2009 Christmas Letter

Our twelve grandchildren, Aug 21, '09

Bonnie asked me to write a 'short' Christmas letter. I told her I didn't have time to write a short one so a long one will have to do. Rambling aimlessly is one of my special talents. Writing a concisely organized epistle, on the other hand, takes a lot more time, effort and skill - attributes which I have in short supply.

We've had three additions to the Frostad clan since last year's letter; Alexander (Greig and Carrie's fourth and their first boy), Carly (Sid and Scottie's third), and Karl (Jody and Jeremy's third). Bonnie just finished sewing their monogrammed Christmas stockings so we now have 22 hung on the staircase.

Last year I confessed to shedding a tear when Aaron, Jill, Kate, and Duke ended their stay with us to move into the new house they built (luckily their new house is only three minutes away). Kate and I were usually first up in the morning and she would sit quietly on my knee in the dark (it was in the winter) as I read my morning 'paper' on the internet and watched the sun come up over Long Lake.

We will soon experience that same bitter-sweet moment when Jody, Jeremy, Peter, Molly, and Karl move into their new house in Lumsden which they also built themselves. We have enjoyed having them here for the past few months and we will be sad to see them go.

Speaking of new houses - this past year, Greig and Carrie moved into their new house, also in Lumsden. They purchased an RTM (Ready to Move) home and built a basement to put it on. It's located right next to the school in Lumsden; an ideal location. When their new house came down the street on the back of a huge truck I told one of the onlookers they bought it on ebay.

Sid and Scottie are firmly planted in Regina Beach. As testament to this, they added a second story on to their house when Carly arrived so they didn't have to move! So everyone is within a 15 minute drive. Or a better way to put it, we can leave our house and drive by all of our kid's houses and be back home in about 35 minutes! It's awesome.

We started 2009 off last January with a trip to Las Vegas - just Bonnie and me. We've done this a few times now and it's actually quite nice to just be together. We spend so much time with family and friends, which we really like, don't get me wrong, but being together, just the two of us for a few days, is pretty special. We are going again this coming January. We like to take in a few shows. This year we have the Phantom of the Opera booked. Funny thing is, we've never seen it so that should be awesome. And we will probably see the Rat Pack Review again for the umpteenth time. We never tire of it. Four excellent impersonators recreate the legendary Rat Pack show of Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, and Joey Bishop. And as an added bonus 'Marilyn Monroe' makes a guest appearance singing a JFK-style happy birthday on the lap of some old geezer she finds in the audience.

In late March we took my mother, Myrtle, on what turned out to be an impromptu 82nd birthday tour, out to the west coast and back. The trip coincided with her birthday so she garnered three birthday cakes along the way! She had been caring for Willy for quite a few years up to that point and when he passed away peacefully in November 2008, at the age of 96, Mom was ready to catch up on a lot of what she had been missing. So off we went to visit as many of her descendants and relatives as we could in a 14 day period. We visited all of my siblings (three sisters) - Dena and most of her family in Camrose, AB, Petrine and most of her family in Barriere (and Vancouver), BC, and then Kristine and her clan in Vancouver and Victoria with bonus visits to my mother's sister, Evelyn and husband, Evelyn's daughter Reanne and family, also on the island, Mom's niece, Geraldine and husband, in Mission, BC, and Mom's brother Sid and family in Medicine Hat, AB.

Mom's only direct descendants we did not visit were her grandsons Michael and Darren and their families in Lethbridge, AB, and Vibank, SK. respectively. We plan to take Mom for a visit to Darren and family this Christmas when she is here. They are only a little over an hour away. And we will have to make plans to visit Michael and family sometime soon.

Mom handled the trip very well and when I asked her the other day where she wanted to go next she said she wanted to do the same trip over again but this time to make sure we included the ones we missed the first time around. Sounds good to me.

Of course one of our yearly highlights is our annual motorcycle trip in August to the Sturgis Rally and Races in South Dakota. This spring we got a new ride; a 2006 Goldwing with low miles in like-new condition. There was nothing wrong with our old Goldwing. It would have surely outlasted us but you only go around once right?

If you aren't familiar with the new Goldwings you would be amazed to see what they put on a top notch touring motorcycle these days. It has factory GPS navigation that talks to you and a stereo you can listen to at highway speeds no problem. However, Bonnie prefers to listen to her own tunes on her iPod headphones and I, the purr of the engine, the whistle of the wind, and occasionally the sound of my own voice belting out a tune. It also has heated seats and handlebars, warm air registers for your feet, and an on-board air compressor that is used to adjust the air suspension as you ride. And there's a dial to adjust the aim of your headlights as you travel (pretty handy, actually). We can literally ride twice as far in a day as we used to and feel better in the process. It's just too cool. Oh, and it's stupid fast.

You might recall from last year's letter that after 6 years of retirement, out of the blue, I was given a contract offer I couldn't refuse. So I began working again - for Magna IV Engineering out of Edmonton on a project up in Fort McMurray. That project came to a premature halt after just a few months when oil prices fell through the floor. So I was back home again.

This summer, after being off for about 6 months, the same company called me up and asked if I'd be interested in heading up the company expansion to Saskatchewan. Sounded good to me so now I work here in good 'ol Saskatchewan. They are such a good company to work for. I call them the WestJet of engineering companies. They have this crazy idea that if you treat your employees well they are productive, they stick around, and everybody wins. And does it ever work. Who knew! I told my boss the other day they may never get rid of me.

Bonnie continues to be herself, replete with boundless energy; especially after she finally found a doctor who cleared up her occasional shortness of breath with the right diagnosis and therapy. She excels, beyond my ability to put into words, in her God-given gifts as a wife, mother and grandmother. Just watching her exhausts me.

Feel free to drop us a line, or better yet, drop in for a visit. We are home most days.

Pete and Bonnie Frostad.