Happy New Year!

Another week, another month, and another year have passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has continued mild, but they keep threatening us with snow, and it must come—right?! I've been out to the shop regularly, and have made some progress on the barn door trim, and on the oak stair nosings for that part of the entry project. We're re-tiling the side entry and the stairway to the basement. We enjoyed Christmas with the local family, and, via technology, with our family in Saskatchewan and New Zealand. Wendy prepared a delicious turkey dinner, and Joanna added some trimmings! Naturally, we've continued to enjoy turkey meals all week—it's part of the tradition! A special treat was two phone calls with our old friend, Jack, in Stillwater—lots of good memories were shared there! Wendy has returned to her side entry assignment, and it's coming along well. There are only three weeks remaining before my spinal surgery, so I'm trying to get the lifting aspects of my projects taken care of ahead of that hiatus. The doctor suggests that I'll be on the injury reserve list for six weeks after that—we'll see! We enjoyed another productive week in the markets as all USA indices played with all-time record highs! Thanks Uncle Joe! We did not progress nearly so well in Canada, but it was green at least: 

TSX: 8.1%
DOW: 13.7%
S&P: 23.2%
Nasdaq: 43.4%

I had a decent year (15.1%), pretty much on average for me, but with lots of up and downs that don't provide comfort! We were able to build up equity a bit while still withdrawing what we needed to live on. I will review the activity, and consider adjustments to the plan heading into 2024. The world of sports took some special activity over the holiday period with the Junior World Hockey Championship attracting some attention, along with the plague of football bowl games! My #12-Sooners won their bowl game pretty easily. This weekend marks the semi-finals and I'm cheering for #3-Texas and #1-Michigan to prevail. All my hockey teams are playing this evening—Oilers and Pens win. Oilers are on another winning streak and had a real test tonight in LA. Leafs are suffering from inadequate goaltending, and are on a 3-game losing skid. Pens are a bit hot & cold, and need to pick it up a bit to get into a playoff position. In basketball, #2-Jayhawks maintained their ranking and routed Wichita today. 

Eric and Erica continue their tour down under and have now moved on to Australia. We have enjoyed following along as they posted spectacular activities and photos from New Zealand including a helicopter ride up to the Franz Josef Glacier. 

Erin and Kristian hosted Liam most of the week, but he has moved back home to Caronport. Kristian is spending some of his break doing his extra math course. We're proud of his efforts. Erin continues the training program for her replacement while also priming for the busiest time of the year for herself with monthend and yearend accounting work. 

Travis & Joanna were with us for Christmas and returned last night for pizza and games! On this occasion, we completed the Tim Hortons Christmas puzzle. Andrew & Rosie are on a road trip to Toronto—quite an ambitious drive at any time, let alone in the winter. Jonas & Gemma continue their holiday here at home. 

We like Jigsaw Puzzles

And that's enough for this week.