Hello all and Merry Christmas.

We hope this years Christmas letter finds you and your families in good health and high spirits. But enough about you, this is a Christmas letter about us. So, where should we start, I guess since we write this once a year we will start at a year ago and move forward. Right, back to typing. Our last story ended off with a good Christmas and myself looking like a supermodel due to a loss of weight from Ulcerative Colitis. Shortly into the new year I managed to try many types of drugs (all prescription I swear) and regained control of my body and sadly, most of my football offensive lineman weight back. Through the year I have continued to feel better and am now back up to 100ish percent.

But wait, that is now, lets go back to the start of the year, well, not quite the start as the first month was rather slow. In february we took a trip to Shellbrook to visit with Grandma Park and Surprise Mom and Dad as they did not know we were coming. We had a good visit and managed to stop by Renee and Earl's house on the way back to visit with our niece and nephew. On the way home from their house we got to talking and decided to start a Dinner Club with a few of our friends. Our dinner club is a monthly meeting of friends, each of whom brings wonderful food dishes according to a theme chosen by the host. We hosted the first and chose a Jamaican theme. The dinner club idea turned out to be wonderful as once a month we get to eat fantastic food with wonderful people and have one heck of a good time. The hot tub is still frequently used by us year round and serves as a good talking location for group gatherings.

In march, we made a stop at the farm by Gladmar to help out with calving for a weekend. We had a good time and managed to see a few new little calvies. As well, we (by which I mean me) managed to polish off three pans of puffed wheat squares.

In late april we took a trip to Las Vegas with our good friends Scott and Tracie. We stayed at Bally's and took in several shows including a medieval feast. Several nights where spent wondering around downtown and hitting up a few casinos playing poker, blackjack and slots. Although we didn't come home with any large windfalls, we all had a hoot and a holler.

Other spring highlights including going to Monster Trucks with our nephew Jarek and branding calves at the farm. Spring also brought about a much anticipated yearly event for some members of our family; the spring thaw. Our cat Pixel loves to be outside (tied onto a leash of course). He gets very antsy during the winter being cooped up inside. I'm pretty sure if Pixel could talk, his favourite word of the summer would be snipe. He became an uber mouser this summer managing to snag many mice, the odd bird, and tangle with a few squirrels, all the while being anchored by a cable. We are very proud of our little one and feel confident that he could make it on his own in the wild if need be.

Summer brought warmth, camping, and beech volleyball. On Canada day we ventured to Waskesiu to visit with our friends Brittni and Nolan. We stayed in their cabin and spent the weekend visiting, boating, and performing late night sing songs with a guitar (I think the whole neighbourhood heard us). As well, I took the boating opportunity to water ski for the first time. It took a couple tries to be up, but eventually I persisted and held on for a long time, even though I looked awkward (kind of like I had to take a dump). At the end of July (for our 5th anniversary) we grabbed a bunch of friends and went camping at Duck Mountain. Much time was spent playing bunnock and burning 5 foot high logs in our giant pit. I managed to wake everyone up one morning with an odd roaring. Leann bugged me about pretending to be a bear. Little did she know, I was actually trying to scare off a large female black bear that was lounging on the picnic bench in our campsite. In early august we went camping for a week in Clear Lake, Manitoba with friends. The weather was good and I got to try out the new canoe/kayak boating device (a nucanoe) I purchased. The nucanoe proved to be useful as several fish fries occurred with Dani working her magic with a frying pan and loads of butter.

The summer also saw a lot of other actives. Once again we played beach volleyball and I took the opportunity of after play socializing time to demonstrate midair planking to the group. The Craven Country Jamboree was also attended. The weather was the hottest we have seen in many years with the mercury hitting 35+ with sun (and without humidex). We both partook in the Queen City Marathon again running the half marathon. For the second year in a row I ran completely barefoot. The trend might be picking up as Dani has completed a few runs without shoes herself.

The year was filled with weddings, reunions, and graduations. Dani's cousin Megan and my sister Lea were married. A Stefan reunion (Dani's mothers, mothers side) was hosted by Danielle in Regina and carried on a second day in south sask with a visit to the town of Minton and the local giant buffalo jump. Dani's cousin Rae-lyn and my cousin Jessica both graduated from high school.

A large change in my day to day activities transpired this summer/fall. I was tired of being the bread winner and thought Dani needed a lesson in femanism (she thought I needed to spend more time in front of the oven). So, I started a two year educational leave of absence from work. For the next two years I will be pursuing a Ph.D in computer science as well as fulfilling my house husband roles (Dani made me write that). So far I have really been enjoying myself day to day and have managed to create a new musical instrument that I will showing off at a competition in Atlanta this february (You can check out a video on youtube ).

With a slightly more open schedule this fall we spent a week at the farm helping out with harvest. I drove the combine for a day and Dani drove the grain truck (I guess drove is the right word for the sounds it was making). Dani and her Aunt took a road trip to Minot, ND to see her childhood heroes. That's right, Dani finally got to see the Judds live in concert. During the process they also attending Norsk hostfest celebrating Norwegian heritage with lefse and lutefisk. Halloween quickly arrived and we rocked the night away with a party at our house. The costumes this year were amazing. I think Dani and I did ok as well with our homemade ghostbuster outfits. Our good friend Sim also payed us a visit. We spent several days drinking, eating, and playing video games. It was a ton of fun.

Well, that brings us to christmas this year. We spent last weekend, the weekend before christmas, at the farm hanging out and opening presents. It was a fantastic. For Christmas we drove out to Neilburg to celebrate with my family. Once again, the visiting, food, games, and presents were fantastic. Be warned, the next time you come to visit us at our house we may be hanging around in our new onesies complete with trap doors (aka butt flaps).

As usual this letter goes out right around christmas day (well, actually we are writing it on christmas afternoon as we travel back to Regina). Why are we travelling back on Christmas day you ask? Let me tell you. You see in a couple days (Tuesday morning) we will be heading to Cuba for a week for a friends wedding.

Alright, now back to talking about you. We love visiting with all of you and wish we could do it more often as visits with friends and family is always too far and few between. So from our house (Brett, Dani, and Pixel) to yours Merry Christmas and all the best in 2012. Well be thinking of you as we sit in the sun and sand.

Love Brett, Dani & Pixel