Happy New Year

We begin 2019 on the shore of Lake Wascana in the middle of the prairies. We had extremes of weather this week as we saw -29 early in the week, and +5 later. It has remained mild into this weekend. We remain at Dad's and are thankful for the continuing hospitality. We spent quite a bit of time this week on a difficult 1000 piece puzzle. We thought it would be easy to build the individual ginger bread cookies—we were wrong! 

Took most of the week! 

The markets opened the year with extremes as well—500 points up or down usually represent several months; this week it happened daily! And still Trump continues to say and do insane things. It is of some comfort that investors seem to be paying less and less attention, and finally, on Friday, strong economic data gave us a big win. I completed 2018 less than $100 in the green for the year—that won't cut it! I am relieved to have made quota this week to start the new year off right. There has been plenty of sports over the holiday period, and I can only keep up with some of it. The World Junior hockey has not gone well for us, and we didn't even get a medal. Finland beat the US for the gold, while Russia won the bronze over the Swiss. The Pens are on an eight-game winning streak in the NHL, Leafs continue to sit in good position in the standings despite not playing so well lately. The Oilers continue to struggle, sigh! There were lots of football games in both college and the NFL, but I don't pay much attention to that. The Jayhawks had another tough game on-the-road today, and couldn't even keep it close without Doke, their big man, who is out with an injury. They'll be dropped further in the rankings. 

Liam finished hanging the drywall this week and has started doing the mudding (a good taper will get that!). He is hoping to finish that this weekend before returning to Moose Jaw next week to look for work and to practise with RU at Caronport. Eric returned to work on Wednesday. Erica continues to heal, and is looking to get back to work in another week or so. 

Another new outfit!

We were disappointed not to have Kristian with us this week. He is suffering with a cold, so we thought it best he remain at home, and I travelled over there to stay with him. We managed to get two cabinets built and installed in the downstairs bathroom, and Sadie got out for her regular walks. Kristian is feeling better now and got out for skating and sledding with Grandma on Friday, and for his league bowling this morning. Erin was also ill with flu-like symptoms and missed work on Monday. 

Kristian needs new skates!

Sledding!

Travis and Joanna have 'enjoyed' fighting the snow and the snow-plowers in Thunder Bay. The city plows placed a ridge of snow on our driveway, completely blocking them from getting in, so they hired someone to clear that away. I see there's another winter storm warning there this weekend, so perhaps we're still a bit too early to head home! They have also been busy trying to get all loose ends tied up before they head out on their winter vacay to Punta Cana! We'll look forward to seeing them when they get back from there. 

And that's enough for this week!