Almost ready...

for Christmas!  Donovan is very excited this year and has literally been counting down the days for quite some time.  We are done our shopping, except for some more groceries tomorrow.  This morning we went to the market which was very nice.  We stocked up on fresh vegetables and sausages.  This afternoon we went swimming at Cole Harbour Place - both the boys had fun.  Last night was movie night and tonight was games night for Donovan.  He chose SkipBo and won both games.

I mailed the last of our Christmas cards today.  I am late with all of my cards this year so if you have not received yours yet, do not be concerned as you are definitely not the only one.  Next year I will have to pay better attention in November and be better organized.  Otherwise, we are in good shape, although there is quite a bit of baking I'd still like to do.  Earlier this week Donovan and I made chocolate covered peanut butter balls and today we mixed up sugar cookies, which we will cut out and bake tomorrow morning.

You can read our Christmas letter here.

Mary Ellen

2012 Family Christmas Letter

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Holiday Greetings from the Rainey Family!

We had another good year in 2012.  Donovan successfully completed grade Primay (it’s what they call Kindergarten in Nova Scotia) and started Grade One in the fall.  He played soccer in the summer, and also participated in skating and swimming lessons.  Grama and Grampa Rainey looked after Donovan 3 days/ week in July and in August he attended two weeks of “Adventure Camp”, a day camp here in the city, which he loved.  Malcolm graduated from Blue Room 1 to Blue Room 2 in September, his last stop before moving to “big boy school” next year – he will be attending the same school as Donovan, which is just two blocks down our street.

Many of you know that most of summer and early fall was consumed with a renovation project.  We decided to tear out our bathroom and kitchen to make a small powder room and much larger kitchen on the main floor.  We moved walls, windows and doors to make it happen.  A few unexpected surprises were discovered along the way, but in the end we are very happy with how everything turned out.  Mary Ellen did all of the painting.  The boys were very good about all the upheaval.

Luckily, we were able to escape all the commotion for three weeks in August when we headed to Ontario.  We visited Camp Kintail and then it was off to the farm.  We had a great time seeing all our extended family again and enjoying life on the farm.  Jan left us for two weeks to go off to Europe to deliver a seminar at Oxford and attend a conference in Nice.  He also visited some family and friends in England and Switzerland to round out the trip.

Jan had a largely successful year at work securing some more grants and getting lots of research done.  He is looking forward to starting a six-month sabbatical in January, which means he will have no administrative or teaching duties – he can focus on research.  He will remain in Halifax for most of it but may travel for a few weeks at a time to Florida or the UK.

Mary Ellen is still working three days/week with no plans to go back to full-time work.  Her days at home are busy as Donovan comes home for lunch and Malcolm is accessing increased speech language and occupational therapy services.  Malcolm is starting to say some words which is very encouraging progress.  He has really stretched up over the last year and lost his “baby” look – he is all boy now!

Many thanks to all who visited this year and we extend an open invitation to others to come visit us this year.  We are looking forward to another healthy, happy year in 2013 and wish the same for all our family and friends!

Mary Ellen, Jan, Donovan and Malcolm