2022 – Ho Ho Ho!! Merry Christmas Y’all

I have written so few family updates this year I am embarrassed it is the end of another year in Canada and our life is a mystery to so many people we love around the world. It is no joke that the years fly by faster as you get older, and especially as kids get bigger, taller, busier and full of the joys of teenagedom. I’m not sure how we’ve arrived at this stage already, but we now have a teenager in the house, and another not very far off! So let me give you a recap of what has been a very eventful year, with some wonderful highs and thankfully not too many lows.

After 2 full years in Canada we were finally able to get back to South Africa in March this year! It was chaotic and joyful, full of laughter at all the things we’ve all been through in the last 2 years, but also full of tears – catching up after 2 emotionally hard years of missing our people back home in SA. Three weeks wasn’t close to enough time to see everyone we love, even though we tried our best to zoom around the country fitting in breakfasts, lunches and dinners with all our peeps. Leaving was even harder this time than it was when we left in February 2020 – I think I ‘ugly-cried’ solidly for 2 hours in the plane after saying good-bye to the family. My teary-ness at every opportunity is something I’m having to embrace as I rocket into middle-age. Not only do I cry for sad things, but I am also now incredibly capable of crying at any and all events, much to my children’s chagrin. So, with that said, I’m now going to drink a glass of wine while I write about my children’s considerable talents and have a good cry about how lucky I am.

This year saw Lola finishing Grade 7 in June and moving into Grade 8 at the same school in September. This is her last year in Middle School and then she’ll be in High School as of September next year – eeek!! Ever the graceful child, she still absolutely loves her dancing, which she practices around her parents daily. She is beginning point shoes in the new year – a dream come true for her! She has been counting down the days to this since she started ballet at 3 years old. She has started aerial silks again too – I’m not sure which she enjoys more!
She also joined the soccer club this year and is learning the value of being able to kick balls around – if you have middle schoolers in your house you will appreciate the humour in that sentence. We are subjected to middle school jokes continuously (from both the kids), and I’m beginning to wonder if Shaun and I have any idea how to hold a civilised conversation anymore, it’s all toilet humour and gutter jokes – the kids’ idea of heaven.

Lola loves school, muttering considerable indignation when school closes for holidays. Her writing has always been creative and advanced, (“outstanding written expression” in her teachers’ words) and this year she entered a writing workshop that had her published in a ‘Youth writers to watch-out for’ book. Her teachers comment on her “quiet strength” that shines through every time she walks into a room, so in this way she is as she always has been – a beacon of strength and kindness, in a humble, mostly-introverted package. She now plays first violin in the school Strings band and tenor saxophone in the school Band as well as the Jazz band. She has completely settled in here and is so happy surrounded by her group of friends, especially with a Starbucks drink in her hand.

Lincoln finished Grade 6 in June and moved into Grade 7 at a new school – St Michael’s University School. It is the private school that Shaun and I had ear-marked for High School but decided would be good to get him into at this stage already. The Canadian public-school system isn’t quite as disciplined as we had expected, so the transition at this stage seemed like a good idea. Needless to say, Lincoln has skidded in and shot the lights out, acquiring glowing reports on his character, his kindness and his performance. He has always been a ‘YES’ kid, and he has continued in that vein, playing rugby, squash and field hockey for the first time and loving all of them, as well as continuing with soccer which was always his first love. This year he is playing for the district Gold team which is a super achievement. He played baseball over the spring and summer and although swinging a bat and running for a base is great fun, it’s just not cricket. Luckily his new school has a fantastic cricket team, so I anticipate a try out for that in the new year.
He is, and always has been, in love with guitar. This year he levelled up and got an electric guitar, and with his big blue eyes, leather jacket and winning smile, he has won the love and admiration of half the girls in his grade, as well as his Band teacher – for different reasons, obviously. For the girls, he is kind, sincere, and gentle natured, as he has always been. As for his band teacher, he insists Lincoln holds his guitar and strums his notes with the gentle caress of a seasoned jazz player, and his band teacher is over the moon to see his progression. Lincoln also plays trumpet in the school Band so the jazz and blues notes that flow through our house on a daily basis are rather dreamy.

We certainly didn’t have an easy start of things when we first got here so to see how both the kids have settled in and excelled is phenomenal – we put it down to the fact that South Africans are just superb human beings, and also, they have great parents! 🙂

And speaking of them… here we are. Almost 3 years into life in Canada, another country, almost another world. We are thankful that this year a lot of the exciting happenings we had heard about in Victoria started up again; summer carnivals, concerts in the harbour, Christmas cocktail parties and big sporting events. Shaun and I went over to Vancouver to watch a Trevor Noah performance earlier in the year, squeezed in a couple of date nights which had us exploring the city, and both celebrated our 40^th Birthdays in relative middle-age-calm. We certainly haven’t made friends at the rate our kids have, so we have looked forward to outside entertainment since the day we landed. We have felt settled here for a while, but I can’t say it feels like home, just a wonderful place to live and explore for as long as the kids would like us to be here. Deep down, I think Africa will always be home to us, as the saying goes, ‘You can take people out of Africa, but you can’t take Africa out of the people’. It’s amazing to see just how much of that resonates with Lola and Lincoln too, even after 3 formative years here, they still talk about Africa as home.

As a family we constantly discuss where our adventures will take us next, and we have pins all over our travel board, but in the next year we will hopefully embark on a Canadian adventure, heading up to the Arctic Ocean and across the country to see the mighty vastness of this Northern wilderness. With the kids so happy in school, we will plan around the 3 months of summer vacation they get and see what we can manage, especially around our work too. The world is big, and there is just so much to learn and see – oh how to find the time!

Shaun is still working for Benevity, the company he was at when we moved to Canada. Being the incredibly motivated, hard worker that he is, he has done phenomenally well at the company and has a finger in all the pies. He has taken on people management, which challenging as that is, he has excelled at. With his genuine care of people’s wellness and performance, he has established himself as a remarkably thoughtful, and appreciated leader. It does mean he is constantly stretched too thinly, but we have realised balance is not something you achieve in life, it is something you constantly have to strive for. We strive hard!

In December last year I finally got back into Massage Therapy and started working at a boutique hotel down the road, the Oak Bay Beach Hotel. I absolutely love my work and I am thankful every day that I was able to find something that can fit into my hours and our family lifestyle like this does. I have great colleagues, an amazing setting and work that fulfils me – I know just how lucky I am. Never have I ever felt as busy as I have this year though. Juggling all the things has been exhausting, yet neither Shaun nor I are any good at planning in relaxing time.
We still feel happiest when we get out into nature and challenge ourselves physically – running, cycling, hiking and swimming. I have most recently added rowing to that list and I am so excited to be getting out into the gorge to row with a club I joined, and Shaun has got back in field hockey, joining a league at the university. We entered an endurance race together this summer which had us paddling, trail running and mountain biking – it took us 8 gruelling hours and we still didn’t finish the race. It may be back on our list for 2023… a challenge left hanging. As you can see, the balancing act is real! I don’t think it’s going to get any easier as the kids get older either.

So all in, 2022 has been an eventful year – a trip home to South Africa, a wedding in Vancouver, visiting friends in their new home in the Rockies, hiking, exploring our island, the kids first rock band concert where they were undoubtedly the youngest people there (oops), a new school, new friends, and connecting with old ones – we have much to be grateful for!

With the world opening up again, I hope there was joy and adventure for all of you too, our most loved and treasured friends.