We hope this letter finds you and your family in health and high spirits. 2009 was a very busy year for us, especially our summer, and 2010 is looking to be just as busy. I (Dani) continue to teach at Campbell Collegiate. The first half of the year I taught in the FIAP and VAP Special Education Programs at Campbell. At the end of the year some shuffling happened (teacher.s returned from Mat leaves, student numbers went down) and thus I was shuffled out of the program back into mainstream. In September I began teaching mainstream once again, this time a number of different classes. I am currently teaching Math 9, English 9, Social 9 and Life Transitions 20. This has proven to be extremely challenging to have 4 brand new classes to prep for and has caused some long work hours but in the long run all the hard work and long hours will pay off. Ideally I would love to teach .5 Special Ed and .5 Mainstream but we will see how it goes.

Brett continues to work at the Coop Up-Grader and is also working on completing his Masters in Computer Science. This past summer he reached the halfway point of his Master.s program and took some well-deserved time off from school to do activities and interests that he enjoys. Brett also had the opportunity to go to a conference in Portugal in March. He got to spend a week in Portugal attending the conference, presenting at the conference, and touring around Portugal. Unfortunately I did not get the opportunity to go with him, but he did bring me back some tasty Port! He continues to keep himself very busy with work and school and is doing very well.

This past fall I completed a major feat.I ran my first half marathon. Brett so graciously signed me up and paid for the event in February and so thus I began my training. Okay, I am not going to lie, training began much, much later but I did indeed complete my first half marathon. Running the marathon proved to one of he most difficult feats of my life. It was mentally, emotionally and physically draining. It took a lot to convince myself to want to keep running such a long distance. I even remember during one of my practice runs somewhere around the 15km mark looking to the skies asking my now deceased grandmother for some divine assistance because I was starting to go crazy and I was pretty sure that I was not going to make it home. Race day proved to be a perfect temperature for a run. I actually enjoyed the run, but I was very happy when I finally crossed the finish line. Would I do it again.yes I probably would. It really wasn.t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Will I consider running the full marathon? Most definitely not! I think I will stick with the short runs.

This summer Brett and I decided to go on a Holiday to sunny California. Some good friends of ours moved down to Redlands, California in January of this past year and were gracious enough to allow us to spend 5 days with them. While in California we got to take in New Port Beach, Wine Tasting in Temecula, Hiking in Big Bear, a California Angels ball game and a fabulous visit with Amy & Kevin. 5 days was definitely not long enough, but it was nice to have some +40 degree weather because summer seemed to be on holidays here in Saskatchewan.

We also managed to attend Craven Country Jamboree for the 5th year in a row. The weekend started out a little rough, some one stole 2 of our tents, but we were lucky enough to still have our site so it all worked out in the end. We are already looking forward to Craven 2010. Brett was the best man for his buddy Jay this summer which allowed us to do some camping in Unity and then off to Jackfish Lake just shortly afterwards for more camping with his parents. During the workweek we managed to keep ourselves busy here in the capital city. We planted a garden again this year. We were given a new plot and our crop did quite well despite the slow start and poor weather. We also continued to play in the local beach volleyball league with our friends. Thursday nights were always a night to look forward to. I was also asked to play on a slow pitch team this spring. I quite enjoyed playing ball on a nice summer evening and cracking the ball over the men.s heads in the outfield as they moved up because I was a girl. This fall we have continued to play court volleyball on Sunday evenings, boot camp on Wednesday evenings and bowling on Thursday evenings. We keep ourselves fairly busy and mostly out of trouble.

We still have our loveable kitten Pixel. He has also kept us quite busy. He is a beautiful tabby kitten with a LOT of character. He continues to enjoy the great outdoors from the safety of his harness and leash. We also found out that we are growing a plant in our front flowerbed that Pixel absolutely loves and goes crazy over. Our little Houdini has stepped it up this year. Instead of breaking out of his harness he has learned how to open doors. When given the opportunity of an open door Pixel will venture outside to further explore the neighbourhood. Much to my panic and fear of losing him we have always managed to find him safe and bring him back home. He has never managed to get too terribly far, but that doesn.t mean I didn.t think of the worst and freak out.

We would like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Love Brett, Dani & Pixel