2009: Between Powder and Sand

This letter is also available in Portuguese. After spending several weeks of quiet family time in the balmy Oklahoma weather for the Christmas and New Year holidays in December 2008, we went back to Edmonton for our Christmas-after-Christmas party. We managed to go see Sander cross-country ski in Edmonton before going to our department's traditional ski weekend in Jasper where Daniel tried down-hill skiing for the first time and enjoyed playing with "the other Daniel" (Duane's grandson). That weekend Scott and myself also enjoyed dinner at Andy's, a nice restaurant in Jasper, two nights on a row --- one without Daniel thanks to Fran's babysitting.

On February 08 Daniel was going down hill in Edmonton, on February 16 he was enjoying the surf in Xangrilá in Brazil. We managed to spend extra time in Brazil, because I was on sabbatical, and stayed for the celebration of Vovó Dioraci's 70th birthday in March. The whole party was catered (organized and paid for by my sister Salete). Thus we all had a great time enjoying seeing cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends that we had not seeing for many many years. Daniel had a great time playing until midnight. Vovó was very happy with the party for her.

At the beach Daniel made friends, played with all the older cousins and with the whole family. Vovô Geovany was still driving an old car, a 1982 Ford Corcel, which everyone calls "Ximbica". That was our vehicle while at the beach and Daniel loved it. Because the Ximbica rattled when driving on the cobblestone streets, Daniel said that it was "the fastest car in the world." What was even better, is that at the beach in Brazil Daniel could "drive" the Ximbica with Papai. Something that we could never do in North America!

Having a bit of extra time in Brazil was great to allow us to see many friends that we had not seen for a long time. Former colleagues from PUCRS, friends from São Luiz Gonzaga, my home town, both at Vovó's birthday and when I went to the graduation of my God-daughter Juliana Rebolho in Santa Maria. I also got to meet Nikola, the first-born of my God-daughter Taína Correa. We even had a last-minute "churrasco" lunch at the house of Cristina Paim, a childhood friend, before dashing to the airport for our return flight.

In the Spring I did a small DIY home improvement project where I demolished an old built-in mantel and installed a shelving system for a home theater and a large 52in TV. I had plenty of help with the demolition phase of the project. The next DYI project was in the Summer when I built a small shed behind the garage and painted the garage. Again, I got plenty of "help" with the project. Daniel calls me "the destruction man" because "you build things." Scott's big project in the Spring was to design and implement a new landscaping for the South side of the front of our house.

We kept our tradition and drove to Calgary to visit with both of Daniel's sisters, Emily and Mac, as well as with his birthmom Belinda. In November Howard and Liz, Emily's parents, returned our visit and brought Emily to visit with Daniel. It always amazes me to see how well Daniel gets along with his sister Emily.

This past Summer Daniel was much better coordinated during the Soccer season, and all the kids had a better sense of direction. Sometimes they even scored on the opponent team's goal.

In August we enjoyed a wonderful Summer vacation with Grandma and Grandpa Meadows in Ossoyos, British Columbia, the hottest spot in Canada. While Daniel was happy to visit Wineries a couple of times, he really enjoyed the lake beach and the 30C temperature. Thus, many days I took Daniel to the beach while Scott took the grandparents to wine taste. We really enjoyed the excellent wine produced in that part of the Okanagan Valley.

We celebrated Daniel's 5th birthday with a two-day cellebration. On the Saturday we had a big party for the kids at the community league close to our house. The theme for this party was "Grandma's Store." Kids got "Daniel Dollars" and used then to buy all kinds of treats in Grandma's Store. They loved it. The next day we topped that off with a big party at the house for all Papai's and Daddy's grown up friends.

Later in August we closed our Summer with a beautiful day visiting our friend Judy Clare-Packer and her family at Alberta Beach.

Daniel started kindergarten in September, he is in Ms. Wilson's class. Before he started we were concerned about his adjustment to kindergarten given the difficulty that he had with quiet activities in the daycare environment. It turns out that he is thriving in the much more structured and regimented environment in kindergarten. He loves rules! He is still strugling with some of the tasks that require finer motor skills such as writing and drawing. We are sure that these things will come with time. He is starting to show interest on reading and recognizing letters and small words, but he is not reading yet. On the other hand he excells at the ball park displaying amazing hand-eye coordination. He also took swimming classes in the Fall and is doing very well at the pool.

Professional trips took me to Zurich in January where I had dinner at "the top of Zurich" on a beautiful snow-covered mountain, to the French Alps in April, with a couple of beautiful Spring days in Paris --- got to see the Eiffel Tower this time, to Dublin in June where I stayed in a room inside the Trinity College. A very nice surprise was to meet our friend Sampath Kannan in Dublin and to get to spend half a day catching up with him. I also got to take a very interesting trip to Cairo in December where I got to see the Pyramides in Ghiza and to spend a day with Waleed, the brother of a student of mine, and his wife Amany, a woderful Muslim couple that taught me a lot about life in Egypt. Waleed has a post on his blog about our tour. Cairo is a place full of contrasts. I stop in Amsterdam on my way to Cairo and got to visit with my friend Silvia who I had not seen for many years, and I even got a small gift from Saint Nicholas and his helper the Zwarte Piet. I also kept going back to Toronto from time to time to continue my collaboration with IBM.

My work is going very well. I am fortunate to have a small group of very smart and dedicated graduate students. I was also happy to go back to teach undergraduate students this Fall. I was missing the direct contact with the students.

It turns out that Daniel enjoys music very much. He asked for singing lessons, thus we enrolled him with the Cantilon Choirs. He has weekly rehearsals and had his first big concert in December where he sang with a large group and orchestra at the Winspear Concert Hall. Unfortunately I had to miss his concert because I was at a conference in Cairo. For music appreciation we took Daniel to see the Edmonton Symphony twice, and we seem to record and watch several times every musical show in PBS lately. Daniel also loved the live production of the Wizard of Oz in Edmonton and thought that the live Wiggles show was a bust.

Early in November we learned that our next door neighbor and good friend Dorothy Ayer was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. The initial prognosis was very grim, but she has undergone a major surgery and seems to be recovering amazingly well so far. Thus we are hoping to be able to enjoy Dorothy's company for many patio suppers and glasses of wine in the coming Summer.

In November we also learned that Vovô Geovany (my step father) had a small heart attack in Brazil and needed to undergo open-heart surgery to do several bypasses. We are happy that the surgery went well and that Vovô is recovering well.

We just spent several days here in Oklahoma with the grandparents and with Scott's brother Bret and his family. Daniel has been great and is enjoying playing with his big cousin Lexi, who is 7, and being the big cousin to Chase (2) and Jake (1). They are going home today and we will once more have only Gaga and Granpa here for a quiet Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

Daniel latest kick is to wear a tie. He has dressed up almost every night for dinner since he got to Grandma's house!

While reconnecting with many friends during our travels this year it was interesting to find out that many came to expect our traditional end-of-year letter update. I also found this electronic letter to be a convenient way to let new acquaintances read about us. I am enjoying writing it, and I hope that this will be a nice archival record for Daniel in the future.

We wish a peaceful and happy holiday season to you too.