I’ve been wanting to return to telling stories in this space that I created a billion (Okay, fifteen) years ago, and keep getting spirit nudges to do so. How do I begin? Where do I start?
Then it came to me. Write a year-end letter like you would include with a Christmas photo card. Yes!
Now it’s January. It’s a New Year letter!
(I was adamant for many years that we have a family photo done for a Christmas card. Then my kids became teenagers, who do not want their photo taken (unless they are taking multiple selfies a day to send to friends via Snapchat)(Sigh). They also have a Dad who is not a fan of being in photos, so 2019 was another year with no photo cards to send out. This will change in 2020! Maybe.)
Graham!
G is in Grade 12! 12th grade! All of the exclamation marks! He is a math and science nerd like his Mom and is taking far higher-level math and science courses than I ever did. He has applied to Universities (!!!) and would like to be an electrical engineer who works at Tesla. He is Team Tesla (Tesla was his camp name last year as a leader) and I suggested that he choose the school path that would get him to where he wanted to be.
Graham is also part of the big play production that our high school puts on every year. In grade nine, he came home and said that he had joined the play.
Wait, what?
The first year that he was in the play, when I saw him singing in the ensemble and dancing, I got the giggles. I sank into my seat, with uncontrollable silent laughter. Who is that kid? He has never sung at home, ever. Yet here he was with lines and singing and dancing with his group. He has had a part every year. Last year he was the delightfully inappropriate Mr. Callahan in Legally Blonde. He got his face slapped in every show. This year, they are doing Matilda. I asked him what his role was and he said, “I’m the Doctor who gives birth.” (I told him that he’s the Doctor who delivers babies.)
Nathan and his friends have told us that Graham is a Legend at the high school. It turns out that G is kind to everyone, gives zero shits about what people think about him, and is friendly with all of the students in his school. I want to be him when I grow up.
Nathan!
Nathan is still the huggiest of huggers that ever did hug. If you were to ask him for a hug, his face would light up and he would envelop you in a hug. (He is currently 6’1, just an inch shorter than his Dad, and is not done growing.)
Nathan is also a science and math guy. I have encouraged him to take Kinesiology like his Uncle Huan at Lakeshore Fitness and Health. He’d like to do that, and either be a trainer or carry on with his education and become a PE teacher. He’s great at encouraging and coaching others, so either route would fit him. Or anything else in that vein, really.
(This is assuming that he’s not in the NBA or a professional volleyball player first, according to his dreams and ambitions.)
Nathan is a superb athlete, and this is not me making things bigger than they are. He made the Volleyball BC Cup team for our region this summer. It went to a nail-biting five sets, and they walked away with Silver.
For the regular season, we were undefeated. We won our Zones, and got to host Valleys and after three sets walked away with second place, which means we seeded well at Provincials. You can check Instagram and Facebook for those daily updates. The fact that wee Summerland placed 6th in the entire Province is huge. So huge.
Basketball season is now well underway and those same boys are killing it on the court. They are so, so fun to watch. Nathan has started dunking in practice (!) and I can’t wait to capture it during a game.
Something happened in the water in 2004 in Summerland. There is this group of boys who are naturally gifted athletes. You throw in a team of amazing Coaches (Their sporty Dads), having these boys play together since third grade, those same coaches coaching them in club sports to further their game, and it’s a recipe for a successful team. These boys also gather to play ball before school, at lunch, and in their free time outside of school. They never stop, and it shows.
Emily!
Miss Emily is now officially a teenager, though I have referred to her as one for quite a while. She is smart as a whip and sometimes a bit of a smarty pants as well. She comes by it honestly.
Emily is the only one of the three that stuck with piano lessons. Last year, her classical piano lessons morphed into playing chords and singing, and then into only singing. (My girl can SING.) Her piano/singing teacher joined a new performing arts studio and now Emily is part of the vocal ensemble.
Emily started playing volleyball in Grade 6 and Grade 8 showed who was strong at the sport and who was just there for fun. Emily was one of the strongest players, and decided to try out for club volleyball in Penticton. She and another one of her friends from Summerland made the team and I look forward to watching her club volleyball season.
Baseball is still her thing, come spring (Poet, didn’t know it). Our baseball league is technically co-ed, but many girls switch to fast pitch to be on an all-girls team. Emily has no desire to windmill-pitch. Pitching is her thing, and she’s so good at it that she is often the closing pitcher. She is the only girl on a team of boys. Three up, three down!
Matthew!
Matt and his brother Brandon and my brother Lance went through the process three years ago to become licensed residential builders. They had been doing major renovations and such and decided to up their game. They took all of the courses required. The biggest stumbling block was deciding on a company name. Every option they came up with was already taken. Then I had a lightbulb moment. What about DMD Contracting? Dykstra/Moran/Dykstra? And so that’s what it is. DMD Contracting Ltd.
The guys have been busy, and do such good work that word-of-mouth is all that they have needed for advertising so far. My youngest brother Chad moved here from Alberta last year and joined them. All of the brothers have a lot of fun working together.
(The guys also built the In House Performing Arts Studio that Emily goes to for vocal ensemble. Small world, Summerland, etc.)
Angella!
(I could have said Me! but I like my name a lot. It’s so … me.)
I opened my own accounting practice almost three years ago. Matt encouraged me for many years to do so and I wasn’t ready. Then I was, and it’s been better than I ever could have imagined.
I took a leap, and took over a space owned by a friend. Matt framed in three offices. Within a month of opening, I had a call from a Notary Public who had moved to Summerland and was looking for accounting advice. We met, and as she was also looking for office space, she took the second office. Her name is Yvonne Whiting and not only is she amazing at everything she does, she is one of my favorite human beings on the planet. We were both new at being on our own, and bounce ideas off of each other to this day. We’ve also become good friends, which makes our work days pretty great.
The five of us spent Christmas in Mexico and we had the best time. Also, tapping out of Christmas and shopping and such makes for a pretty stress-free December.
Life is good, and I hope to pop in here more to keep sharing the stories, because otherwise they often get lost in the every day.
