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Funny...
I searched high and low... and even though I can use a digital camera, I cannot find one picture of the whole fam damily taken last Christmas. So... here we are, on the day of Laura's Iron Ring Ceremony, in March at Kingston. She was presented her Engineer's Iron Ring by Unca Brian, also and engineer, and the guy who took this picture.

Clicking on these pictures will give you a larger version, should you want to see more. ( There are more pictures of that Iron Ring Day later on through here...)

Yeah, that's all of us. On the left, Laura, done her Engineering Chemistry Degree, and now on to Med School at Queen's, Connie, who still keeps everything rollin' always willing to listen when the exam stress hits, and somehow manages to always have a smile, Allan, now in his second year of Law at U of Toronto, and best of all, me.

All in all, I feel pretty good for a guy my age. I'm amazed that I am still so-o-o good looking too. Considering last year at this time, I was mid-way through a crisis, with a piched nerve in my neck that incapacitated me from December to April. Overall the 2002 and 2003 weren't the best years of my trip so far. But I survived, to tell about it. Many haven't been so lucky.

Here's a picture from 1985. As I said, I'm amazed at how little I've changed. Considering, mind you...

Anyway, that's what we look like now, and we're doing well.

We'll be spending Christmas with Gramma Rowlands this year, in Orillia. The kids get there from Toronto and Kingston, and Connie and I drive down from Timmins. We'll also meet up with Cathy, Connie's sister, and Warren, her husband. We met up with them this past summer, during the August long weekend, when we took this picture.

Okay... now you know the key players... (We'll introduce the Gramma's as we go...) Let's get on with the story...

December 2002 and January, 2003

From the left, and moving round the table, we have Leo Burns, Darryl's father-in-law and Jane's dad, Laura, in the burgundy, Connie, Gramma Hilda, Unca Darryl, Allan, Megan, in the light blue, and finally Jane.

Here's Gramma Ritchie, Megan, and Darryl, during last Christmas.

From November to April, a pinched nerve kept me away from work for some months. I couldn't do much. Couldn't get on the computer, it was unbearable. (Just like the Liberals have decided this past week.. unbearable this coming spring. (Inside joke! Hee hee!)

But what I could do was handle a knife, and cook... so, I got into cooking even more than I did before. Connie went to work, I stayed home and cooked. Nice arrangement.