I had a fabulous Christmas with family and friends! An awesome Christmas Eve church service, a long standing Christmas Eve party with friends and a very special Christmas Day with family.
Here is a little video of the Christmas Day highlights.
Category: Family
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Christ came to be our peace
Extracted from a devotional I’m reading.
Yet Christ came to be our peace. Everything—our hopes, worries, fears, doubts, dreams—are met by him and found in him. He can put our worries to rest and surround us with an everlasting peace that calms the raging storm in our lives.
Let’s set aside quiet time with our family and more importantly ourselves to reflect on God’s promises and let his peace wash over us. Through the good and bad, through times of laughter and tears, Christ came to be our peace.
An encouraging reminder.
From @YouVersion plan 'The King Is Coming'.
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Diamonds are a girl’s best friend
Doing a little shopping for the 45th anniversary. So far, this one is the leading contender.
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Morden Road Trip
Dane and Clark on a road trip to the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden, Manitoba
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Fun Weekend with Family
Wonderful weekend with family at the lake.
We arrived on Friday evening for a 10 day stay and after unloading we spend some time with Gail & Gord as they are finishing up their month stay. Eric, Parker & Dane arrive late at close to midnight and get settled in for the weekend.
In the morning Parker & Dane meet Bentley & Zoe (schnauzer dogs) and there is a lot of excitement, a few tears and lots of barking. After breakfast Gail & Gord pack up and begin the drive back to Saskatoon.
So much happiness and joy especially for me. So special to see the Grandkids taking in the lake life and having so much fun and adventure. We seemed to do it all hiking, biking, swimming, playing games, building Snap Circuits and Geocaching. Strong warm winds make the lake a little rough so no boating but other than that we squeezed in a lot of action. The weather was fabulous with sun and almost 30°C! Seemed like a July weekend not mid September!
Searcing for a geocache on the Storm Bay road 
Checking out the new ladder on the tree fort. 
The Stewart Boys -
Sunday
This morning I’m serving at my church,Springschurch, by doing the TV audio. It’s an early start at 7am and we’ll be finished 3rd service around 2pm.
This is my position with the sound board and TV monitors in a room up behind the stage.
It’s just me and the equipment. As I’m mixing the band and vocalist I can hear my son Scott quietly on the intercom calling camera shots as he directs the camera operators to present the service on the big screens in the sanctuary and record for later TV broadcast use.
It’s hard to explain my emotions and feelings as I hear Scott’s voice. I’m so proud of him. Thankful and full of joy for the wonderful man he has become. A great son, husband and father.
It’s very special to be serving together at a great church that is doing great things for God. -
Transistor Radio
I was looking for some electrical parts in the shop the other day and re-dicovered this in the bottom of a box.
One of my 1st electronic toys When I was about 10 years old my parents went on a trip without Gail & I. We stayed with our grandparents Amma & Grandad for several days. I think is was a Great-West Life convention in the U.S. and perhaps a side trip as well, the details are a little foggy now. Anyway there was a tradition in our family that if my Dad went on a trip, we’d get some sort of a gift on his return and this trip was no exception.
Upon their return they came over to my Grandparents house on Oak St. to pick us up. After some hugs and kisses and some chatter about the trip they presented a radio just like this one to my Grandparents. I was totally fascinated with this! We’d never seen such a small portable radio. I really wanted one, bad. Mom & Dad kind of ignored that and carried on talking about who knows what, and I was getting a little disappointed. Actually, more that disappointed.
And then the big surprise! I got the same radio! And Gail got one too, with a white case. I was ecstatic. That radio didn’t leave my hands for quite some time.
I remember having it in bed after I was supposed to be asleep under the covers listening to Foster Hewitt and Hockey Night in Canada because it came with an earbud, super cutting edge back in the day.
BTW, it still works!
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Family Photos
I’m spending some time quiet time at the lake catching up on some old emails, checking out some web sites and just in general goofing off. I took Friday & Monday off from work so we’ve made our own “long weekend”. The weather today (Friday) is warm, but overcast and drizzling on and off. There are no big projects on the horizon for the rest of the cottage season, except for the never-ending opportunity to paint or stain some part of the buildings, but none of that today as everything is wet.
For some time I’ve neglected my Flickr account but I recently noticed that my membership was automatically renewed so I guess I should really make better use of it.
One thing that came to my attention was that the newest Grandkids, Dane & Clark don’t have their own albums like the older guys Easton & Parker do. Time to fix that.
I’ve got a system within Lightroom with “smart” collection publishing from Lightroom to Flickr where the collection watches for photos that are flagged, and have the keywords containing “flickr” and one or more of the grandkids names. Now it’s just a mater of reviewing all my photos since about October 2014 (490 so far) and tagging the best of the best with the appropriate keywords. This is a bit of a work in progress and I can feel the couch calling my name for an afternoon nap right now. But, it’s started.
Here is Clark ( full album)
and here is Dane (full album)
Check back occasionally as the albums will get more and more content as I catch up on the backlog.
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The Spark
As a result of the boat show, and a few conversations in the family, we’re now the proud owners of a Sea-Doo Spark. On May 10th, our 1st weekend at the lake we’re getting ready to take it out for its maiden voyage. The weather is not the best. It’s cool/cold, overcast and a little windy. Everyone wants to take it for a spin, but nobody is too keen about how cold and wet it might be. On the Sunday, it’s decided, we’re going no matter how cold it might be.
Getting ready to take the Sea-Doo to the launch site We hook it up to Scott’s truck, load up the family and head over to Smith’s Camps to put it in the water.
At Smith’s we re-connect with Allen, the owner, and catch up on a bit of the neighbourhood news. Some discussion about launch logistics and Eric and Scott are ready to do it.
Rider Up, ready to launch 
Getting Closer Down the ramp we go and the trailer and Sea-Doo are christened with their first dip into the frigid water. After all the ice just went off the lake on May 3rd!
We’re not super prepared for this, just super confident. We have no ropes on the Sea-Doo so once it’s set free from the trailer, Eric is on his own.
Well, this is when things get a little interesting. The Spark is not starting and Eric is adrift in the lake!
Fortunately, we’re in an enclosed area at Smith’s and eventually Eric and the Spark will drift over to a dock. But, there is a small chance he’ll drift out the opening you see in the background and out into the lake. Our boat is not in the water yet. If this happens we’ll need Allen to launch a rescue mission for some serious $$$s.
But that doesn’t happen and Eric drifts over to one of the docks and after several tense / frustrating minutes and quite a few tries, it starts! Let the fun begin!.
Underway for the 1st time. 
After zooming around the bay for a few minutes Eric returns to take Parker out for a ride. Everybody is pretty pumped and excited.
Eric and Parker set to ride. I’m next to ride and I must admit it’s very nice, like a motorcycle on the water.
Garry returning to the dock after the first ride. Scott is next to go.
Scott’s 1st ride After lots of discussion on how it handles, the speed and acceleration, and how much fun it will be this summer, especially when it warms up, we load the Spark back up on the trailer and head back to the cottage where we had an awesome hot lunch.
Perhaps we’ll need to give this toy an official name, something more than “The Spark”?
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Family Birthdays
It seems to be hard to get everyone together on someone’s birthday so it’s quite the occasion when the family gathers these days with all the Grandkids. With Des’s birthday passed and Scott’s coming up we managed a combined dinner celebration.
Of course for us, the best part is spending time with everyone, especially the newest additions Dane & Clark .
Nana with an arm full of Dane & Clark 
Granddad with Dane 
Prepping the candles on the cake An of course no birthday celebration would be complete with out a fancy Birthday Cake or two!
Getting some assistance with the candles. With all those candles (somebody was having a “big” birthday”) you need a little help in blowing them all out.
Good food, good times, and having everyone together made for a memorable evening. Super busy with two 2 3/4 year olds and two babies, such a blessing to have such a happy and health family.