Season’s Greetings! 1998 was full of many exciting events for our family. As we look forward to a quiet Christmas and holiday season after a very busy year, it is time for our annual Christmas newsletter.

Joy to the World! The most thrilling event of the year was the arrival of Ross Lawrence Hill on August 28^th. We all adore this final addition to our family. Ross loves to interact with people and always has a ready smile. When holding him you have to hold on tight because he loves to look around to see what is happening. His siblings are his entertainers and he is their captive audience. Ross is consistently and soundly sleeping through the night… HURRAY!! Paul and I are starting to feel civilized again.

Bed and Breakfast Anyone? Like another famous baby, Ross had a crowd of admirers come from near and far, bearing gifts and warm wishes. Larry, Marnie and cousin Cassie came to visit in September, followed by a week-long visit with my Mom and John who helped out a great deal while Paul was away working hard. Derek came for a lovely visit and a slightly overcooked Thanksgiving feast. Jane and Keith came to visit enroute to their new winter home in Bradenton, Florida. In the summer, Miriam and her three kids came for a fun-filled week, which helped me pass the time before the arrival of Ross. My Dad came to spend a few days with us in July, as did my Mom (separate weeks, of course!). All in all, the inn has been full!

Family Vacation: Once again Paul’s business travel paid off in air miles. We accompanied Paul to a conference at Walt Disney World last February and stayed at the Disney Yacht Club Resort- thank you Cognos! We then traveled to Bradenton to visit with Paul’s Mom and Keith. After last year’s ice storm we really needed a break in the sunny south. In May, the kids and I flew to Saint John for a visit with my sister Miriam and her family. She and I now have six kids (ages five and under) between us. In July we discovered a wonderful family resort in Haliburton called the Wigamog Inn. We spend a week relaxing exercising and eating. The kids loved the children’s program and so did we! I lived vicariously through Paul and signed him up for all sorts of activities (mountain biking, jet skiing, golf) while my pregnant body lounged by the pool reading trashy novels.

Ready or Not! Lexi is all grown up now! She is in Junior Kindergarten and she loves it! Each morning she gets on the school bus at 7:40 am (shortly after sunrise in December). Lexi has a fantastic teacher whom she adores. Lexi is learning how to speak French and is very interested in learning how to read. Lexi’s extra-curricular activities include figure skating, a science enrichment class and lots of playdates with her friends. Lexi lost her spot in the double stroller this summer but manages to keep up on our walks riding her two-wheeler, without the training wheels!

Tennis Anyone? I am busy cooking, washing hugging dressing, reading, carrying, feeding, playing, walking, talking, cleaning, planning, organizing, entertaining, tidying, eating and sometimes sleeping. I keep my sanity by going for a vigorous walk every day and by keeping in touch with a network of other stay-at-home moms. I am the president of Jack’s nursery school and it is a job that I greatly enjoy. At the end of the day, Paul and I collapse in the family room in front of the fire. When asked by friends if they should have a third child, we say yes; we don’t want to be the only frazzled, weary and blissfully happy people around!

Jack is a Big Boy Now! Jack is the proud owner of a new bedroom decorated in his favourite theme- firetrucks! In the summer, a terrific carpenter/painter transformed our upstairs guestroom into Jack’s new pad. Jack gave up his pacifier in May, his crib in June, his bedroom in July, his youngest child status in August and we are encouraging him to give up diapers whenever he is ready (I know that I am). Jack enjoys going to nursery school three mornings a week and goes to a gymnastics class on Saturday mornings with Paul. Jack says that when he grows up he is going to be a singer-worker-firetruck man and a daddy.

The Ice Storm: We have always known that Ottawa has a harsh winter climate, yet we certainly were not prepared for the Ice Storm of 1998. It all began on a Monday night when the lights went out. We snuggled down under the covers, thankful for the wood stove in the family room. At first it was a minor inconvenience. Paul and I were miserable without our morning coffees and hot showers (no water with no electricity in the country). We kept observing the neighbours across the street carrying buckets of water out to the street. It was pouring rain and everything was covered with ice. We couldn’t help wondering what they were up to. A few hours passed and then it hit both of us at the same time… THE SUMP PUMP! We ran to the dark basement, flashlights in hand and found the entire basement flooded with water- ankle deep! We city folks quickly realized what exactly a sump pump does and ours was not doing it without electricity. We started bailing and bailing and bailing. I was six weeks pregnant at the time and carrying heavy buckets of water upstairs and out onto a slippery deck wasn’t exactly what the doctor had ordered. Paul heroically bailed all day and all night until I started to be quite concerned about his health.

Our lights came back on only briefly that night and then only hours later we were immersed in darkness for seven days of hell. The gunfire-like sound of the crashing tree limbs and the military presence made us feel like we were in a warzone. Thank goodness for a new supply of Christmas toys to keep the kids occupied as we bailed, kept the fire going (we used two chords of wood that week alone) and tried to prepare meals with whatever we had on hand from the beginning of the storm. We camped out in the family room which delight the kids. The phone kept us in touch with our local friends and neighbours with whom we shared resources, ideas and tales of woe. By Thursday we were spent. Paul called our insurance company to report that the basement was a write-off and the water was ominously rising closer to the furnace motor… they sprang into action and arrived with a generator and a team of workers. They drained our basement, immediately removed the carpet and promised a complete renovation waving the deductible. Had we called a day later there would not have been an available generator to be found in Eastern Ontario. We headed to the Manotick Fire station for our first showers and hot meals in days. Looking absolutely awful, I was interviewed by the local news anchor. Thankfully nobody could watch tv!

Six days after the start of the storm with predictions that we would be without power for another week, I headed to Toronto with the kids and Paisley. It wasn’t until I reached Nappanee that I found a gas station and McDonald’s open.

At home, Paul busily prepared for dropping temperatures, carrying all of my tropical plants into the family room, filling the front hall with wood, draining the pipes and keeping the generator fueled day and night. On the Tuesday night, after attending a town meeting with Ontario Hydro, Paul returned home to POWER!

Ten months later the words “freezing rain” still give us the chills, yet we are prepared to protect our new beautifully renovated basement We had a back-up battery operated sump pump installed. Should the power out again we will have several hours to hook up the new generator. The generator is now hard-wired to the electrical panel so that it will be almost as easy as a flick of a switch to power up the sump pump with perhaps even some extra power, for a pot of coffee!

How Paul Got His Gray Hair: Paul and I are flying by the seat of our pants. We thought we were busy last year; however, it was a vacation next to this! How did our parents do it? Despite the chaos at home, Paul is continuing to work hard at Cognos. He is presently VP of Business Acquisitions, which means he gets to spend lots and lots of Cognos’ money on new technology. Paul had an article published in the Ottawa Citizen and it soon will be in the Ivey Business Quarterly. Paul occasionally teaches an executive training course at Algonquin College, to rave reviews. In his spare time, Paul is a member of the Watson’s Mill Millennium Committee.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love Lianne, Paul, Lexi, Jack and Ross