New Year's Letter 2010/2011

Happy New Year from the Eldertons

This year we loved having the Olympics in our city, it seemed a little surreal to me since I love to watch the event but it’s usually far away in some exotic local.
The mood in the city was electric and everyone was amazed how these staid Canadians were so unabashedly patriotic.
We got to see some of the pavilions and attend one of the Paralympic sledge hockey games.

I regretted not doing more (I didn’t do a lot when it was cold and rainy) but Josh did get to see his favorite band “Mariana’s Trench” play a concert and on the last day we stood in line for 6 hours so that we could go on the Zip line!! Wayne just wasn’t into wasting his time to do that and just went home that day.
I’ve been working at Mcdonald’s for one year now, my boss loves me and gave me $3/hr in raises just to keep me there

We enjoyed a lovely summer enjoying the blessing that God gave us. We had lot’s of barbecues, and relaxing in our back yard. It was a disappointing year in the garden (after last years bumper crop). The plants had such a struggle to produce, oh well there’s always next year. Wayne's big project was to do a little landscaping around the front yard tree (see 'Our Home' slide show at side). Considering he has a 'black thumb' and can kill any plant, this was big.

We had a quick summer trip to Beachwood (Birch Bay USA) to stay at a friend's trailer resort. The weather was good and we had a fun time with Josh & Kayla. We did our regular volunteering at camp, going to Thetis Island and Josh attending Anvil Island and Kayla being a counselor.

Leah is into planning for her June 11 wedding. Boyfriend Matthew arranged a surprise engagement in Vernon on the pretense of visiting one of their friends. She seems a little young at 22 but we were married at 24. Exciting times this year as my sister Michelle is also getting married in May.

In August my sister Stephanie and her husband Ed welcomed baby number 2, a brother for Kendra, Christopher Ethan.

Wayne was asked to speak at a number of tennis conferences this year. He was at the Australian Open presenting at their grand slam conference and at International Tennis Federation(ITF)meetings at Wimbledon. In September he got invited to speak at another I.T.F.conference in Puerto Vallarta. Of course I got to tag along. We had never been to Mexico before and it was quite the experience getting used to how the locals tried to sell us stuff at every turn. Even offering us jewelery, carvings and horseback riding on the beach!

It was fun since I got to hang out with another speaker’s wife and we loved shopping and bargaining and we even went on a snorkeling boat cruise while the guys were at their conference.

Kayla is leaving in January for a Youth With a Mission(YWAM)discipleship school in Panama for 5 months. She has been working two jobs to raise funds and received donations from family and friends at Church. It will be a real adventure for her.

Josh is in grade 6 now and learning that he can’t coast on his school work since he has a more hard marking teacher this year. He’s still playing soccer (up to January only 1 win so far) and taking tennis lessons. He loves to play computer games and making videos to put up on You tube and is starting to want to learn how to skateboard.

We haven’t had the record bad winter here yet that has been predicted to be the worst in 50 years . Crossing our fingers that it won’t come.
Hope your year will be full of joy and blessing
The Eldertons