2009

A Special Goodbye

As many of you know, we are quite

devoted to our cats. For several

years we have had two lovely felines:

Ponderosa & Kaslo. Sadly, Kaslo be-

came ill this past spring, suffering

from a heart condition. She seemed

to quite enjoy exploring the backyard

mountain, but her illness caught up

with her, and she passed away in

July. John carved her a beautiful

memorial and we buried her on the

mountain where she spent her last

fun and active days.

Plans for the New Year

We have a few ideas for adventures

we’d like to have in 2010. We hope

to cross-country ski throughout the

winter, perhaps travel to Minnesota

during Spring Break (with some visits

along the way), and then complete

another huge road trip in the sum-

mer. This would be our third in a

row, although this time we’d like to

focus on National Parks in the central

and eastern US, plus perhaps some

stays in New York City and Washing-

ton, DC.

John & Jasmine’s HOLIDAY NEWSLETTER

Dear Family & Friends,

We are so happy to send you holiday greetings this year. As we

write this letter, we are able to look with satisfaction at our only

mildlylopsided tree while listening to the best cheesy Christmas

carols that iTunes radio has to offer. While we knew it before, we

have rediscovered that there is indeed a very short time limit be-

fore Kenny G’s soprano saxophone grows tiresome.

We are looking forward to a restful two week break from school.

We hope to get in some quality cross-country skiing with perhaps

a road trip to some new locations in the vicinity. As well, John

intends to make good use of his shop as he works on the last

phases of a set of Mission-style furniture for our living room.

We have had a number of changes this year. The most significant

was that we said goodbye to downtown living and moved up into

a more suburban/rural part of town. Our new home has a beauti-

ful view of orchards across the valley, as well as mountains fur-

ther on. The backyard is quite small, grasswise, but the great part

is that a mountain rises up immediately, providing us with great

hiking opportunities. Our new neighborhood is quiet and

friendly, and the house is more spacious and comfortable. It has

been a welcome change and we look forward to our first

Christmas season in our new place.

Landscape Arch: Arches National Park, Utah

Various Adventures

Some notable events and achieve-

ments from 2009 include Jasmine’s

completion of her Master’s degree.

After working hard for 2 years, she

was very happy to finish her final

project. In recognition of this happy

event, she travelled to New York City

with her former high-school drama

teacher for a teacher’s conference in

July. This six-day trip included 5

Broadway productions, a bus tour of

the city, shopping, a fabulous hotel,

great meals and great conversation.

New York is an amazing city!

After 6 years of ownership, our

trusty minivan (Vanna White, as we

called her) was stolen from a local

rec centre. John was particularly

irritated because that van had done

such a great job of taking us all over

North America. To have her stolen

and demolished was sad (yes, she

was just a car, but we took our hon-

eymoon in her). She had just sur-

passed 250, 000 kms and was finally

broken in!

Vanna actually reached her 250, 000

mark this past August, near Moab,

Utah. We hit a total of 10 states on

this year’s road trip, as well as 4

National Parks & a state park—

Oregon Sand Dunes, Zion NP (Utah),

Arches (Utah), Mesa Verde (CO),

Grand Tetons (WY), & Yellowstone

(WY) .

Highlights from this trip included

dune buggying in Oregon, Jasmine’s

sister’s surprise wedding in Califor-

nia (congratulations Chris & Ama-

nita), river-hiking in Zion, photogra-

phy in Antelope Canyon, AZ & ca-

noeing in the Grand Tetons. Sum-

mer is made for getting outside and

we did a lot of that!

This fall Jasmine has been directing

“The Lion, The Witch & The Ward-

robe” at school with a cast of over

20. The play will open the first week

of February, so the busy-ness is just

descending!

Once John finishes the Mission-style

furniture he has some plans for new

projects—the trouble is picking

which one to complete next.

Season’s Greetings

The sun is setting, the mountains across the valley are

dusted in the first snow of the season and our tilting tree

wears lovely decorations. It really does feel like the holiday

season is approaching.

We send this letter with lots of love for those who are near,

far and in-between. We hope that you have time to relax

and enjoy those with whom you get to spend the season,

and time to think about those you love who are far away.

All the best,

Antelope Canyon, Page AZ

Our New Contact Information

Here is our new address:

226 Crossridge Crescent

Kelowna, BC

V1V 1S5

Phone Number: 250-762-8177

Email: johnandjasmine@telus.net

Come & visit—we’d love to have

company!