Monday, December 20, 2010

Christmas Newsletter

2010 was an interesting and exciting year for the Merrill Family.  To start it off in January I finally secured a permanent job at the University as the Graduate Secretary in the School of Fine Art and Music. This means I now qualify for paid vacation and sick pay.  We also doubled up our dental benefits to help cover the cost of Zach's upcoming braces.

In April we celebrated the arrival of our 3rd Granddaughter, Sydney Sierra Rose Haw.  She is such a wonderful little girl, full of smiles.  Unknown to Amber when she named her was that Sydney is a family name. 

In May we had family from Alberta join us in celebrating Brock's marriage to Jenna Howey. It was great to have Cody and Mimi,  Grandma Humphreys and Auntie Sheila Hatch, Ginamarie, Richard, Storm and Lincoln Sefcik, Grandma Merrill, Aunt Karen Gordon and Uncle Phil Merrill join us for this great day. Maybe they can join us again in July 2011 for the next Merrill wedding!

In June we packed up our belongings and moved to our new home.  We had lived in Guelph for 20 year, almost 17 in our home.  For years we have been talking about moving to the country and 2009 we almost did it but the timing wasn't right.  We spent most of that year renovating our home - hardwood throughout, painting etc.  In March we found a place we loved and put our newly renovated home up on the market.  7 days later it was sold and we started packing to move.  On June 4 we moved into our new country property. 20 acres of peace and quiet.

Country living has been wonderful.  We have a huge garden that produced more beans than I could pick.  We have a 100 ft row of raspberries and 20 feet of asparagus.  We grew tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and squash.  We also had our own pumpkins for Halloween. We also have 6 apple trees in the front yard and a mixture of apple, pear, plum, apricot and cherry trees in the back.  We are hoping to have our own little orchard back there.

We have over 2 acres of grass to mow weekly.  It keeps Zach and Talia busy, and even mom takes a turn sometimes.  We had 8 acres of barley this year which is now 8 acres of pasture grass.  We had hoped to get a fence put up this summer/fall but ran out of time and money.  The posts and boards are stacked in a neat pile waiting for spring.  There are stakes out in the field marking the fence line so we can imagine what next summer will bring.  Once the fence is up maybe we can add some animals to the place.

With the snow finally on the ground Rod has been out using our snow blower to keep the driveway clear.  It takes a while to clear 500 feet of driveway so we are looking forward to the delivery of our attachment for the tractor.  That will speed up the work considerably.

And now Christmas is almost upon us. The tree is trimmed, the presents are almost wrapped and the excitement is building.  We will have a crowd around the table but will miss those who are unable to join us this year.  Hopefully it won't be long before Cody and Mimi move back to Ontario and sit at the table with us. 

This has been a exciting and eventful year for us and we look forward to many more. 

May the Lord bless each of you with a wonderful 2011.

3 comments:

  1. Great Post!! Sounds like you had a great year! Hopefully 2011 is just as good to you-if not better. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Technically its a Haw wedding :P But i hope they can all come anyway!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Its a Merrill/Haw wedding. You ain't a Haw until you say I DO!!!

    ReplyDelete