Christmas Newsletter 2007

Johnson-Rouleau Journal – Christmas 2007

(NOTE: I have embedded some photos and links to videos this year. To view the photos in more detail, just click on them, and to see the videos, just click the links ... and then to return to the JR Journal again, just click the "Back" button on your browser.)

Now, as I thaw out my hands on the laptop keyboard (thank you Intel) after putting up my outdoor Christmas lights with a foot of snow on the ground, my mind wanders to the southern hemisphere. You know what they say, the grass is always greener on the other side of the … world(?), and given that my grass is covered with the aforementioned snow, I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one. That reminds me of the first time I met someone from Australia. It was a guy from Queensland. I was curious what the weather was like there so I asked him how cold it gets in the winter. He thought for a moment and replied, “It gets down to about 20.” Being used to Canadian winters, I wasn’t sure what he meant and I simply inquired, “Below?” He looked at me strangely and asked, “Below what?” That pretty much says it all, eh?

Right now my Aussie friends are celebrating “Chrissy” in their Bermuda shorts by the water under bright, warm, clear-blue skies where the sun doesn’t set until well into the evening. I was fortunate enough to enjoy one memorable Christmas down-under back in 1988 and I still have fond recollections. One vivid memory is that of me walking along the infamous Bondi Beach past a spruce tree propped up in the sand which had been completely decorated with empty beer cans by all the foreigners passing by who, like me, did not have family around and had nothing better to do on the 25th than to enjoy a few cool beverages by the ocean.

Fast forward a couple of decades, and now I am sitting here in the great white north, with big snowflakes falling all around, the branches of the trees and bushes are snow-capped masterpieces making our neighbourhood a picture-perfect winter wonderland. How could I conceive of swapping this living Christmas-postcard atmosphere for anything over the holidays? With the visual setting now complete, let’s get on with the main event … reflecting back on the highlights of the Johnson-Rouleau family this year.

After returning from our six-month tour of North America last December, the kids were actually excited to be back. Morgan couldn’t wait to play hockey again and André-Paul was happy to have a piano at his disposal 24 hours a day. To see a sample clip of Morgan scoring a goal, click on http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-4509119748970460212 . I must compliment Chantal on the great job she did with their private (motor) home schooling while we were away. Amazingly, they both slipped back into school as if they had not missed a day. I am really starting to wonder if I should get a DNA test performed on these two. As for us parents, we were just happy to be back in our very own king-sized bed again. Perhaps I’d better just leave it at that.

As for gainful employment, Chantal was able to find a contract teaching position almost right away. To say that worked out well would be an understatement (can you say “totally out of money?”). I was fortunate enough to return to the same company after my six-month leave-of-absence and I actually managed to luck into a new job there, since a colleague had just resigned. The new position came with its own office, which had some of my co-workers asking questions. “Not only did you get management to let you take six months off, but when you get back, they give you a promotion … how in the h*## did you pull that off?” It wasn’t quite like that, but he does make an interesting a point … timing is everything!

An important event for us this year was participating in my mother’s “Final Flight”, as her friend Fran so eloquently described it. Let me explain. Before mom passed away last year, she had asked to have her ashes spread over the Thousand Islands, near the town where we all grew up. Us kids got together to discuss logistics and determined that the first thing we had to do was find someone who would be willing to fly the plane. Luckily my brother Eric’s neighbour, Greg, just happens to be a pilot for Air Canada. But, perhaps more importantly, he likes to fly smaller planes in his spare time. Greg not only offered to do this, as well as set aside a day to come to the Thousand Islands to fly the plane, but he even arranged the plane rental as well. What a nice guy. When the day finally arrived, it was picture perfect: sunny with clear blue skies. I was fortunate enough to join Greg in the plane along with my brother Eric and nephew Joey … and, of course, mom. The rest of the small group of family and close friends were waiting and watching in a park on the shores of the St. Lawrence in the heart of the Thousand Islands. Everything went better than planned, but just as we had hoped. It was a touching, dramatic and memorable send-off for our mother, Doris, whom her close friend Anne described as “first class all the way.”

Less than a month later we found ourselves on the banks of the St. Lawrence again but this time we were at a cemetery near Quebec City. We were there to lay Chantal’s mother’s ashes to rest. Her immediate family and close friends gathered by her final resting place and everyone read some words that they had written about some of their fondest memories of Marie-Paule. It, too, was a very touching ceremony for a wonderful woman.

As you might imagine, with 6 months off last year, I was a little thin on vacation time this year. I did take a week off in July, and, as if to make a point, we chose not to travel anywhere. Instead we decided to just hang out in Ottawa. We actually wanted to pretend that we were still on our MoHo tour and act as if we were just visiting Ottawa. No, I didn’t keep a blog of our summer vacation, but we did spend the week doing things like biking along the Rideau canal that runs through the city, visiting the new Canadian War Museum, and, on July 1st, spending the entire day mingling with 100,000 or so of our closest friends in the nation’s capital celebrating Canada Day! Check this link to see the Snowbirds in action http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-2382081787531796734 . A good time was had by all, with the possible exception of the agoraphobics.

Also this summer, friends of ours, Marius and Hélene, very generously provided us with some tickets to the FIFA Under-20 World Cup of Soccer. These are the best soccer players in the world, under 20 years old, playing for their country. We got to see Brazil play USA and amazingly the US won the game! I am not a big soccer fan but I must admit that I was blown away by what these athletes could do. We got to sit in the very first row next to the field and it was incredible watching how these players could control the ball. To see a video clip of what I mean, click here: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=2654812256121020127 . And speaking of soccer, André-Paul has become a huge soccer fanatic. He has migrated to being a goalie and he just loves it. However, I must admit that every time I see him stretching his “classically-trained grade 10 piano” fingers to stop a blast from point-blank range, I cringe. Leave it to my son to figure out how to put his fingers in danger in a game where you are not allowed to use your hands.

The kids got lucky later this summer because, in spite of my lack of vacation time, they decided to take a trip to California. Yes, you heard correctly. Chantal and the kids took off to San Francisco for a week since they all have the summer off., the dirtbags! OK, I actually went along as well, but I had to work. So, did I manage to make anyone feel at least a little bit sorry for me? We did get to have fun together in the evenings and on the weekend. We took the kids on a quickie kid-focused tour of silicon valley. What did we end up seeing? Google’s Campus in Mountain View, Apple’s Campus in Cuppertino, and the Palo Alto Ferrari/Maserati dealership. Silicon valley in a nutshell, right?. Check this link for a look at "the streets of San Francisco": http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=3856295198941029912 . Saturday afternoon we got a chance to visit with my “relatively” new-found aunt Cynthia and uncle Ken who live on the other side of the bay in Martinez. On this visit we were fortunate enough to get to meet my two cousins Mary and Cheryl for the first time. Cheryl and her husband Lon, and their very cute daughter Kendra, invited everyone over to their place to share in an old family tradition … making real ice cream from scratch. We’d never seen this done before and we found it pretty cool (pun intended … again). Turns out I think they enjoyed it as much as we did as it brought back fond memories of their childhood. We also were treated to a lovely dinner and had a great time together telling stories about all the people who weren’t there (What happens in Martinez, stays in Martinez!) and generally trying to catch up on many lost years. Before I move on, I must mention that Cheryl and Lon had one of the coolest devices I have seen in a long time … a real, live vintage player piano. It was actually Cynthia and Ken’s originally but they didn’t have the room for it when they moved. Coincidentally, Ken had just purchased a box of old player piano music scrolls at a garage sale recently. The result was that André-Paul and I had a riot changing the roles and “pedaling” the piano to watch all the keys play themselves. Finally, some foot pedals on a piano that actually make sense to me. This activity elicited the first of the kid kwotes for this year when A-P said, “This is the first time I have played a piano that is better me!”

Click here for a video of the player piano in action: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-706498131965713140 .

My bachelor buddy Pat bought himself a sailboat this year and he invited myself and our mutual university friend, Al, (all of “HofP” fame for those of you who know) out for a sailing weekend in late September. We got very lucky weather-wise and ended up enjoying sunny skies and 27C (80F). The only downside was that it was windy. Yes, you heard me right, downside. Well, you see, none of us really know how to sail and the winds were hovering around 30 knots! We were brave enough to put up one sail and with that alone we were flirting with the top speed of the boat! The good news is that we did not rip any sails, we did not flip the boat, and none of us went overboard. Translation: a successful voyage.

On the home maintenance front, we had to get the shingles replaced on our roof. My favorite story about this event was the part where I offered a beer to the 5 guys who had just finished the roof . I decided to bring out a couple of cases of beer to give them a choice. I was hoping that they all liked beer, but I need not have worried about that. They hung out for about 20 or 30 minutes relaxing with some cold beers before heading off. Given that three of them had to drive their trucks home afterward I wasn’t sure if they would want to partake. After they left I picked up the two cases and noticed that there were seventeen empties!!! After a little math, I came to a final conclusion about the roofing industry. You need a pretty strong liver!

Last, but certainly not least, comes the story where Chantal and I managed to turn a negative into a positive. In October Chantal hurt her back quite seriously. After much attention from her chiropractor and her physiotherapist over a couple of weeks she was back to at least being mobile again. One thing we had noticed during her recovery was that Chantal’s back felt much better after spending time in our friend’s, Hélene and Marius’, hot tub. They generously offered to let Chantal use it whenever she needed and she did take advantage of that offer on a number of occasions. After this unfortunate event, Chantal and I started to think that maybe the time has come for us to get a hut tub of our own, only for health reasons of course. One thing led to another and now we are the proud new owners of a wonderful, new hot tub in our very own backyard. For those of you wondering, yes, you can use a hot tub all year around if you like. Check this video is you don't believe me: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-4269605985429416431 . We have only had it a few weeks now and we have already experienced the “ice helmet” effect. Now, before I get into trouble with the censors, I am simply referring to what takes place when hot tubbing during snowy conditions. It is definitely fun so, if you are in the neighbourhood, perhaps you would like to drop by and see for yourself!

Now, what Johnson-Rouleau Journal is complete without sharing my favorite Kid Kwotes from the past 12 months? So here we go, compliments of Morgan and André-Paul.

While we where waiting for our flight at the San Francisco airport in August, Morgan heard a little Asian baby babbling away in his mother's arms. He turned to me and said, "You know, you can't really tell if Japanese babies can talk or not."

A-P was telling the family about one of his friends that he had been visiting with recently. At one point he said that they lead a rather different lifestyle when compared to how we live. I was curious about what these differences might be so I asked him what he meant by a different lifestyle. A-P simply said, “Well, they can afford things.” Hmmm. You know, I think I would like that lifestyle.

Morgan, Chantal and I were driving to a hockey game last March when Morgan asked me, “Out of all the cars you have owned, which one was your favorite? And you can’t pick your Miata.” I thought about this for a while and finally said, “My first car, a Ford Fiesta.” I guess he was expecting something more grandiose because Morgan reared back in disgust when he heard my response. Then he replied, “You’re so cheap. You start out trying to save some money by getting a car just because it is a good price and then the next thing you know, your buying salad dressing for 99 cents!” Well, um, yes, those kids say the darndest things, eh?

Earlier this year we received a box of chocolates as a gift and André-Paul and I were enjoying a couple of them when we started talking about the brand. It was a brand neither of us had seen before and the name was written in fancy script so it was a little difficult to decipher. André-Paul took a look at the name, hesitated, and then asked if the name of the company was “Defecto”? After almost choking on my chocolate trying to hold back my laughter, I replied that I thought the name was actually “Delecto”. But now that I think about it, calling your product Defecto would certainly generate some attention. And how does that saying go … any press is good press?

While we were camping last summer, Morgan suggested we try doing an activity that seemed more than a little unusual. When I looked at him as if I was wondering why he would suggest that, he said to me, “It’s just for fun … but without the fun part.”

And last but certainly not least …
I was telling Morgan about Chantal’s back problem and explaining that it appears to be similar to what her brother Paul had experienced. I also mentioned that her father also has some serious back problems too. I then recommended that he and A-P be careful how they treat their backs so that they can avoid these kinds of issues, which seem to plague the Rouleaus. Morgan turned to me with an optimistic look in his face and said, “We don’t have to worry … we’re Johnsons!” Oh, if I had a nickel for every time I have thought that …

So, in closing, I hope you all had a fabulous 2007 and with any luck, we will get a chance to see each other in 2008. Here’s wishing you all a menacingly merry Christmas and a pleasantly playful New Year!