Christmas 2023

This year we had our family Christmas dinner together again at the home of Susan and Ralph. Mary and Hilary also contributed with a few delicious dishes. Shayd and Parker were missing because of their jobs this time, and we celebrated early because Hilary also had an ER work shift on Christmas Day. We all had a full plate of wonderful food in good company...

After dinner we had fun with poems and gifted Christmas ornament gifts. Spencer outdid us all again with a very smart poem. This year he had my name, but he managed to roast everybody. Parker and Shayd were present on-line. The ornaments gifted to Joe (creative handiwork from Ralph) and to Opa (his favorite bacon) were just a few examples of everybody's creative spirits.

The next day Opa spotted a Christmas car (fundraising activity for local foodbank). All of us spend two hours in the morning being active in the gym of our local community center playing pickle ball).

And after the family sports event, soup and sandwiches at our place, everybody went home again, including Hilary and Poncho back to Vancouver. A few very nice days together!

People in places

Marcy did send us this photo of Joe having a haircut near their resort in Belize; outdoor service. They spent ten days in the sun at a place which did not appear to have many other guests. From one of the Caribbean islands I received a photo of a former Seneca colleague (Shalini on the left) and a NC graduate and now member of the international team at NC (Derek on the right). They were both at work promoting studying in Canada.

And my group of university friends celebrated last week that it has been 49 years ago we all started our study programs in Delft. Next year a reunion is planned in the south of France....

The NC international team has built further on initiatives started some 15 years ago in the spirit of global education. Earlier this week I attended a celebration for three groups of NC students who made a short trip to Ireland and Costa Rica accompanied by two faculty members. Before and after those trips they completed a for-credit course called "Be World Ready". Vice President Sean spoke to them and it was so good to see the positivism of everybody about their experiences.

It was rainy, snowy and cold weather the past two weeks, so I decided to start a challenging jigsaw puzzle of a winter landscape. Took me ten days of patient brain practice. Just completed it tonight.