The year that was

The lead up to Christmas has been fun. We had a few Christmas gatherings to attend. Nicholas’ unit hosted the last school assembly of the year where he performed a solo on his recorder. Catherine has been singing Jingle Bells every chance she gets (“jingle all the way... home!”). We have also enjoyed spending long, lazy summer days with our favourite people. Christmas day was all about giving and receiving, spending time with family and eating a big festive meal.

From Dec2013

And so, we are coming to another year that was. 2013 was a good year for all of us. Nicholas mentioned his highlights included Christmas, their joint birthday party, going to America and most of his school days. He has definitely had a good school year thanks to his teacher, Mr. Luck (yes, that is his real name!), who has been very encouraging and supportive of Nicholas’ quiet and meticulous personality. Nicholas also discovered Tae Kwon Do and gymnastics this year and hopes to continue these activities next year.

Catherine has made tremendous progress with her speech this year, especially during the last couple of months. It has been a trip hearing her emerging Australian accent. She continues to surprise us with grammatically correct sentences and expressions. With her newly found language, she has even carried short conversations with random people at parties. She enjoys meeting new people and making them her new besties by the end of the party. Play dates, childcare and early intervention preschool were her main activities this year.

Phil has had another busy year work wise. He attended and presented at several conferences and enjoyed some of the personal travel that came along with it. The trifecta (Austin-Chicago-San Francisco) in America was a highlight, especially Chicago where we explored as a family as well as with work friends. Another exciting moment for Phil was singing in a concert with the Tallis Scholars.

Our trip to America was also a memorable time for me. It was fun to travel with the kids and to share our favourite people and places with them. I also had a good year making new friends and attending a great yoga class. I even convinced my sister-in-law to come along to yoga and I have enjoyed our weekly catch-ups. And when Catherine moved up to early intervention preschool, I very much appreciated more me-time and volunteered in Nicholas’ class when I could.

We hope you have all had a good year and we wish you an even better one for 2014. Happy New Year!

Music: Mountain Sound by Of Monsters and Men

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