Happy New Year!!!

First of all, I received the sad news the day before Christmas that my cousin Ray passed away the previous day. He had been fighting with H1N1 for several days in the ICU at Victoria Hospital in Winnipeg. Just 2 years older than me and such a nice man. He was always dropping by to check on Mom and look after her chores that were getting to be a bit much for her. That mortality thing again... unfortunately when our time comes, there is nothing we can do except accept it and for us lucky ones that remain, to go on and enjoy our lives and live them to the fullest as we don't know when our turn will come.

I was kind of disappointed over Christmas because it appears that I misplaced my camera... OK.. It looks like I lost the damn thing and just when I was finally getting used to using it... anyways, I spent Christmas in Cross Lake MN at Julie's parents place. It was nice in that I got to see her family including all her brothers and kids and all.. I must admit that I had some pain as well as I really missed my kids and of course my little Shaya (photos to follow d'accord)... but all in all it was quite nice. The snow flew over xmas and we must have received about 2 feet of the white stuff over the holidays. It was actually very nice as it gave us a festive feeling and was very beautiful in the northern part of the state.

Julie and I exchanged a gift of fitness as presents... UH..yeah.. I am now fit.. well, we bot each others memberships at the local fitness centre along with 6 sessions with a personal trainer (to force us to try get an honest start at this).. we both have been a bit reckless with our eating habits and it shows on both of us. I was thinking of doing up a naked "before" shot of my body and posting it here but thank GOD - (about that lost camera thing) - so you will just have to take my word for it that I am a chunky monkey!!!

After Christmas, we drove up to Duluth which is on the shore of Lake Superior (the 2nd largest fresh water lake in N America) "teeheehee" and a city that is so very dear to Julie's heart. Her brother Scott has a cabin on a nearby lake and we rang in the new year at 11PM on New Year's Eve.. too damn old to stay up till mid-night. We have been so fortunate to enjoy this retreat on several occasions and although it was very cold over the year's end, we kept the fire blazing and spent a lovely 5 days relaxing, playing cards, cooking, sipping on wine, taking walks, and some snow shoeing... Julie took the photo's above of the cabin, the river that still flows into the lake, the lane way to the cabin and a couple of other pics.

It was a grrrreat break and here we are on Jan 4th .. Julie back at work.. and me with time on my hands (we meet the owner of the fitness centre tonite to secure the memberships and tomorrow is the start of the new us... well, hopefully a toned down version.