wrap up another year!

crikey! bear with me as it's been 2 months since the last post. the longest break I've taken from writing (on the blog anyways) here's a flurry of some of the tales to tell and pics from our adventures in wrapping up 2008:

Here is Sasha up the hill of China Creek park (her day care in the background at bottom of hill) one of the best toboggan hills in the city! This was taken a few days into the non-stop snow we had for over a week.

Despite Sasha and I taking turns being quite sicky (one really bad week including fevers and many days here and there of leftover sniffles and coughs) we have managed to squeeze in a fair bit of family fun including another morning of swimming. One new years promise is to get her in a pool more often, maybe even for some swim lessons since many of the lifeguards I work with are eager to splash around with her :)

As always, we're pretty good at filling our time, but as we're in the rainy season - er...snowy season now! - we've also spent a lot of time just chillin at home. Sasha is so much fun to play with I'd say we're really enjoying this hibernation period! here are some random pics of her imaginative playtime. one of her fave things to do is bake cakes for everyone, setting up a skytrain, and put people down for naps after reading stories and changing her teddies diapers. so cute!




More Sasha update: since my last post she is officially 38 1/4 inches tall now. Still having fun with the potty training, and until we get a booster seat she's back in the high chair. In january she has a follow up appointment with the eye doctor and we'll see if the hour of patching every day is helping to strengthen the vision in her right eye. She becomes more and more articulate every day and constantly amazes us with her quick thinking. A very tough little negotiator...which I'm ok with as long as she's using her words and not screaming and flopping around, which she also does well when all else fails. lol

What else have we been up to? hmmmm. Right! Around the time of Mum's bday (for which we had a really nice night out for dinner at Provence restaurant with Penny and all her kids) we had a visit from Kelly who is Mark's cousin from South Africa. What a wonderful time getting to know her, and Sasha was quite taken with her (though this pic doesn't show it, teehee)



In comparison to all the stress at the end of last year between the move into storage and then our new home here in the co-op, and then my Grandpa passing away around Christmas, this year has seemed to be a pure relaxing time indeed. Though life is great with me, this holiday season will be touched by some sadness for all my loved ones dealing with the first Christmas without my Grandpa Herbert and also my Grandpa Jack who passed away last month. This has added to my procrastination on all things (such as this blog) while I mourn his loss. Losing 2 elders in less than a year (2 grandfathers) has had me deep in reflection the past few weeks, and reconnecting with all I've learned from witnessing over 30 funerals/wakes/memorials in my life. I wish I had been there with the Holland clan to gather in remembrance of Jack, but that branch of my tribe continues to be in my heart and thoughts knowing the loss they will feel with him gone. I am happy Sasha got to meet her great-grandpas before they passed away and am full of gratitude for all I learned from both of these men.

One thing most people hate about losing loved ones is the regrets that come about...all the "I wish I had said..." "I hope he knew..." "if only I had..."- this is one reason why I tend to express my gratitude so often (and I know some of you even think I'm a bit over-the-top sometimes) as I always want people to know what they mean to me in the moment...not to share what I value once you're gone! Well, since my last post I came across a big regret in my mind. When Peter passed away earlier in the fall I decided I needed to take action on this regret.

The guitar that I have, and have been kinda trying to learn to play over the past few years by pickin it up now and then, used to belong to Peter. Every time he saw me he'd ask "so how's the guitar playing comin along?" and he very clearly loved this instrument and wanted to hear me play it. Only he never got to hear me play it...hence my regret. So I have taken action on this and finally organized some lessons for myself to take my learning to the next level! Between two dear friends - Pat and Gord - I have had two lessons and learned very different things. (Pat had showed me a few things on the picket line last year and taught me a couple of good ol' protest songs) Now I have a few fun songs to play for Sasha, and thanks to Gord I now have music to play to one song I wrote a few years ago!

In the new year Gord will help me put music to the other song I wrote, and with enough practise some of you may actually hear me sing and play it for you some day soon. Can't even begin to express how great it feels to have music to play with my songs that have been in my head for years! 'Amazing' doesn't cut it. But for sure, I am full of desire to play my guitar now, and am not giving it up again ;)

Back to other things that fill our life with joy. We had more fun last month hangin with Gilly, Merlin and Rob and their new pooch. Wish we could get our families together more often, but with this group its all about the quality of the time! The pic of me being cheesy was taken by Sasha...gettin' pretty good with a camera, so we got her one of her own for Christmas :)





This year we also got to attend one of our staff holiday parties, and we had a great time celebrating with fellow Britannia folks. A good turn out (considering the roads were crazy and it was a Thursday night) with many of my favorite people from all over our community complex: board members, Info Centre, pool, library, programmers, instructors, child care staff aplenty - such fun and lots of dancing!! I didn't get oo many good pics, but here are just some of the fabulous people I love working with at Brit - and the band features one of our long time saver of lives at the pool - Steve on the bass! Great music, good food and a very late night as we partied after the party and got home around 2am...not a common occurance for us anymore!




some more pics of our winter wonderland: outside our front door, Sasha and Mark walking up the hill (snow is up to her waist!) and the patio...not a cozy outside room for us these days ;)



Christmas this year was a bit of a challenge due to the weather and the chaotic schedules of our busy clans. Before Cheyenne headed off to Winnipeg for the holidays, we had a gathering of my family at Tampopo sushi restaurant which was fabulous! here's a cute pic of Sasha and her big cuz sharing some mango ice cream, yum! and to your left a pic of her first attempt at eating with chopsticks (soon foregone for finger style instead)

due to the road conditions we didnt end up seeing everyone on Christmas eve as planned, but we look forward to a snow day in Whistler with our cousins and Tante early in the new year to finish our Christmas celebrations. :)

The weather created quite a drama to get the Whittams together this year. While Karli and her clan visiting from the states were here, we managed to get all the cousins (our kids and our nieces and nephews - 7 in all) in a room together for the first time ever in Sasha's life. The stars don't often align for all of us to get together at once, especially when we have Che with us. He never seems to be free when the rest of us manage to gather. This time I missed out as I was working, but am so happy everyone else saw one another...even though it turned to be a short and sweet visit. next year Heathen is recommending we have a big family fun day instead - and we are all over this idea!!

On Christmas eve we had the drama of getting to mum's in north van once again. Mark and I experienced a little instant karma really...after spending time laughing at comical efforts of drivers trying to get up the insane slippy hill outside our home, and digging and pushing each other out of piles...well, we ended up victims in our own comic tragedies trying to cope with the insane roads en route to Penny's and back home again.
Due to skytrain shut downs (trees falling on tracks and apparently no quick means to deal with it) and again the crazy roads which buses weren't able to cope with (perhaps Vancouver will now invest in some snow plows for next year, or solidify some contracts in advance to help clear more roads...any roads for that matter!) the trek there on the 24th was an adventure. Thanks to a pick up downtown by Heath it ended positively. Then, there was a power outage over night, but fortunately the power came back in time for lunch and the cooking of our festive feast!

Some choice pics from our holiday fun are the tree trimming here at home, opening stocking on Christmas morning, hanging with daddy by the warm fire, present time with family and playing some tunes on the piano.


In our attempt to get home I have another moment of drama to share with you all (the rest of our karmic payback) - the tale of Sasha trapped in the car for almost an hour on boxing day! After digging Mum's car out of the snow, getting unstuck a mere block from home, and finally making it outside our co-op, the automatic locking doors were closed behind Mark and Penny before they realized what happened. Below is a pic I took (from Sasha's bedroom window) of Mum keeping our poor tyke company while I was on the phone with the emergency rescue staff trying to get someone to come get her out. With the weather being the nightmare it was for the roads, the tow truck wasn't expected for a minimum of a 1/2 hour! We had traffic blocked for a time, and at least the car was running so she stayed warm inside while waiting. Many kind people offered help and one guy even shared some chocolate with us in an effort to raise our spirits...as always renewing my faith in the kindness of people. I was the one who really got upset as this wasn't the first time she had been locked in the car!! (bad deja vu just over a year later, but I was happy I wasn't alone to cope with it this time) Though Sasha got upset for a little while (after having an accident and wanting a drink) for the most part she stayed calm and in good spirits and handled it all like the brave little trooper she always seems to be. Kids are more resilient than us parents are, hehe. A wee bit on the clingy side the past couple of days...but otherwise a-ok :)

Since our municipal election results became clear in november I am full of hope for Vancouver's potential in the next few years. Many of my friends and mentors are now members of our city council, school board and parks board and I intend to keep them full of awareness of their potential to create positive change. They have big dreams and it is nice to have leadership with ideas for alternatives to our local problems. But, as always, the proof will be in the pudding so they say. I was choked the last time progressives had power and let ego battles ruin it...not gonna let them get away with that behaviour again if I can stop it ;)

My focus will continue to be on public education issues in the new year, and with provincial elections upcoming in May, one new hat I will be wearing is as a member of the Coalition for Public Education. A group of provincial organizations which will try to influence public opinions on education issues in our province. I'm happy to be working with CPEN in this coalition!

Work will continue on the documentary. The feedback I received from the NFB after our november submission has been exactly what we needed to take our doc proposal to the next level. I gained a confidence boost hearing that they were fond of the idea (Kathy on the quest to spark national debate on the privatization of public education, and how much should we fear the notion that "our schools are up for sale"?) and what we are shaping is the visual aspects of what it will look like on film. Our team will be working hard to get the proposal ready for submission by March (when most funding agencies have money again, hehe) and we will continue filming, researching and networking as we go.

I have found my writing groove and after having my editorial on "Why your school trustee vote matters" published around BC in many community papers (and one paper had an editorial quoting my piece) I will be sure to attempt more of this in the new year. With my monthly newsletter articles I'm getting more practice at writing for deadlines too. You'd think I have enough to keep me challenged for the year to come...a pretty full plate of interesting things to learn and grow from...not to mention an adorable toddler - soon to be preschooler to keep me on my creative parenting toes! Gotta say I am still lovin life and lookin forward to all in store for 2009!!

Mark will have his hands full between his union executive, being a delegate to the Vancouver District Labour Council (VDLC) and now an official member of the board for our co-op as well! Sasha and Che will continue to be busy in their evolution of being, and our family will be sure to encounter many more ups downs and inbetweens. Seems I'll have more tales to share with you all...thank you for caring enough about the life of our family to read along - we love you!

To end our year with a ton of fun, Mark and I have a date night to see our fave artist Michael Franti at the Vogue theatre, and for new years eve we'll be having a multi-family party in our co-op common room! weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

I'll end the year with a couple of vid clips sure to put a smile on your face, and wish for all of you the peace of good health, fun with family and friends, and the security of food on your table every day in the new year!! cheers :)
Sasha sings "we wish you a merry xmas" while we trim the tree


"story time" - Sasha 'reading' from Sylvie & True by David McPhail