Merry Christmas 1999 from The Deutschers!
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Thanks for buzzing into our website to receive this greeting. Rest assured, Christmas cards are on the way, but this format allows us to share the happenings of the past year with more people and less printing!

I’m starting with the same poem I included in last year’s letter... please have a read, because it is meaningful, and it makes a good attempt to describe how important it is for us to make contact with all our family & friends that we can’t be with all the time.

I have a list of folks I know, all written in a book,
And every year when Christmas comes, I go and take a look,
That is when I realize that these names are all a part
Not of the book they’re written in, but of my very heart.
For each name stands for someone who has crossed my path sometime,
And in that meeting they have become the rhythm in each rhyme.
And while it sounds fantastic for me to make this claim,
I really feel that I’m composed of each remembered name.
And while you may not be aware of any "special link",
Just meeting you has changed my life a lot more than you think.
For once I meet somebody, the years cannot erase
The memory of a pleasant word or of a friendly face,.
So never think my Christmas cards are just a mere routine
Of names upon a Christmas list, forgotten in between.
So when I send a Christmas card that is addressed to you
It’s because you are on the list of folks whom I am indebted to.
For I am but the total of the many folks I have met
And you happen to be one of those I prefer not to forget
And whether I have known you for many years of just a few,
In some why you have had a part in shaping things I do;
The best gift life can offer is knowing folks like you;
And may the spirit of Christmas that forever endures
Leave its richest blessing in the hearts of you and yours.

Once again, December has come in on the heels of flu season in our house. Bobby and both girls have been quite stricken with flus and colds, but we are back on our feet, and ready to face the ever-demanding pre-Christmas routine of singing & playing and singing & playing. Again, Bobby’s season is jammed with Christmas party gigs, and Samantha has the usual concerts (CBC Knox; Calgary Children’s Choir Christmas, Alberta Ballet The Nutcracker). Her Nutcracker schedule this year is even busier than before, with daytime and evening performances in the pit chorus over several days.

The choir has had quite a year, starting with their tour to New York City (Carnegie Hall, St. Patrick’s Cathedral) in January, and ending with the release of a wonderful CD called "You Shall Have a Song". Bobby invested a lot of work in the CD graphics, as well as an amazing website for the choir. I guess after seven years, the both of us have decided to (or been coerced to!) become more directly involved. I’ve been on the board for a few years, and sit as president this year. The next tour is June 30 to July 9, 2000 in the Maritimes! Look for us at the Charlottetown Festival’s Choral Festival on Canada Day, as we start a short but exciting tour of PEI & Nova Scotia. I will be traveling with the group (35 children and 9 adults) as tour director, then Sam & I will be spending time in Souris West when the group leaves for Calgary on July 9. I’ll be there until the 17th, my babes get to stay with their grandparents for the entire month of July!

Sam is half way through grade 8 already, and doing very well at Ecole Madeliene d’Houet, a French school in the Calgary Catholic District. Her class is in their second year of late-immersion. She is in a class of only 14, 80%+ keeners, and we are very pleased with that, as so many Alberta children are in much less favorable classroom situations. Next September this group will join classes with grade 9 students who have been in French immersion since kindergarten, and Sam has no apprehension about being able to cope linguistically. We are so proud of her.

Jesse goes to preschool three afternoons a week. The school is part of our community centre, and the teacher is the same lady who was Samantha’s preschool teacher 10 years ago! How’s that for continuity!?! You’d think we lived in Souris! Jesse is a handful, to say the least. She knows her own mind, and makes sure you know it too, and she doesn’t really care about alternatives. She’s reading and writing and enjoying it, at about the same stage that Sam was when she was turning 4, which is about the only similarity between those two girls we’ve seen! We’ll do our best, but this one is driving her own train. The sky will be her limit, but Bobby & I will be in a rubber room somewhere, I suspect, by the time she gets there! It looks like she’ll be starting kindergarten in September 2000 at St. Thomas More, Sam’s old school. The fun is only starting.....

Bobby has spent a FEW hours in front of this computer screen in the past year. His work on web page design and continuous upgrading in his knowledge of the medium is remarkable. Sadly, Bobby lost two sisters in 1999, Marge and Martha. He eloquently remembered each one at her funeral, and shared his sentiments with all of us, and that was so appreciated by all family and friends who were there. Both deaths were hard, as both lives were hard. We try to take from each experience something good, and lasting. All this, and taking care of business around here, playing with Hot Cargo for the 5th season, occasional additional gigs, and trying to stay in touch with his network of musician/computer geeks, while being Jesse’s best friend every day! If I could bottle him, I know I’d make a fortune selling it to mothers everywhere! Meanwhile, I’m just grateful for my Bobby.

The beginning of 1999 saw me looking to change my workplace, after ten years of leading an accounting department for one company. As I signed off last year’s Christmas letter, I pointed toward more ‘turmoil’ in 1999, as I expected a major change to happen. At the end of April, I started my new job as Corporate Accountant for a group of small, related companies in the computer industry. The details have been chronicled in past writing, so this will be only the update. Things are good. I am enjoying the work a great deal, and appreciate the things that make small business so challenging. The quiet, lovely surroundings of my new office, which is very close to home, are inspiring. I have taken up my CGA lessons once again, and now have five more courses to complete. In October 2001, when I hope to graduate, we are taking the girls to DisneyWorld. This is their incentive to let me study, and to help as much as they can. And they all do.

Another extra-curricular activity that I became involved in during 1999 was The Famous Five Foundation. This is a group that commemorates the accomplishments of a group of five Alberta women who were very productive activists for the causes of women in the early 1900's, and were responsible for the success of the "Persons Case" in 1929, which secured the interpretation of "Persons" in law to include women. I was asked to join their speakers bureau, going out and giving presentations to groups who wanted to learn more about the Famous Five. The speakers bureau was established in 1999 to raise public awareness of the commissioning of an enormous bronze statue which marked the 70th anniversary of the Persons Case. This piece of art was erected in Calgary’s Olympic Plaza, downtown, on October 18. On the same date next year, the exact same casting will be erected in a place of honor on Parliament Hill. I enjoyed the experience much more than I ever thought I would. I spoke in classrooms and community clubs (Women’s Institute, etc.). It was such an education in history for me, and in public speaking. It also stirred up some social consciousness, but that is still festering, and maybe my best deployment of that will be to help my girls to understand that they have a moral responsibility to NOT BE QUIET, when they see injustice. (as if Jesse will ever have a problem with that!)

We have a new nephew AND a new niece in 1999. Christian MacDonald and Michaela Cox are both beautiful, perfect babies, who we look forward to seeing lots, and to making sure they grow up knowing their importance within the extended family. My cousins continue to be an important part of life for us. After a lovely visit from Monique, Doug, Danielle, and the 6-day-old Michaela! in October, we enjoyed another traditional Red Deer Thanksgiving, with Stephen Gallant, Carl & Kim Labreche, and Natalie & Christian. Deneen & Ken are wonderful hosts, and we always have a lot of fun. Stephen will be joining us for New Year’s Eve, too, with Jeanette and Jamie who will be in Alberta for the holidays. Our summer holiday in PEI was the best yet. I cherish the time spent with my cousins and their families, and the wedding of Jeanette & Jamie was no small part of that in 1999. We feel very lucky to have them with us at this time of year. Edward will also be spending time visiting over Christmas. We were also pleased to be able to attend Estelle & Doug’s wedding in July, and enjoy their friendship and warmth.

Next year we hope to see Charlene & Rick, and also Raquel, who will be coming to Calgary in July for her ‘very round number’ birthday, in a ‘very round number’ year. I expect "FUN" will be an understatement!

Our best wishes go out to all friends and family as we all look forward to a new year. God bless.

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