick, is in his second year of a computer science program and will
surely have numerous job opportunities when he finishes.
Our daughter, Rachael, her partner, Jamie,
and their two cats have moved into a larger apartment and are enjoying the
extra space. Rachael gave up her supervisor job at Freshco, where the hours
were unbearably irregular. She is now privately helping people declutter their
homes, something Rachael has always been good at! and she’s starting a new job
at Sobeys this week. Meanwhile Jamie has a job in with a packaging firm in
South London.
Rachael’s older daughter, Kayla, struggled
this past year in Oshawa and has moved back to London. She is getting back on
her feet now and using her winning personality to sell furniture again.
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| Paytyn in her unicorn costume at Shoeless Joe's |
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| Paisley teasing Carolle with a toothbrush |
Rachael’s younger daughter, Veronica, has
her hands full with Paytyn (5) and Paisley (2 and ½). Veronica’s partner,
Jodie, does concrete work most of the year but then looks for side jobs in the
winter. Paytyn is in senior kindergarten, and Paisley is action unstoppable. We
love getting together with them all whenever we can.
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| Elise and Lara at LegoLand |
Jacob and Melinda bought a house in
Mississauga, Ontario this past year. Melinda is happy to be in smaller
workplace and closer to family than when they were in Houston, and Jacob is
working flat out with a small database development firm. Their two daughters,
Lara (11) and Elise (nearly 8) are in different schools and taking dance and
music lessons, along with swimming (Elise) and taekwondo (Lara). We love
having them all close enough that we can visit more often. Whenever possible,
John insists on going over to be with the girls when they have days off from
school.
Carolle loves being retired. She watches
lots of tennis, curling, and other sports, as well as all the space, nature,
and other science shows she can find. And of course Carolle loves having the
children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren over to visit whenever
possible. She also gets together now and then for lunch, scrabble, and
discussions with some of her friends in London. Carolle has continued her
knitting, and this year she made more fleece blankets for Miles (of course!) and
other friends and relatives. Her health issues make it somewhat difficult for
Carolle to travel, but we still manage to get over to Mississauga to visit the
ex-Texans now and then, and we love getting out frequently for lunch or dinner
at various restaurants.
Meanwhile, John is slowing down his
activity level a bit. He stills does some mystery dinner theatre shows, plays
French horn with the Encore band, and plays bridge weekly with some friends. He
also presented a paper on homelessness at a conference this fall. And lately he
has been doing even more writing. His novel, 2605, has been
well-received and during 2019, he wrote some mystery dinner theatre scripts. He
recently finished a draft of Susan’s Story, a companion novel to 2605,
but says it needs much more editing before he publishes it, and he is working
on a mystery novel based on one of his scripts.
We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas
and a great New Year (2020!)
