Merry Christmas from the Bethells!

DEBORAH BETHELL 

rdbethell@rodgers.com

Another year has passed since many of you have heard from us.  We hope to find all of you well.  This is the time of year that we wish all of you the peace and love that awaits you from the birth of the Christ Child.

We have had a very intense year, starting off with traveling the southern States with Joel and Caroline. We rented a vehicle and traveled to the Grand Canyon; drove through to Sedona and ended at my father’s place in Casa Grande Arizona.  It was the first major trip for Caroline and we had such fun driving through the desert. The landscape was like being on the moon!

The Grand Canyon always drives home the fact that we are so small and insignificant.  The Canyon’s beauty and majesty is such a witness of the vastness of creation!  For me it was a magical trip  and a wonderful time to share with this young couple!

Although we went for warm weather, we were greeted with snow in Tombstone! We must have brought the weather with us!

June came along with the birth of our second grandchild Satchel. Satchel surprised everyone and arrived five weeks early! He is just fine and has been nicknamed our special little butterball because he is so chubby! Satch keeps Christie and Dru on their toes for sure!

 Grandma Bethell had a scare in May with a minor stroke.  We pulled together to sell her home and found a retirement residence for her.  Shirley has fully recovered and is the belle of the ball there!  She attends Bingo, Residents’ Meetings, visiting musicians etc.  It is so wonderful to see her glow again!  We all love her so much!

Rick and Deb took Grandson Max to Wonderland and Rick went on a daredevil rollercoaster ride and survived! The three of us then went kayaking on the Chateauguay River in Quebec.  We have discovered a new hobby!

We spent a lovely time at Lake Placid with our friends, Carol and Howard Sarault. Deb went kayaking with Joan and stayed at a B&B in Quebec!.

Deb’s business (Bezaq Communications) keeps her very busy. There has been hardly any time for Sacred Dance this year.  Joel came on board as the main graphic designer and programmer while Shi Zheyu coordinated the hard core programming for the database interfaces for the sites.  Joel has since accepted a web publisher position with CIHI (Canadian Institute of Health Information) but will remain with us to keep his creative energies flowing.

 We had the pleasure of working for some incredible people while designing websites. For example our websites include:  The Hungarian Presence in Canada; Scott Simser (the Canadian Champion for the deaf community winning suits against the government for access to translation facilities in the courts, etc.),  The Dominican College with Gabor Csepregi at the helm, and the list goes on.

We have two animation shorts in the wings – preproduction stage, both for the Hungarian Website.

Amy has just finished the Web Programming Course at the Heritage Cegep.  Amy has studied non-stop for two years – no winter or summer breaks.  Kudos to Amy!  She starts a coop position in January with Environment Canada. Good work Amy!

Rick is continuing on with his love for model aircraft building.  He specializes in WW1 By-planes and Tri-planes. 

We wish you all a blessed and wonderful New Year!