.     December 29th, 2001 - Christmas 2001

Dad trying on his funky new slippers

Heather and her lean, mean, fat burning machine

Another year of festivities is over and it was a very good Christmas for Lisa and myself. I made off with some pretty nice presents and Lisa managed to keep her belly from whacking into too many breakables over the holidays. Christmas eve at my parents was the usual fun time with all the family and Christmas day at the Ducharme's was wonderful as well. The pictures are broken up into Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. Click on the picture of Dad getting into his slippers for Christmas Eve, and the picture of the exuberant Heather for Christmas Day. -Andrew

.     December 16th, 2001 - 2nd Annual Christmas Open House

Yesterday was our 2nd annual open house and we had a great group of guest drop by. I went a bit crazy on COSTCO supplies so I might have to have another one of these soon to empty out the freezer. We had people in from about 2 pm to 10pm when the stragglers decided to head to the Madison for a night-cap. Thanks to all that attended and hopefully we can do it again next year. For some pictures of the event, click on the picture of Matt wrecking my sausage casings. -Andrew

.     December 14th, 2001 - Dave and Amanda's Christmas Party

Dave and Amanda threw a party swinging holiday bash last week and if I didn't have a pregnant wife nagging me to go home I would have stayed all night! (Lisa doesn't read this does she?). Anyways, we sang, we drank, we carried on, and had a great time. Thanks guys for inviting us. Click on the wacky picture of Dave to see more snaps from the party. -Andrew

.     December 9th, 2001 - Jack's big Algonquin Adventure

I know it looks like all we do is go to Algonquin Park but yes once again Lisa and I headed up North but this time we brought the city folk with us; Adrienne, Pat, and Jack. Basically just a little get out of Toronto weekend but we ended up having a great time with great hiking weather and beautiful scenery. We had the warmest November on record so there was no snow up there but there was just some ice on Oxtongue lake. I took some nice pictures of the ice forming and it was really eerie to listen to the ice "scream" as it froze on the lake. Click on the image to see more pictures. WARNING: Very cute kid pictures inside. -Andrew

.     November 1st, 2001 - Pictures from Algonquin

Last weekend Lisa and I headed back up to our favourite get-away, the Blue Spruce Inn, to get in some hiking before the baby got too big. Our major achievement was an 11 km trail that crested six ridges and gave the most spectacular views of the park I have yet seen. We also were treated to a late afternoon close encounter of the hooved kind where two female moose decided to wander past our car. Click on the picture of the moose to see more of them and some great pictures of the park. -Andrew

.     October 27th, 2001 - Baby Pictures

Just wanted to quickly update people on the state of the baby. Baby Cullen is doing very well and here is a picture to prove it. You can see that he/she is waving which attests to the baby's keen social sense and congenial demeanor. I predict the baby will be hosting dinner parties before its four.      Lisa is in her 23rd week and the latest round of ultrasounds have shown that everything is a-okay with mother and baby so that leaves it up to me to screw things up I guess :-). -Andrew

.     October 12th, 2001 - Fall is Here

We're well into autumn now and all the leaves are off the tree in the backyard. This tree seems to fall sooner than others as there are still trees in the neighbourhood that still have green leaves. Well not for long I'm sure. Lisa and I cleared the gardens last weekend in preparation for winter. The temperature in the pond is still aboves 10 degrees so the fishes are still active and eating. A couple of them are huge now (could be in the family way as that seems to be catching around here lately).      Lisa and I thought we'd head out to the east side of the city and visit the fabled Rouge Valley where everyone in the area seems want to defend it to the last man. If the goal is to preserve a little bit of wilderness before it is taken over by urban sprawl I think they're about 50 years too late. The conservation area is more like a badly kept strip of overgrowth that would normally back-on to some industrial plaza. It reminded me of the south branch of the Thames in London. Oh well, we are bound for 4 wonderful days in Algonquin in a couple of weeks so I'll have to get my wilderness fix then. Click on the picture to link to some pictures of the "better" parts of the Rouge. -Andrew