In true 2020 fashion, where most things are now being done "virtually", we felt it was appropriate to use our blog to post a Christmas Letter for all to read. So when you have some free time away from all the binge watching of online shows and need a break from the puzzling or whatever activities are keeping you occupied while social distancing and isolating from others, we hope you enjoy this recap.
Picture Legend (see Christmas card cover and look for "Pic" references in the letter):
The year started off like any other normal year, Adam was busy with aircraft certification projects and traveling for work while Gwen continued to hold down home base and keep up with civil transportation design work. Like usual, there were Jets games to attend and some required different invitees to occupy Seat #1 beside Gwen. While spending quite a bit of time in Peterborough Ontario for one project, Adam was able to catch a couple periods of the Peterborough Petes playing against the Oshawa Generals.
 |
| At a Jets Game |
 |
| At a Petes Game |
February marked the 10th wedding anniversary for Adam and Gwen. Originally they hoped to go to Australia for their 5th and then changed to their 10 anniversary but a shorter (surprise) trip to Las Vegas was planned by Adam. He did a good job keeping everything a secret, even arranging so that Gwen could get time off from work, booking tickets and packing Gwen's suitcase for an extended weekend away. Gwen only came to learn about their destination when they approached the airline check-in counter where they had to drop off their suitcase for their flight.
The trip to Vegas was their first for 2020 (Pics 1 and 2). There was at least one other trip planned, to Disney World with some friends in May. It was nice to get out of the snow and cold and enjoy the sunshine and get some much needed Vitamin D. For more details you can check out http://akcoolidge.blogspot.com/2020/07/sentimental-saturday-vegas-feb-2020.html.
After returning from a weekend away, the normal world as we knew it started to change. The growing concern of a global pandemic was headlining every news site. Then, on Adam's 35th birthday, the "new normal" began - working from home. So, too, did the trend-setting pandemic hairstyles of 2020 (Pic 3) which included what Adam believes is the longest time he has ever gone without a haircut in the last 25 years - 85 days. That's almost 3 months...
 |
Grocery Shopping during the great panic buying of March 2020
|
 |
Mask Making (and Pic 3)
|
 |
Before and After (hopefully never again...)
|
Adam and Gwen soon established a good working from home routine - going for walks at lunch time and pretty consistently finishing their work day at 5pm. We made it a goal to walk every street in the neighbourhood and accomplished this before the mid-point of summer. We then continued to walk some of the same streets to keep tabs on the new houses being built and also to check out new houses going up for sale which often resulted in a fun game of "how much do you think that house is listed for".
Gwen was even able to convince Adam to do yoga (bodyflow) in the evenings to help build up his strength and balance. As we write this letter, we are entering our 38th week of working from home. We definitely did not anticipate to be working this long from home but are thankful that we have the possibility to do so. With many people affected by the downturn in the economy and even out of work, we are very fortunate to still have lots of work to do and a steady income.
 |
How Gwen spends most of her day
|
 |
| How Adam spends most of his day |
 |
Some mornings were tougher than others
|
 |
Working on our flexibility with Bodyflow
|
 |
Out for a walk in the neighbourhood
|
As the days went by in April, we could sense that things were not going to return to normal any time soon. First, the Disney World trip was cancelled (and full refunds were given). Then, a summer camping trip to the Black Hills, South Dakota was cancelled but not before a different plan was made. Instead of driving many hours south, Adam thought it would be worthwhile to go and explore what Northern Manitoba had to offer. He had been to Thompson (and surrounding area) with his Dad when he was just a wee lad. With travel restrictions being lifted and travel across the 53rd parallel being allowed, a mid-week camping trip was planned to Paint Lake (see Pics 5, 6 and 10 along with http://akcoolidge.blogspot.com/2020/10/flashback-friday-exploring-northern-mb.html).
Interesting note: some of you who received Christmas cards may have a stamp from one of our pitstops at Little Limestone Lake (Pic 5):
Gwen and Adam continued to think of ways to keep busy going into the summer months. A significant dent was made on Gwen's "house to do list" which included:
- New garage shingles were installed in May. Tear off was one weekend prior to the long-weekend and installation was scheduled for the following (long) weekend. The installation team (of two) was quite efficient and completed the task in one day which allowed for the other days to be spent "relaxing".
 |
New shingles (top pic) and Old shingles (bottom pic)
|
- A better garden fence was built to keep those pesky rabbits from once again getting at the Jalapeno peppers. Ok... this was mostly a Gwen project but Adam did help staple the chicken wire to the stakes.
- A new gate was built and installed in the backyard. This has since resulted in a new addition to the to do list - a new fence to be built properly with screw piles, says the resident civil engineer, to prevent the shifting problem which makes it nearly impossible to latch the gate shut in the winter.
- Some new landscaping along the side of the house and around the cedar trees in the backyard. This equally helped some of our friends with one of their projects to get rid of some river stone.
- Replacing some of the suspended ceiling tiles in the basement with new tiles, which required several to be "trimmed to fit" due to non-standard sizing.
Among all of these projects, there was still ample time to take in the small things, like this bunny that got stuck in one of our window wells in the spring. Don't worry, Adam was able to save the day.
We also enjoyed decorating the yard after one of the spring snow falls which made for excellent snowman (or penguin) making snow:
 |
| We called this "March of the Penguins" |
As the weeks carried on and weather was improving, we were able to go and see some friends and family and enjoy some of the social aspects that we had been missing early on. Keeping a 6-foot distance can be challenging for some of our younger friends who didn't quite understand what all the fuss is about:
 |
Our first "socially distanced" visit with friends
|
The Snow Bird fly-over in May was a nice mid-morning break from the daily grind. It was quite interesting to see everyone coming out of their houses to watch the planes soar overhead after not seeing many people out and about.
Eventually some form of normalcy started to return in the summer - Adam was able to return to playing hockey with some of his extended (cousin) family at the Ice Plex and both Adam and Gwen (aka "The Crusher") with slow-pitch with friends at Little Mountain Sportsplex. Both teams performed as per usual, not being defeated in the first round of playoffs but not making it much beyond the second.
 |
| The bat on the right is not legal |
"Furlough Friday's" was a new concept for Adam which quickly escalated into "Friday's are made for golf" outings either with friends or family. With 14 rounds of golf under his belt, Adam was very thankful for his father-in-law who purchased a golf lottery ticket / fundraiser which got them both out to four different 9-hole golf courses in the Pembina Valley area (Roland, Miami, Treherne and Pilot Mound). Gwen has also honed in her golf skills during her 9 rounds of golf this year and is looking forward to another busy golf season next year where she can continue to keep Adam honest in counting his strokes and occasionally beating him. We are also looking forward to a special 6-year old (family friend) to join us on the golf course with her new junior golf clubs that she got for her birthday this year from her parents. Hopefully she learns how to golf from her Dad, but if she wants to learn how to master a nice fade, "Uncle Adam" can show how that is done.
 |
Gwen lining up her tee-shot
|
Between working, golf and yard work, there was still plenty of time to spend outdoors biking, hiking, camping and swimming:
- Gwen gave Adam the "designer's tour" of the bus rapid transit bikeway and Empress bike path that she helped design. She also gave a very good "insider's tour" of the Tache Prominade bike path.
 |
Tache Promenade
|
 |
On the Disraeli Bikeway
|
 |
The BRT Bikeway
|
- They hiked the Pembina Valley Provincial Park trails, Stonewall Quarry Park paths (Pic 8) and the Turtles Back trail to the William Lake lookout in Turtle Mountain Provincial Park (Pic 4).
 |
Quarry Park
|
 |
Pembina Valley
|
 |
| William Lake (Turtles Back) |
- They biked the trails at Adam Lake in Turtle Mountain Provincial Park (Pic 7).
- They camped at their favourite spot, on the lake, at Adam Lake and at St. Malo with friends.
 |
| Adam Lake |
 |
| St. Malo |
- They enjoyed spending time at the "Coolidge Cabin" at the Lake over a couple different weekends, including the annual "Nieces Weekend" and annual July Family Weekend. Time is typically a mix of on the beach (Pic 11), on the water (Pic 9) and on the grass.
 |
Look at those guns and tan lines ;)
|
- Enjoying BEvERages at a pool party in Morden with family.
- Hiking to the newest Provincial Park (Duff Roblin Provincial Park, Pic 12):
In addition to these many routine summer activities, there was still room for some firsts - a couple socially distanced funerals and weddings (including a couple virtual weddings), a couple of virtual graduations, a couple outdoor group-limited birthday parties (and one drive-by car rally!) and a socially distanced (and wet) grand-opening ceremony for one of Gwen's projects.
 |
| Birthday car rally |
 |
Virtual Graduation (#1)
|
 |
| Virtual Graduation (#2) |
 |
Virtual Wedding (#1)
|
 |
Socially Distanced (and Wet) Grand Opening
|
 |
| Wedding (#2) |
 |
Wedding (#2)
|
 |
Virtual Wedding (#3)
|
 |
| A socially-distanced birthday party for Gwen |
As fun as all these events were, let's not forget that we are not getting any younger. There were a couple of injuries sustained this year:
 |
Adam sprained his ankle playing baseball
|
 |
Socially (long) distanced Athletic Therapy thanks to one of our close friends
Note: although this was the literal instructions to re-hab his ankle, the AT didn't actually mean to use a pen and paper...
|
 |
Waiting to get 5 stitches after taking a puck to the chin on the last (winter) hockey game before lockdown in October. Adam now has a matching pair of scars on his chin.
|
 |
The aftermath of not shaving for a couple weeks
|
 |
Gwen wearing her hard hat too tight (don't worry, it didn't leave any permanent marks)
|
Not pictured was the lower back injury sustained by Adam when he moved the wheelbarrow full of river stone. He now knows that he should just let Gwen do the heavy lifting. And to bend with his knees. It was a good thing that massage therapy opened up in the summer, those massages were the saving grace.
As the days become shorter, and colder, indoor activities started again with an emphasis on keeping social bubbles (and contact) minimized:
- Virtual game nights with friends and family started to resume.
- Physical game nights finally resulted in Adam beating Gwen in a game of Scrabble and Monopoly. He is still working on building his cribbage skills but is not yet in the overall (cumulative) lead in those games.
- A socially distanced halloween which included some goody-bag drop offs and an AMAZING halloween costume contest judged by Adam and Gwen. And not to worry, the scores were calculated using a weighted system based on originality, personality, creativity/effort and overall appeal - this helped remove any personal bias towards certain family members. A special shout out to Old Man Jeremy who narrowly edged out Pirate Pete for the win.
- Work "happy hours" continue to happen on semi-regular basis, to break up the monotony of video/teleconferences that occupy a good majority of the work week for both Gwen and Adam.
- Puzzling has started up again. We certainly appreciate the variety in puzzles, some of which are borrowed from Gwen's coworkers.
- Adam should finish his airplane model soon.
 |
March
|
 |
| November |
With the snow starting to accumulate in the yard, it means that Christmas is coming. We don't know yet what form Christmas will take this year, whether it be in-person or virtual. Either way, we will make the best of things to enjoy the holidays with friends and family, all while staying safe. Although many things didn't go as we had planned this year, we are very thankful that our friends and families are healthy and have enjoyed taking the time this year to get back to basics and enjoy the simpler things in life - time spent with each other and slowing down. There is no telling what next year will bring but we are confident that we (and all of you) will approach the year with a different perspective to how we did this year and have an even greater sense of appreciation for the normals we will get to experience, no matter how similar or different these normals may be.
Happy Holidays and wishing you a very prosperous New Year! And don't forget to stay safe by washing your hands and not touching your face!
Love Adam and Gwen
