PATTINSON TIMES 2023

 Seasons Greetings to all of our friends and family around the planet.  We begin this greeting with our year end photo - Tony in his new "ugly" Christmas sweater holding Jack Jack - the newest Pattinson -who is not appreciating his reindeer costume.  Note the position of the Christmas tree - sitting proud on the gyne table (yes we have one) in our living room.  Crazy never leaves the building.

Tony's farewell gift from obstetrical call was a covid infection at the beginning of the year.  Despite mild symptoms initially, he's developed chronic headaches apparently common with this nasty bug with no great solutions offered by the specialists.  The good news is that he has had batteries of tests and is not deaf, does not have dementia, is perfectly healthy other than his serum chocolate level being on the high side.  And now he does not have a good excuse for not listening to his spouse or forgetting anything!  

However, he did have an awesome 70th birthday this year complete with a gorilla and blown up condom balloons at the office.  This was followed by a 3 day trip to Bayfield - parents only- to enjoy long walks, meals out and as much ice cream as we could manage.

Tony has managed to stay in stellar shape by weight lifting daily at our favourite gym and staying active on the golf course from spring to fall with his circle of unruly docs.  The man room is well used given his passion for watching all sports accompanied by a little scotch on occasion and it serves as a little escape from the excess of estrogen at our house.

Tony shows no sign of slowing down in the workshop, always looking for the next project and wandering the halls of Home Depot gathering supplies.   He's a great helper in the garden, and fires up the chain saw when I point at a tree limb destined to fall on the house.  I try to keep the honey-do list long so that he doesn't get bored which I am sure that he appreciates.   

While we retired from OB and gyne this summer, we continue to provide infertility services.  This has reduced our work load significantly, and increased our free time to manage home.  This year we put a metal roof on the house, James Hardie siding on the garage, expanded the garage door opening (after its accidental collision with the jag on more than one occasion) and covered the pergola so that we can enjoy our beverages outdoors during a rain storm.  However, most of my time has been taken up with what we now refer to as the farm - producing so many tomatoes that it can now be considered an addiction.  Peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, the ever favourite kale, beans, peas, squash, parsnips all provided bumper crops and insure that we always have enough fibre.  This year I am playing with cold weather gardening under cover in the hopes that I can keep the greens coming through the winter.  

best salad ever

Much to the annoyance of our children, being at home has allowed us to micromanage their lives a little more effectively.  Our strategy of getting Lily a job at a hospital coffee shop earlier in the year seemed to motivate her to hit the books and rocket through her final term of paramedicine.  That combined with a great experience on the ambulance in the spring with wonderful mentors inspired her successful completion of the program, provincial exams and landed her a full time job with Windsor EMS.

Anne and Stewart honoured her efforts by flying out from Wisconsin to attend the grad and a good time was had by all who have witnessed Lily's efforts and growth since she came into our lives.  This has not been a success only journey as she has had to work much harder than many of her peers to get where she wanted to be.  She brings unique talents to her job including a never ending optimistic spirit, a history of being completely nose blind, and the ability to leave yesterday in the dust without dwelling on anything negative.  All of this energy is completely fuelled by carbohydrate.

She has been identified by her employer as being a black cloud magnet as if a shooting or stabbing is in the works, Lily is sure to be on shift.  As long as they are buying the pizza, she just keeps going, unfazed.

We discovered this year that when Lily drinks alcohol, she suffers from the "Asian Flush" and is now unable to partake in anything but a virgin brown cow.  This has increased her popularity as she is now the designated driver for EMS colleagues.  She is coming to the realization that her co workers really like a good time and she may need to invest in a bus.

This year I traded in my beloved Mom Van for a Subaru Soltera all electric vehicle.  I did get quite choked up on the day I handed the keys for the van over as it represented years of raising and feeding the girls on the run from school, swim, track and dive practice and all the activities a family with kids and dogs are involved in.

However my new vehicle, is faster than the jag, doesn't need any gas and requires minimal attention.  It has multiple safety features that will stop the car rather than letting me hit the garage, texts me repeatedly if I forget to lock it, corrects my bad parking and keeps me in what it thinks is an appropriate lane.   It will accommodate 3 dogs, 2 kids, a husband and a trip to Costco and will tattle if seatbelts are undone or the posted speed is exceeded.  What else could a girl ask for?

Grace has entered the: I'm going to learn everything the hard way and I'm going to poke every bear along the way part of her development.  She's also the go to person if your tech is missing,  or you are looking for something inappropriate to wear at a gathering.  Her Dad and I have spent most of the year trying to prevent consequences that a 15 year old can find herself in.  Unfortunately, she is quite bright and creative and sometimes we just can't keep up with the antics.  

We transferred her to the e-steam program at Tecumseh Vista this year as the IB was not giving her enough exposure to Math and Science for her liking and she's having to work a little harder which isn't a bad thing at all.  She's continued on with the high school swim team and works just hard enough to annoy the coach.  Grace has joined our gym this year, primarily because she likes the

workout wear and the boys. Despite eating her weight in carbs every week and moderate efforts in weight lifting she has managed to maintain a good physique and doesn't yet require insulin.

She enjoys her weekend job at our favourite Chinese restaurant - the Pomegranate- and is great at saving her pay checks for that rainy day when she may want to set off on her own.  She is rumoured to have a great work ethic!

She will turn 16 on January 1st and so will begin the next dilemma of whether we can trust her behind the wheel.  The jag is too fast, the truck too big for her to reach the pedals and the Subaru wouldn't let her out of the driveway.  So the consensus for now is a no, but we will watch for cues that she is open to driving instruction and obeying a few inconvenient rules and we may modify our decision in a few years.  We'll also have to consult with our physicians to determine if our coronary arteries are up to the task.  

If there are 2 kids in the universe that are more opposite than Lily and Grace, I challenge you to find them.  We've set Lily up in a basement bedroom so that she can sleep post night shift without Grace unintentionally on-purpose waking her up several times a day.  Waking Lil up from a sound sleep is like waking a bear in January...a skill Grace has perfected.  Shift work has been tough for Lily to adapt to, especially given the amount of overtime she works and there is no negotiating a peace between the two of them to play nicely right now.

Enter Jack...the common denominator in fun.  The one thing our entire family (with the exception of Sophie) can agree on right now is how much fun he

has brought into our lives.  He is a little fluff ball and everyone in the family is his favourite person.

I had been considering a giant schnauzer for a while but Tony and I decided that 120 pounds of spoiled dog would probably be a poor choice.  Ollie is quite protective of me and we had concerns that any puppy that looked like bunny would get eaten.  But he was getting a little bored with life as Sophie, the 13 year old, mostly sleeps all day and hates it when Ollie jumps on her.  I negotiated for a standard but couldn't find a breeder near by so found Jack, a miniature schnauzer at a breeder in Stratford.

We went for a visit and met our pup and noticed the breeder had several well behaved smallish schnauzers that she bred and spoiled and a standard schnauzer in the yard that was a bit louder.  We thought that a 12 pound quiet schnauzer would be a good addition to the family and brought him home with Tony (big dog) carrying him in the house.

Can we taste the puppy?

The first night home Sophie and Ollie stood over him and drooled.  They dared not to challenge "big dog" but we knew that Jack would be dinner for them if we looked away.  We took Jack to the office and he's quickly become the clinic mascot with the added benefit of being a stress buster for the staff. We had many comments about his big paws but decided he was just fluffy.  At his 13 week vet visit he had reached his mother's adult weight.  We suspected that his Daddy might be the big dude in the breeders yard who snuck in for a date night.

Ice cream beards

Now this boy is a force to be reckoned with.  He barks, plays Ollie into exhaustion, can outrun any family member, eats like it's his last meal and behaves just like the big boy standard schnauzer he is likely to become.  And we couldn't be happier.

So our recipe for a wonderful 2024 would be to find a four-legged friend and go outside to play, plant a few vegetables, save the planet, work a little less and hit some balls at the golf course. Have your best year ever.

Love Tony, Mary, Lily, Grace, Sophie, Ollie and Jack-Jack