I read a newspaper article recently that was against year end Christmas letters because they were boring impersonal form letters that were superficially positive. Needless to say there were numerous editorial letters slamming the article in the weeks to follow. From my perspective if it were not for the computer and the photocopier or email you would not get such a detailed letter or perhaps not one at all. As far as the positive spin there is nothing worse than a movie with a bad ending. Why dredge up bad memories anyway. I have done the mind dump on those long ago to make room for the good ones. Besides Cathy maintains a historical record of my past sins anyway which she occasionally reminds me of.

Speaking of past sins we had a very successful Jay and Cathy's ranch BBQ and Glow Ball tournament in August. Ron, Gord, Dadye, Mary Anne and families came over, numerous friends and co-workers were all in attendance. The beer and the wine was flowing liberally then we BBQ'd, drank some more, played Bocci Ball and the kids were running around having a great time. Then I noticed, my goodness, the sun is going down and yelled "quickly, everyone to the golf course". There was a mass exodus to the golf course, (we had about 30 players), and away we went. Glow Ball is totally hilarious as it is golf at night with a little glow stick you stick in a clear ball. The ball is very easy to see and you don't lose your ball like in the daytime. Somehow I was teamed up with Gord and Ron and amazingly there was a bottle of rye in my golf bag. Ron had one too and Gord pulled out a bottle of rum. When a bunch of guys and Mr. Crown Royal get together it is amazing how you lose track of time. We golfed and golfed and golfed. Then around midnight we decided we should play skins so we golfed some more. It was starting to get light when we decided to go home. Later that morning, there were at least 12 guests for brunch that had stayed the night. After breakfast once everyone had left I felt quite good for laying on such a fun successful event. Then suddenly it felt like something was burning the back of my neck and discovered that it was the evil death stare emanating from Cathy. There was only one thing to do; role over and give the spanked puppy look but to no avail and thus the long drought began. Apparently in the rush to get to the golf course all adults and children of babysitting age went to the course, leaving a number of smaller children unattended. Cathy who wanted to play and was closing doors etc suddenly realised this and stayed behind. This was very bad and only made worse when I returned with high-octane levels in the wee hours of the morning. Which brings us too…

THE STORY OF CATHY. Over the past year Cathy has worked extremely hard managing an area computer network of over 35 servers and 2,000 users. Her job is very tense and there are few that can do what she does. In order to remain current in this rapidly changing field she must do a lot of home study. This however, does not lead too much free time or family life. Christmas will likely be taken from her again this year as it was last year. Last year it was a new network software implementation and this year it is the Y2K bug, which will affect both our holiday plans or lack thereof for differing reasons. Y2K is very likely going to be a non-event other than it has made a number of computer consultants very rich. Nevertheless, I have daily reports that have to go in throughout December and for Cathy it is even worse with various computer testing etc. As such we will not be visiting anyone this Christmas season nor is it worthwhile for someone to visit us. I suspect that by 5 Jan it will be declared a non-event and I will be able to visit Dadye the following weekend. Our kids also have a strange holiday season this year that takes them through to 10 Jan.

My Parents came out in June for a few days and it was good to have them out as well. They did the bulk of the planting of our first vegetable garden. The garden was quite successful even though we planted late and had a cool summer. Cathy and Brett planted the Pumpkins and Brett had some trouble holding the seeds. The package stated that only one out of every two to three seeds would germinate so they planted lots. Pumpkins look so harmless when they start out, two little leaves that just innocently sit there. I didn't think they would do much more than the cucumbers but around the middle of August they went nuclear and there were pumpkins everywhere. I vaguely remember my mother in law warning me about this. Not only were they everywhere inside the garden but outside as well. We ended up with over 80 Pumpkins and would have had more if it were not for the short growing season. We supplied all the pumpkins to the annual Wainwright Pumpkin Dive (this is where we carve pumpkins underwater), everyone at work and I still gave Brett's school a dozen. Cathy won a number of prizes at the pumpkin dive, but we did not win the carving contest with our Pumpkin family.

I will discuss the family reunion later but after Thanksgiving Cathy and I went to Nanaimo. The diving around Nanaimo is fantastic. We chartered with Ocean Explorers where their facility is located at Departure Bay. Part of the charter includes accommodation at the nearby Buccaneer Inn, which is well set up for divers. The first day we dove on the HMCS Saskatchewan, which was a destroyer escort, that was sunk two years ago as an artificial reef. Later that day we dove on Clark rock where we saw both an octopus and a wolf eel. We did a total of six dives and other than it being a little windy for the remainder of the week the weather was excellent. Before flying back to Edmonton we had to spend a day at altitude. This provided an excellent opportunity to visit relatives in Nanaimo. We stayed at Luke and Tracy's for the weekend. Luke has a great house overlooking the bay towards Sechelt. We went to a nearby pub where they having a music trivia contest Friday nights. Luke is great at this and had won about six of the eight or so times they ran this contest including the big $500 night. Adding Cathy to the team only increased the odds and our team cruised to an easy victory. The winnings helped pay for the dinner and drinks. The next day we went to breakfast with Uncle Phil and afterwards Cathy went to visit with Phil while Luke, Tracy and I went golfing. It was a great fall day sunny and about 20c. I borrowed Phil's clubs and had not too bad of a round. Luke had a slightly better score than I did but I still won 40 cents from him on our aggressive side betting. Later that day Mark and Janet came over and were celebrating their forth week of home alone after the twins had moved out. This however, was short lived as Mark was on his way over to Vancouver the next day to help one of them move back. It came time to leave after a great stay. It was very apparent that Tracy had no regrets leaving Surrey and thoroughly enjoyed her new house. I also must make note of Jake the wonder dog that plays an awesome game of catch. Hopefully Brett will take up Scuba Diving this spring, as going to Nanaimo diving with the kids would be a great affordable family holiday.

On Thanksgiving we went to the annual family reunion in Saskatoon but more on that later. Recently in November we had a military exercise to validate the Battle Group going to Bosnia. The exercise was held in the local towns around Edmonton where the troops had to provide defence and security of their area. One of the events was a helicopter that makes an emergency landing in a minefield. To add to the already complex situation the commander is on board and some local kids run into the field and become casualties. The location of this incident was our back yard and Brett was one of the simulated casualties. Brett thoroughly enjoyed playing his role and of course he had to keep his makeup on when I took him back to school that afternoon.

 THE STORY OF BRYN. Other than having a good time at the Thanksgiving weekend there is not a whole lot to talk about Bryn regarding that event. Bryn started shaving this year and tends to take meticulous care of his personal hygiene. This could be a factor with the girls paying more attention to him. There are three girls on Bryn's hockey team this year and as assistant coach it is quite hillarious to watch them flirt with Bryn. As a 15-year-old male he is quite oblivious to their attention or doesn't know how to handle it, which is a good thing. This year the team, even though they may not possess the skill of some of the other teams, they are starting to gel and put out the effort. As such they are currently 3 and 2 on the season. Bryn's play has increased greatly as he is finally starting to throw some checks.

In May we had some Japanese grade 9 students stay over for four days as part of a school exchange program. They spoke little English and we spoke no Japanese therefore we had a fantastic cultural exchange of ideas. They were understandably nervous but as soon as the Nintendo came out all cultural barriers were down. All you could hear was the clickity click of the Nintendo controls. Their stay turned out to be a lot of fun as there were a number of group activities with interpreters so we could better understand each other. We found out for example that we all hated shopping but only found this out after spending three hours in the mall thinking the other party wanted to shop. Their stay ended with a dinner and cultural exchange at the Officers Mess.

 I guess this brings us to the STORY OF ME. Thanksgiving was fun but more on that later. A number of us turned 40 this year. Ron Teschl, Dave and Connie Faas, Cathy and I have all turned 40 to name but a few. I can remember my Uncle Phil's 40^th birthday and I remember thinking wow is that ever old. Other than a slightly longer recovery period after a hockey game however, I don't feel a whole lot different than I did say 10 years ago. Work has been very intense, as you are maybe aware we have deployed units from our Brigade to Kosovo and preparing to deploy to Bosnia. I changed positions this summer while a co-worker is in Kosovo. As the co-ordinator of logistics in the brigade this has made me very busy I have not had much opportunity for family vacation other than the October vacation with Cathy. Cathy also gets fewer vacation days than I do so rightfully she wanted to spend time with her parents when they came out. As for overseas missions the recent announcement of consolidating into Bosnia may result in the possibility of my going over in the fall 2000. It is however, far too early to tell.

Other than taking the kids to hockey, the house projects take up the rest of my free time. Bryn has moved into the basement but his room still needs carpeting and a drop ceiling. When asked what the kids want for Christmas, Bryn said a bathroom. He even went on to explain how all the roughed in plumbing is right next door to his room. It is the intent to put a bathroom there but that is Phase II. I have a ways to go on Phase I first. I never thought that time available would be less than project money available. When we moved we put equity funds aside for projects we knew we would be doing so we would not have to take out a loan. With both of us very busy with our careers and kids activities construction time is limited. Hopefully over Christmas I will have time to complete phase I. I am also playing hockey, which provides needed physical fitness but does take time.

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