This page was last updated on 01/06/01 by Mike Jackson.
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December 2000, Greetings Everyone, Once again this so called Christmas letter may arrive after the holidays, but it still comes with our hopes that you have had a healthy and successful year. Our lives have undergone a major change this year, but let’s start at the beginning … Mike saw the New Year in from the Galapagos on a millennium cruise. Jenny and Claire made a great effort to stay up until mid night. They said that they made it, but Monica stopped hearing noises from their room at about 11:30pm! In February we had our traditional long weekend with friends at Mt. Washington ski resort. Jenny and Claire can ski further and get more adventurous every year. During the spring break Mike led a group of SMUS students on another trip to the Galapagos Islands. Monica and the girls stayed home and entertained visitors. Jenny and Claire enjoyed having their Bailey cousins to visit. Gran came in time to celebrate Monica’s 40th birthday. Between January and the end of April, Monica spent every spare moment making a quilt and other crafts for the school’s spring fair. The fair proceeds were sufficient to buy a new bus for the school. May and June were busier than usual because of extra meetings and activities associated with our new job as house parents to 34 14-18 year old boys. We didn’t actually take over the job until September, but needed to learn some of the "ropes" while school was still in session. Mike will still teach and be head of the science department, but will have a reduced teaching load. By this time Monica was packing as we had a very busy summer planned. We began the summer, as usual, with several days in Vancouver. Mike had some meetings and the girls did touristy activities. Then we returned to the Island and squeezed in a 3 day fishing trip to Port Renfrew before attending a friends wedding. Jenny and Claire were flower girl and ring bearer. They had a fabulous day, which included fancy dresses, hairdos, riding in a limousine, tasting champagne, sitting at the head table and generally being admired. We then packed up once more and headed to Barkerville, B.C., a reconstructed 1860’s gold mining town. Jenny would be studying that period of B.C. history in school and Monica had always wanted to visit. On the way there and back we camped beside small lakes so that Mike could fish, fish, and fish! A couple of days back home and then Mike, and a very lucky Jenny, flew to the Galapagos for a 10-day trip. Jenny had an amazing time and Mike enjoyed having her along. Monica and Claire went to Oyama and relaxed by the lake. Mike and Jenny were only back for a few days (during which we moved!) and then we went to Rathtrevor Beach with a group of friends for several days of camping and playing on the beach (Mike also squeezed in a bit of fishing!). The following week was a frantic spree of unpacking and settling into our new house on campus. We have a two-story apartment on one end of the boarding house. It has about the same living space as our old house, but the little storage we have is in another building. Luckily, we rented our house to friends who were happy for Mike to leave his boat, fishing gear and some tools at the house. Our boarding house is one of six so there are other families on campus. There are 14 children between the ages of one and eleven, providing lots of playmates. The playing fields and lawns act as a huge backyard. Mike’s mother, Anne, came for a two week visit in the middle of August. She very kindly put up with our continued unpacking and then treated us to a week’s stay near Long Beach and Tofino. We were lucky with the weather (it is after all a temperate rainforest) and spent lots of time boating, fishing, beach walking and swimming. Mike had a few wonderful excursions fly fishing for Coho salmon in the ocean. This was some of the most spectacular fishing Mike has ever done. School starts a few days earlier when you are involved in boarding. The boys start arriving 3 days before classes start. It was very helpful for us that they did arrive gradually. Thirty-four new faces and parents with lots of questions were exhausting. Once we survived September, life settled into a routine (more or less) and Mike is adjusting to less sleep and greater contact with the students. Monica is doing many of the behind the scenes boarding jobs and the girls are really enjoying the campus and the added attention of all the ‘big’ kids. For Mike it is very easy to not leave the campus for days or weeks on end so he makes a point of going fishing, kayaking or bike riding most weekends. Our school’s break starts on December 15. We plan to spend a few days at home and then have Christmas with Monica’s family. Between Boxing Day and New Year’s Day we will go to Calgary and Banff. We will spend part of the time with our friends and part with Mike’s sister and her family who will be coming to Canada to try our ski hills. We hope to cross country ski, as well as teach the girls how to down hill ski. We are hoping for lots of snow in the next two weeks, as there is less than usual so far. Hopefully we will feel rested and ready to resume the care of all ‘our’ boys in January. We wish you all the best for the holiday season and the New Year. Mike has put together a web site of images of the family over the past few years, which can be found via http://www.islandnet.com/~mjackson/family Please note our change of address. Michael and Monica Jackson |
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This page was last updated on 01/06/01 by Mike Jackson. Back to Home |