Season’s Greetings!

The tree is trimmed, the lights are up, and our stockings are hung at Hilltop Lodge, our new Caledon home, ready to quietly and safely celebrate the Christmas season with long walks, delicious meals, roaring fires, board games and great debates. As another extraordinary year comes to an end, I am more thankful than ever for my brilliant, loving family, because the quality time spent with them has been the greatest silver lining of these challenging days!

It has been a year on the move for the Hill family. In November 2020, the massive renovation of our new Caledon home began. Throughout the winter, Paul and I looked forward to Saturdays, when we would pack a picnic, head to Caledon to meet with our contractor and see the progress.  A long hike in the Forks of the Credit Provincial Park, followed by a rejuvenating soak in the hot tub, rounded out our day. We quickly realized that we wanted to flip the script and make this slice of paradise, our primary residence. Despite the ongoing pandemic, the housing market in Toronto was red hot, so we put our Kingsway home on the market and to our delight, it quickly sold. Our big move meant that it was time for Jack and Ross to move out- after 15 months of being constantly together, we were all ready. A parade of moving trucks lined our driveway, as the boys moved downtown and we sorted, moved and downsized all of our stuff. We held several “free garage sales”, lining our front sidewalk with gently used items that were easier to give away, than sell. And just when we thought that we were done moving for a while, we purchased and began renovating a condo (pied-a-terre) in Bloor West, to maintain our connection with Toronto. What a whirlwind!

Lexi, age 27, is on a roll! A very successful year as an Mid-Market Account Executive at Slack (recently acquired by Salesforce), enabled Lexi to make some significant renovations to her Trinity Bellwoods condo and she is elated! In November, Lexi rejoiced to go on her first business trip in two years, to New York City, to meet many of her coworkers, whom she only knew from Zoom. Regular workouts at F45, socializing with friends, a positive attitude and lots of visits to Caledon keeps Lexi upbeat and healthy.

Jack, age 26, moved into a rental condo in downtown Toronto, in the King West neighbourhood, with a tremendous view of the CN Tower and city skyline. He is just steps away from his office at Enable and his job as a Solutions Analyst. Jack went to Banff last March for a week of skiing with his buddies- just the thing he needed to get through the never-ending lock-downs. Jack regularly meets us for golf at the Devil’s Pulpit Golf Course, recently joined a near-by indoor rock-climbing gym and relishes spending time with friends in person and online. Jack is rocking it at work and loving life in his bachelor pad!

Ross, age 23, moved into a rental condo in downtown Toronto, at Bloor and Sherbourne, with superb eastern views. Ross continues to diligently work for Doctalk where he amazes them with his skills as a Full Stack Developer and his strong work ethic. Ross loves to explore the city, taking advantage of his city centre location, spends time with friends on the weekends and happily joins us for regular family dinners downtown. In his spare time, Ross studies new coding languages, follows politics, builds neat stuff with his 3-D printer and is a voracious reader. Ross is happy and fulfilled, enjoying his downtown life.

I feel like a renovation expert, after overseeing the completion of our new Hilltop Lodge renovation and the start of a year of renovations at our new condo. Needless to say, it was tough with all of the supply chain issues and other COVID challenges- thank goodness for an amazing contractor and talented designer leading the charge.  Every few weeks, I am pleasantly surprised when furniture I ordered 6 months ago, suddenly appears. I received a full flight of a COVID vaccines with my third last week, completing my trifecta of AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer. I am still waiting for my superpowers to present themselves! I was overjoyed to publish my first book, Always by My Side, the story of our early married life with our first dog.  Scout and Coco, our current beloved dogs, worked their therapy skills on us this past year, providing company for long walks and soothing evening snuggles. The highlight of my year was the time spent with my own family and my extended family, including my dad, sister and brother and their families. We had wonderful reunions in August, at our place in Caledon and at Thanksgiving in Rothesay, New Brunswick. After two years apart, it was incredible to finally get properly caught up and spend quality time together! There is nothing like the ties that bind!

After acquiring three companies in 2021, Paul and his Board decided to restructure the company and consolidate operations in Dallas, and he has left his position as CEO.  While he is finally “retired”, he always has tricks up his sleeve and will find many things to keep himself busy. Paul has great plans to ski, golf, fish, travel and find some new technology investments where he can help out the founders … stay tuned! Paul and I escaped to Southern California in November with great friends and had a fantastic week of golf, laughs and dining out. We feel like we stuck the landing, squeezing in a trip just before the latest travel advisories. Oh, the places we’ll go once this pandemic is over!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones! Most importantly, cherish your family time together and don’t let the lock-downs slip through your fingers. We’ve got this!

Love,

Lianne, Paul, Lexi, Jack and Ross

PS: Please keep in touch through email and Instagram.

Lianne                                                 [email protected]                       liannehill

Paul                                                     [email protected]                             paulhill99

Lexi                                                      [email protected]          lexxhill

Jack                                                     [email protected]                            kodakjvck

Ross                                                     [email protected]                                 rosshill98

Scout and Coco                                                                                               scoutcoco