Christmas with New Family

After a long break, another post appears...

Susan and I are happy to announce that we were engaged on December 21st. The wedding will be in late summer of 2008 in Ontario.

We have just returned from Newfoundland where we spent our Christmas with the Banfields.

We were greeted at the airport in St. John's by a welcome party made up of Susan's: father, sister, brother, 2 aunts, an uncle and 3 cousins. During the next week I met several other members of the family.

We spent time with family and friends and had a great time in Grand Falls.

Our trip home was a bit rough. We were scheduled to leave St. John's at 5am on Dec. 30. Our flight was delayed and then cancelled due to bad weather (oddly enough every other flight leaving around that time took off). The flight was eventually rescheduled for 4:15 that afternoon. After napping and grabbing lunch at Jungle Jims, we returned to the airport and checked in around 2pm. However, our flight did not leave at 4:15. It was discovered a little before we were scheduled to begin boarding that the plane at a mechanical problem and that the flight would be delayed until a mechanic could look at it. After replacing the dead batteries, the plane powered up and they boarded us at least an hour late. We were further delayed while we taxied to another part of the airport for de-icing, and then to our runway. Were were nearly 2 hours late leaving. This made our connection in Toronto VERY tight...so tight that when we got to the gate, we discovered that our seats had been given away. The agents at the gate were very rude (they seemed to think that it was our personal fault that our flight was late), but they did get us seats on the plane. We were moved from row 19 to row 29, which of course meant that we could not recline our seats because were in the last row and had a bulkhead behind us. Obviously it didn't matter that we had paid extra to select our seats in advance back in September when we booked our flights. We did make it home though, and our baggage, which was not transfered to our plane in Toronto, is expected to catch up with us today.

I haven't flown with Air Canada much, prefering to travel with West Jet, and the amount of complications on this trip as well as the poor customer service has definately convinced me to stick with West Jet. Hopefully the next time Air Canada runs out of money the government won't waste their time (and our tax dollars) bailing them out.

I will be sure to post further information regarding the wedding as details are established.

For anyone living in the area between Pickering and the Niagara region, if you attend an Army corps (or other church for that matter), we'd appreciate some pictures of sanctuaries as we are trying to figure out where to have the wedding. You can e-mail me at listowel1984@gmail.com

Highlights...followed by an indepth story

Okay, here are the highlights of my life since my last post:

Dad breaks Methuselah's record!!

Phil spends Christmas in K-country.

The Turtle visits Calgary.

Outdoor staking New Year's Eve.

Youth Pastor nabbed at checkstop on Eve of New Year.

New driver runs stop signs, jumps curbs.

Okay, that's the abbreviated version for those who don't particularly care. For those of my friends who more concerned with the happenings of the past few weeks, here's what I've been up to.

December 22nd, I flew down to Calgary via Peace Air flight 708. The plane was a little 9 passenger deal. A very different experience than a 737 or 747. It was a strange sensation to feel the plane being pushed around by the wind. I enjoyed it!!

The 23rd I completed my Christmas shopping 45 minutes after starting. Most of it was done at Chinook Mall. Normally going to Chinook on the Saturday right before Christmas is not on my list of things to do, but I didn't have a lot of options. The mall was suprisingly quiet, and I was out of there fairly quickly. I also got my hair cut. So far I have not got a hair cut in Peace River - I just get it done when I'm in Calgary. With my next visit to Calgary not scheduled until July, I think I will have to find somewhere in town to get a hair cut or two.

December 24th was my father's birthday. Man is that guy getting old!! The Christmas Eve service at Glenmore was wonderful (as usual). I ran the MediaShout during the service, which projects the words for songs, readings, etc for the congregation to see (kind of like PowerPoint - only better). That service proceeds unannounced, so congregational participation is cued by what is shown on the screen...such power no one man should wield!! I enjoyed the evening.

It was different this year at Christmas, as it was the first time that our family has not been together on Christmas Day. My brother, Phil, spent Christmas at Camp Horizon in Kananaskis with the Easter Seals. We did have my Grandma Waters with us. A couple from the church who immigrated to Canada from Columbia also joined us, along with their children.

I can't really remember what happened on Boxing Day...so I'll skip that one.

The evening of the 27th I was able to visit with my friend Jackie. She has become a very dear friend of mine over the past several years and it was fantastic to spend some time catching up. Then on the 28th I spent some time with Kyla, another fantastic friend. We went to see Casino Royale, the latest James Bond film. I also finally tracked down the one Bond film that I did not yet own. It's an older one, but one I have been unable to find in at least 4 years of searching. I know own 20 out of 20 "007" films on VHS and DVD, and have the 21st in theatres.

On the 29th a bunch of us who hang out together got together and Mr. and Mrs. Decker's house (aka Michael and Lindsay's) for a few hours. We watched the fireplace channel, discussed hockey, and just had a good time. Myrtle, one of the Australians that I went to school with joined us. She had arrived in Calgary on the bus from William's Lake, BC earlier that day. She was staying with Alicia for a bit before heading back to Australia.

On the 30th I had an eye exam and got new glasses. I had been wearing the same glasses since 2001. Last time I had an exam (in 2004 I think) my prescription had changed so little that I decided that instead of getting new glasses I'd get prescription sunglasses. Unfortunately the finish on the lenses has been pealing for a while now and it has been very irritating. But now I had nice new glasses!! After that I met Myrtle and Alicia for lunch, and then we went to the Museum of the Regiments. We had supper at Peter's Drive-In. After we finished supper Alicia couldn't get her parents' van started and we ended up having to get a boost from a nearby man. Very kind of him to help us with that.

Sunday dinner on the 31st we had a full table. Here's a picture (taken by my father):

Pictured are (going clockwise, starting on the left): my Mom, Myrtle, me, Kyla, Amanda (Phil's girlfriend), Phil (my brother), my Grandma W.

New Year's Eve was spent at Glenmore. Michael, Linds, Kyla and I were the "old" people. At least that's how we felt standing in the kitchen drinking hot drinks away from the noise in the other room. We had a good time though. We took some of the kids skating downtown Calgary at Olympic Plaza. We also played volleyball, "terminator" and watched some movies. Linds made waffles and Michael made sausages for breakfast. The waffles were great, but my stomach couldn't handle anything that morning.

I slept most of New Year's Day. Our family went to the Russell New Year's dinner that evening. The food was great as usual and a few of us had a good time playing Scattegories for a while.

Then it was off to the airport at 5:50am on January 2. My flight left Calgary at 6:50am, and after a stop in Red Deer and a delay in Edmonton I was back in Peace River by 10:30am.

I was back to work January 3rd to start cleaning up from Christmas. Now it's time to move forward with some other projects that have been on hold over Christmas. Two big ongoing projects plus planning and fundraising for a couple of things in July. Oh, and a volunteer appreciation gig to plan. Lots to do still, but definately a slower pace...I'm not sure if I'm glad about that or not...

The pics are back!!

I am very happy to announce that my camera was found last week, and I have all my pictures in tact!! The pics will continue into the future!!

Here are the ones that I had hoped to post before:

Only a couple more days until I get to go home for Christmas!! I will be spending 10 days in Calgary from Dec. 22 to Jan. 2. My Grandma Waters is visiting over Christmas and my classmate Myrtle from Australia is spending time in Calgary over New Year's.

Life is VERY busy these days, but I am having a great time! But I am definately looking forward to the down time that is coming at the end of the week.

SunnyD and lots of it!!

Over the past week I have picked up HUGE quantities of food and toys from various grocery stores and other locations around town. In addition to picking up the food that we ordered for our Christmas Hampers we also received a large quantity of food as a donation from the local IGA - big thanks there!! Lots of toys have been coming in to support the Toys for Tots program as well. It's increadible to see the tangible evidence of people's generosity and caring for those in the community who are less fortunate than themselves!! Way to go Peace River!!

This upcoming week will be the last that we are taking applications for Christmas Hampers, then we just have to finish up putting the boxes together for distribution the following week. I will not be around Peace River on Thursay and Friday as I'm headed for Edmonton.

I have my interview with the Divisional Candidate's Board Friday afternoon. This is one of the final stages of my application for entry into training for Officership in The Salvation Army. I am rather glad that the application process is coming to finality. It's been at least a year since I began filling out my preliminary application. The Territorial Candidate's Board is set to meet early in the New Year, so I'm hoping that I'll have an answer one way or the other soon after that meeting.

Today the Fire Department is manning the Christmas Kettles around town. They're a good bunch of guys and are well known in the community so we're hoping that will have a positive impact on Kettle contributions today.

I am continuing to sit on the local Poverty Action Committee, although that group won't meet again until the new year, but I am now a part of the Community Soup Kitchen Committee as well, representing The Salvation Army. We have been meeting once a week for a couple of weeks now and the committee will meet again on Thursday, although I will be in Edmonton and miss that meeting. We have found a location for the soup kitchen and have set a start date of January 8th or somewhere thereabouts.

Life is very busy right now, but I am thoroughly enjoying myself. I am looking forward to a couple of slower days later in the week when I'm down south in Edmonton, even if I do have the stress of the interview to consider. And I am looking forward to flying out of the Peace River Airport at 11:20am on December 22nd aboard Peace Air flight 708 for 10 days of Christmas holidays.

Those 10 days feature seeing my Grandma Waters for the first time in nearly 2 years, a visit from my friend Myrtle (who was a classmate of mine in Australia), and getting to visit with my good friends in Calgary - possibly for the last time until August (we'll see how things go).

Hopefully I'll get some pictures up in the next day or two...we'll see how things go.

Christmas Kettles

Well, things are really into full swing for Christmas now!! Last week we started our Christmas Kettles at work. We have them out Wednesdays to Saturdays, which is enough in a town the size of Peace River.

We had a formal little "kick-off" up at the IGA on Saturday. The Mayor and MLA were both in attendance, and the newspaper covered it to include with a story on the Christmas Hampers which will run in the paper this week (I think). A brass ensemble from Grande Prairie also came up to play some Christmas songs. They brought along an extra cornet for me to play so that all the parts were covered. Then a few of us had pizza back at the church with the ensemble before they headed back.

A few pics.

Here are a few picutres from the Salvation Army Community & Family Services Centre in Peace River. I spent 6 hours on Friday decorating for Christmas. Today we started taking applications for Christmas Hampers.

This morning I saw the first 7 of the close to 200 clients we expect to see during the Christmas season. We will take Hamper applications up until December 14. Christmas Dinner Hampers will be picked up by clients during the week before Christmas.