Merry Christmas and Happy 2022

 December, 2021

John Palmer and Carolle Trembley

London, ON  

  John's most recent snow-stomp art

Canada

 

 

Merry Christmas 

and Happy New Year!

 

We’ve made it through another year! Despite covid and despite all the age-related problems, we’re here, grateful for the time we’ve had, and looking forward to much more. 

 

We got our booster shots last week, and we have our vaccination certificates in hand. Fortunately, most restaurants are open now (and are being extremely careful), and so we’re able to enjoy one of our very favourite activities – going out to dinner together. Also, it means we can get together with different members of our family and with some of our friends for different special occasions. It’s so nice to be able to see them, laugh with them, and hug them again!

 

Carolle enjoying her new chair

 

 

 Carolle had some infection problems beginning last spring and spent some time in and out of hospitals, but those seem licked now, and her health is returning, along with her energy. Meanwhile we still play cards together, watch nature programmes and sports together on television, and make sure we have plenty of orange juice and ice cream sandwiches on hand. [No, we don’t have those two things together. It’s just that we really like them both.]

 

 

John, before getting his
post lockdown haircut

 

 

 

John is delighted that he has been able to perform in some mystery dinner theatre shows this fall and that he has been able to play his French horn with Encore concert band. He has also re-taken-up curling and continues his fiction writing with four different short stories published or accepted for publication this year. The one big mistake he made was agreeing to be on the Board of Directors for our condo. His advice: don’t do it!

 

 

 

 

Matthew and Laura have this absolutely adorable son, Miles, who is just over two years old and in day care. Laura now works on project management with a traffic control computer firm in Kitchener. Matthew still works on web business for 3M, but now his job is with 3M in St. Paul, Minnesota. Fortunately, both are able to work from home, here in London! Matthew’s daughters are both in university at Western: Cordelia at Brescia College, studying modern languages, and Phebe at King’s College, studying psychology and social justice issues. Cordelia and her partner, Amber, have two energetic huskies and live in the back half of house with a big yard. Phebe’s partner, Nick, is doing web design for a firm near Kingston, but like many others is working from home!

 

We are so pleased for Rachael, who has been so successful over the past year and a half at pulling her life together. The inner motivation she has exhibited has really been impressive. And to top things off, she has a boyfriend in Toronto with whom she spends a fair amount of time. Her older daughter, Kayla, has moved back to London and lives in an apartment in the same house where Rachael lives. Rachael’s younger daughter, Veronica has her two girls (Paytyn [7] and Paisley [4] in school full time now, and Veronica is looking at the possibility of training to become a personal service worker. Lord knows we need them as the population ages! Her long-time partner Jodie has changed jobs, and seems much happier with his new one. They were all here this past weekend, and their girls helped us decorate our Christmas tree, a fun annual event!

 

Jacob and Melinda are well-settled in Mississauga. Jacob was working from home with a database firm, but he realized he really wants to be a teacher, and so he quit that job in November and is now doing supply teaching, hoping to be picked up for a math/physics teaching job eventually. Melinda is still doing medical physics at the hospital in Mississauga. Their girls are into everything. Lara [13] and Elise [9] have done dance, art, gymnastics, and music lessons during the year, often over the internet with distance-learning.

 

It’s a relief to be emerging, albeit slowly and cautiously, from our Covid lairs. Here’s hoping the vaccines and treatment drugs continue to be improved and that we can all enjoy our lives even more in the future.

 

All the best

With tonnes of hugs and love,

Carolle and John

Merry Christmas - 2020 (and a happy, healthy 2021!)

 

Masked, in front of our Christmas tree

 

Carolle Trembley and John Palmer          

19 King St., Unit 602

London, ON   N6A 5N8

CANADA

carolle.trembley@gmail.com

EclectEcon@gmail.com

                                                                                 

Hello again

Wow, it’s a Winter Wonderland here today.  

The First Snow of Winter

 Oh, traffic is difficult and it is cold, but it is our first snow storm and the trees are all covered in white.  It is so beautiful. Unfortunately, the wind has blown the snow away from the pallet John uses for his snow art.  And the rest of this week is supposed to be warm.  What a way to start winter.  As you will see, this year our pictures are of the view from our 6^th floor window. 

And what a year.  This is the COVID-19 year.  We hope you are all safe at home.  We are old and high risk, so it means we have to be extra careful.  And we are. 

John's Snow Art in the Last Snow - Spring, 2020

  Carolle mostly stays home, and John goes for long walks in this beautiful city.  We have a lot of take-out meals from our favorite restaurants.  We have played a lot of Cribbage, and tease each other about winning too many games.  We have begun to play Gin.  We don’t keep score, so we don’t argue as much about who is winning.

The Autumn Colours in the Park across the Street

We did manage to have an 80th birthday party for Carolle at one of our favorite restaurants.  All the family were there, as were a few friends.  And we obeyed all the rules.  We all had masks, and we were carefully spaced by the restaurant so that we had distancing between the tables.  And still we had fun—and turtle pie!  

Moonset over a Sunrise

We don’t see our family as often as we would like.  The young ones are growing up so quickly.  Miles has started walking.  So he gets around even more than we last saw him.  Laura and Matthew text us photos and videos of him, and he looks so happy with his big smile.  Paytyn is back at school  with her friends, and Paisley is at home playing with Mom and the dogs and cat.  Sometimes the girls visit with Grandma (Rachael).  They have learned to work with her Alexa, have made cupcakes and had their fingernails painted.  And this weekend they are coming to our place to help decorate our Christmas tree.  In Mississauga, Lara and Elise are going to school, but most of their other activities have been curtailed. They are clearly doing art, as we have some beautiful pictures they have done.  They looked so happy in the snow in their last photo.  Wonder if they made a snowman.  Phebe is doing well at university, with many classes done on the computer.  She and Nick have moved into a house they are renting from her Mom and are happy there.  Cordelia and Amber have also moved to a new place with room for the dogs to run. 

         In the first week of October, Carolle’s sister, Viv died.  She had been diagnosed with a brain tumor and, after her operation, ended up in palliative care.  Her girls, Kristi and Karen, were with her every day to the end.  They plan to take her ashes to the Bredenbury, Saskatchewan cemetery next year to be with Carolle’s Mom and Dad and sister B.  Luckily, we had been in Edmonton to see Viv just after her operation.  She is missed.  

 

Carolle has become interested in NASA, starting with the TV programs with their spaceship  launches.  And she ordered books which were mistakenly not the children’s books which she thought.  So we now have quite a library about NASA and the International Space Station.  John bought her a NASA t-shirt, and finally found a cardboard model kit of the ISS, which we put together.  It took us slightly longer than the 45 minutes they said.  But it looks good.

 

Summer Sunset

 

Last spring John published two novels he had been working on:  ‘Susan’s Story,’ a companion to his first novel, ‘2605,’ and ‘Murder at the Office ChristmasParty,’ a classic murder mystery with an unusual plot twist.  And just this week he published his second murder mystery, ‘Shrink-Wrapped Murder.’  With no concert band and no theatre, he’s happy to have writing and hiking as other hobbies.  All his books are available in both Kindle and paperback formats from all the Amazons.

 

John's Four Novels

It will be a quiet Christmas at home for us this year.  We have not yet planned our Xmas banquet.  And, in spite of the challenges, we remain aware that we have an awesomely wonderful life, for which we are grateful.  We hope you also have some awesomeness in your lives.  We wish you a Merry Christmas.  And we are all hoping for better things next year.

 

         With love from John and carolle

 

John's Most Recent Snow Stomp Art: 2020, Spiraling out of Control