Merry Chrissymas and Happy New Year to All from Rob and Christine
In a world where many walk alone,
we give thanks for our our family and friends
In a world where many are unhappy,
we give thanks for this season's festivities
Dear friends and family,
Another year....another Chrissymas letter ....not so long a letter as in previous years as most of you see our blog from time to time and keep up with our comings and goings. If you have not gone to our blog and are interested in our sailing and RVing/ trailer sailing trips check out www.celebriansail.blogspot.com We love to hear back from those of you who read our blog and feel free to post comments. Writing the blog is an incredible amount of work; however I have printed it out in book form for the last two seasons and it is wonderful to have all my writings and pictures in book form to look at.
As many of you know we spent last Christmas at home and left for The Bahamas in January. After a slow start getting everything ship shape we spent several months sailing to the Eastern Caribbean. We covered about 2000 miles from The Bahamas to Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, St. Martin, St. Barths, Antigua, and down the windward chain to Grenada. The only islands remaining before Venezuela are Trinidad and Tobago. Celebrian is on the hard at Spice Island Marine Services in Grenada. We had little time for sight seeing on our whirl wind trip south and east; however we hope to spend several winters there over the next few years.
We arrived home at the end of May and had a very busy June opening up the cottage and getting caught up with life at home. It would seem that we spend much of the first month going to doctor and dental appointments. I have always maintained that we come home, get fixed up and then sent away for another sailing season.
As you know this last summer was a great time to be at the cottage and we thoroughly enjoyed the warm weather. We hosted Pirates of the Caribbean in July ...our summer beach bash party and guests even got to walk the plank and have sword fights.
My mom visited the cottage on day trips this summer as her needs have become just too great for lengthier stays. Her last visit was for Thanksgiving dinner enjoyed along with our Bayfield friends Brian and Gayle. There is something very special about cooking a turkey out at the cottage for Thanksgiving. I think it brings back very many happy memories for me as we used to always have community dinners with the cottagers when I was growing up.
Rob spent his summer working on Free Spirit, the little Seaward 24 sailboat. She had quite a transformation and enjoyed her first launch in Killarney in August along with Doug and Jane on Cyrano. In addition to Free Spirit we bought a 1998 Road Trek campervan when we first arrived home. We needed a tow vehicle for Free Spirit and Elvie (Land Vessel), as the RV is affectionately known, can also go on adventures on his own. In fact we drove up to Bruce Peninsula National Park in October for a mini RV holiday.
This summer and fall both Rob and I have had our health challenges. I spent two nights in July in hospital after my colonoscopy. Gratefully the doctor removed everything that needed to be taken out; however I am going to be an annual patient for at least the next three years. Rob too has spent a night in hospital after a dizzy spell that we thought might be heart related. He has had many tests this summer and fall as a result of feeling heart palpitations and is under the care of a cardiologist in Kitchener. Gratefully we have learned that his heart is physically okay and there is no damage; however it is important to get the heart palpitations under control before we consider leaving for Grenada. He is wearing a heart loop recorder for the next month and we return to see the specialist on December 20th. He is also waiting on a referral to an internist in Stratford to explore what else could be causing the dizzy spells if they are not related to heart and blood pressure. As we know our bodies are complicated machines and it takes a good deal of investigation and trial and error to keep us healthy.
For now we are keeping ourselves busy with condo projects. Both our ensuite and the powder room bathroom downstairs are getting long overdue makeovers. We are also planning to do a porcelain tile backsplash in the kitchen if we are here for any length of time. Rob is also beginning to build his drawers for his cabinets....another long overdue project. So much of our time and energy has gone in to the cottage the last few years so it feels good to be doing some work on the condo.
The cottage continues to be an ongoing project and Rob did some trim as well as build the sink cabinet for the downstairs bathroom. He also worked away at drawers for our kitchen island. Santa's workshop can't hold a stick to the McGuffins?!?!
We hope that this holiday season finds you and your families happy and healthy.
With love from Bayfield,
Christine and Rob
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