This past year, for our family, is going to be
difficult to describe. Bittersweet might
be one word to use. Challenging might be
another description we could use but despite some of the hardships we
encountered, there were certainly some blessings to be thankful for. Read on to find out what transpired for us
this year… it was a rollercoaster ride!
January 2012 began in typical fashion as we
wrapped up all of our Christmas celebrations including our annual trip to
Grandma and Grandpa Garner’s home. We celebrated
the New Year with Deb’s sister Carollyn and her family, and her brother,
Ben. It was fun to be with our children
for the New Year (we even did an early celebration to accommodate the little
ones). Once we returned home, we got
back into our daily routine while anticipating our annual trip to Florida. This year’s trip was going to be really
exciting as we were flying to Florida for the first time as a family AND we
were meeting up for a few days with some good friends and their babies. For the first time though, we encountered
illness and Deb had to go to the Emergency department of Ann and Jim’s local
hospital to be treated for strep throat.
She quickly felt better and we then enjoyed a very warm and relaxing
vacation at a resort in St. Pete Beach, with our friend’s, the Freitag
family. Once that part of our vacation
ended, we headed back to Grandma and Grandpa McGregor’s Florida home for more R
& R but our trip was about to take a turn for the worst. When we arrived we received word that Ian’s
cousin, Andrew, had been in a terrible accident and had passed away. Our trip would change as Ann and Jim quickly
made plans to be with Andrew’s parents in British Columbia and then we were
making plans to get home and then fly ourselves out to B.C. as well. Those days were a blur as we flew home and
then the next day flew out to Vancouver.
This is where we feel very blessed as many of Ian’s aunts, cousins and
some of our neighbours “swooped in” and took over our household and looking
after our children while we went to be with Andrew’s family and wife. These events were life-changing for us.
It is hard to say that life got back to normal
after these events, but eventually our normal changed and we had to get back to
our careers and our own family. We had a
lot of fun this past winter with sledding and skating. Ian and I had always hoped to someday
purchase more land and that opportunity presented itself this past year. In April we officially became owners of
another farm, very close to our own. The
kids thought we were moving to a new house but we settled that and enjoyed many
afternoons sliding on our new farm – the hills are much steeper there. Then on the day we got ownership, we enjoyed
a little celebration on our new property.
The farm work began early with spring beginning in
the end of March and we were in full swing getting ready for the upcoming
growing and selling season. We hired a
record number of fantastic employees this year (21 sales staff and 15 Jamaican labourers)
as we were drastically expanding to 12 Market Stands (5 more than the previous
year). With all of our best laid plans
to have a successful Market Season, we experienced a record-breaking drought
this summer and “enjoyed” some challenging moments… such is farming life! There is always hope for a better season next
year! Probably the best part of the
summer was the arrival of our sweet neice, Charlotte (daughter of Cameron and
Mandy), on June 26th - she was very timely as she came right between the
strawberry and raspberry seasons!
On August 17, 2012, we celebrated 10 years of
marriage – do many of you remember our wedding?
It was one of the best days of our lives and we are proud to still have
a very strong marriage and to be blessed with 3 beautiful children! We are celebrating this milestone a few
different ways: we had our good friend,
Rhonda, take some amazing photos of our family (including the photo on our
Christmas card), we are taking a mini-holiday this week to Quebec City and then
the big celebration is going to be part of our annual vacation to Florida as we
are heading to Walt Disney World for a few days (everyone is VERY
excited).
Another big change occurred in our life as our
little girl, Jean, began school this past September. Grace is now in grade 3, Alex is in grade 1
and Jean is in junior kindergarten. It
is so hard to believe that we have 3 children in school and it has been a
difficult adjustment (especially for mommy).
Once the farm slowed down, there was definitely a void in Deb’s
life. As with all transitions, a new
door opened and Deb has begun another little business of selling Jockey
clothing for women, through home-parties.
She now has 4 jobs: mom to 3
kids, working for McGregor’s Produce in staffing and sales, her jam-making
business and now selling clothing. If
you want to get anything done, ask a busy person! Speaking of busy people, Ian is still
passionately improving and growing McGregor’s Produce, along with Cameron and
his dad, Jim. Ian and Cameron are
increasing their cash crop acres as well with the purchase of our new farm but
their crops were not successful with the lack of rain. Farmers always have hope for next year
though!
The kids are busy little people too but we try our
best to balance their lives. Grace is
dancing on the competitive dance team in Arnprior, on jazz, ballet and musical
theatre teams. Alex plays hockey once a
week and just completed a basketball session – he is a sporty little guy! Jean is now taking dance as well, just like
her big sister! We spend a lot of time
driving the kids around but are making a conscious effort to give them a lot of
time just playing at home.
As you can see, this past year has been an
interesting one – hopefully not repeated.
We have much to look forward to and hope the same for you all. Please take care and we wish you all the best
in this magical season and in the New Year.
Sincerely,
Ian, Deb, Grace, Alex and Jean
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