Hello everyone

It was a good year for our family with lots going on to distract us from politics and global affairs. 

The banner event for the year was Lauren and Collin’s wedding, 6 July, in Peterborough, with deepest gratitude to Jamie & Dana Chepeka for hosting it in their party-perfect backyard.

It was a small, casual event, great for visiting family and friends and the first time we’ve had our entire brood together since before the pandemic.

The newlyweds took a brief honeymoon at Blue Mountain Resort where they had a chance to recover and enjoy a host of interesting summer activities.

Back home, they are back at work:  Lauren as an occupational therapist on the cardiac ward at Peterborough Regional Health Centre (with a brief interruption for an emergency appendectomy in October from which she has bounced back quickly) and Collin at The Research for Social Change Lab at Trent University. Collin expects to defend his thesis in the first week of January, after which we shall address him formally as Dr. Chepeka. 

After the wedding, Leslie, her father Hugh, her sister Andrea (broken leg), and Meghan as able-bodied assistant spent poking around the environs and cemeteries of Georgina where the Taylor maternal family (Sibbald & Lyall) hail from. They rounded out their trip in Stratford and enjoyed seeing our local star, Vanessa Sears in two Shakespeare plays.

The early part of the year was busy with wedding planning, wedding sewing and wedding crafting. Perhaps it was a good thing that is was a terrible ski year, with only three reasonable snowfalls all season. We are hoping for better this year (skis prepped and ready). We dealt with our disappointment by taking a spring trip to Arizona, ostensibly while the mud at home dried up.  Leslie has maternal cousins near both Phoenix (Sandy & Jim Miller in Gilbert) and Tuscon (John McIvor and Julie McIntyre in Oro Valley).  We enjoy their company, appreciated their hospitality and really enjoyed the hiking and sightseeing. 

We had another opportunity to get together with Sandy & Jim’s family when their youngest son, Brian married Taylor in Cincinnati. It’s a long drive for a weekend, but drive we did. We enjoyed time with Sandy & Jim’s family and also Scott & Colette Little’s family. And we discovered that Cincinnati is a great city to visit, with interesting neighbourhoods for walking, an amazing central museum complex and good food/beer culture. 

And everyone else? 

Meghan continues to work as a data engineer at Morgan Stanley in Montreal. She keeps herself busy and active, having taken up rock climbing with a vengeance (“I try not to go every day”) and an interesting Brazilian martial art called capoeira which seems as much dance as combat.

Gosaye remains in the Ottawa area, living with his buddy Josh who has become like family, working in the kitchen at Chesterfield’s Gastro Diner, and working on his music in his spare time. He played a solo on his saxophone at the wedding. His lovely (very large) dog Lucy remains with us until Gosaye & Josh relocate. 

Biniyam is still in Saskatoon, currently freelancing as an events deejay after leaving Outlaws Country Rock Bar. Saskatchewan is a long way so it’s particularly special to see him. This summer, he acted as Lauren & Collin’s wedding officiant. He’ll be back for Christmas, and we are looking forward to having us all together for cousin Matt & Sharayah’s wedding in Kincardine next summer.

Leslie’s father, Hugh, and Andrew’s mother, Margaret, remain healthy and active, both having turned ninety this year. Margaret had a splashy celebration at her retirement home while Hugh enjoyed a quieter celebration in his apartment lounge.

On a sad note, we recently lost Margaret's brother, Peter Barrow. He was a well-loved uncle and will be missed. 

And us?

When you own a house, there is no shortage of things to do. The gardens are in pretty good shape, but we needed a deck for our new front door and then there were paths and spaces to be re-imagined. We are pretty pleased with this summer's efforts as we worked with materials we had on hand and bought nothing but a load of gravel.

We keep up our formidably busy retired lives. Andrew is back to curling and ice maintenance at our local club after a busy summer of golf and lawn bowling.  Leslie remains at the Valley Artisans’ Coop, currently serving as secretary/director. She is still working her way through eight boxes of photos and genealogical material passed along by her father when he moved in April 2023 (2 ½ boxes to go). 

We are looking forward to a return to France for a couple of weeks before Christmas, meeting Leslie’s paternal cousins, Lisa & Frank in Lyon for some touring, hiking and undoubtedly good food and wine. If all goes well, that’s where we’ll be when you receive this letter!