Merry Christmas!

Well, it is December 16 and I am woefully behind in the Christmas card department. This is my "stop-gap" measure, as well as my "in lieu of a Christmas letter" attempt. Paul and I do wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Mom Mills arrived on Friday, and will stay with us until December 28. We are enjoying her visit, but so far haven't done anything too exciting! This morning, we did enjoy the children's Christmas Pageant at church. In the next couple of weeks, we have a few dinner parties lined up, but for the first time since we have been married.we will actually celebrate Christma at home, including Christmas dinner. Since we've already had two turkey dinners and will have another with friends on Christmas Eve, I think we'll stick to Cornish game hen. Then I can proudly maintain my claim that I have never cooked a turkey. If that is something to be proud about....

We will have Bethlehem staying with us again for a few days during the Christmas break. She's quite excited about meeing Paul's Mom. We love her stays with us. She just brings so much joy with her whereever she goes. We joke that the "joy has left" the Mills house when she goes home. It's not true, but it's certainly a LOT quieter when she is gone.

I have one more week in which to keep students focussed before Christmas break. They are already pretty restless, so it will be interesting to see how it goes.... Last Thursday, we took them to see a musical production at Willingdon Church called "Two from Galilee" which was amazing! It was very professional; there was a full orchestra and the sets were exceptional.

I will continue to paddle on Saturdays through Christmas, as our team is entered in an Icebreaker regatta on January 19. The regatta will be 6 km in two OC6s (6-man outrigger canoes) strapped together. So there will be 12 paddlers, which is nice for that length of race. The race takes place at Barnet Marine Park in Burnaby, so it will be ocean paddling. We have to sign away our lives accepting the "inherent dangers" of ocean paddling, which is a bit unnerving, but I think is really more of a formality than anything. The team we're paired with, also from the Fort Langley Canoe Club, is a very strong, mixed team, so I'm hoping we do well. We've only missed one practice, due to heavy snowfall....

Paul and I will enjoy having a week at the end of Christmas break to just spend time hanging out and relaxing. It has been a busy semester, so we need some "recovery time". Both of us will be back in the classroom on January 7.

Merry Christmas

and

Happy New Year!