Sunday, September 25, 2011

Merry Christmas!!



Christmas 2011

We know, we know.....it’s WAAAAAY too early to be talking  about Christmas! But before you know it we will be off to California again ….this year and we leave Westbank October 24th!!

Santa and his Executive Assistant
We were in Fresno again last year (2010) where Ross was having lots of fun at Fashion Fair Mall as Santa.  Ed spent most of the time working on his tax business, walking the dogs, going to the gym, either dropping off or picking up Ross from the mall, and cooking/cleaning/etc.  Ross is going back to the same mall this year and Ed will be doing all the usual stuff......as well being a secret shopper!!

Travels
After Fresno, we were unable to hook up with our other Santa buddies from Vancouver Island so we roamed the California landscape - Monterey, Hearst Castle, Bakersfield, Anaheim, San Diego, Niland, then over to Yuma and Quartzsite and Lake Havasu in AZ just in time for the fire works festival!

Spent a week in Vancouver early March waiting for the snow and weather to clear - finally took the Fraser Canyon (Trans Canada #1) to Kamloops and then down to West Kelowna and home.  Planning on returning to Fresno this year of course then over to Quartzsite to meet up with our Santa buddies for a couple of weeks and then we are all going down the Baja Peninsula with a RV caravan for 28 days - really looking forward to that!!

In June 2012 (after tax time!) we’re  hoping to travel up to the Yukon Territories for a visit and look around.  Ross was born in Whitehorse and has never returned so should be interesting travels.

Work
As mentioned before Ed is still handing out income tax advice and filing bunches of returns.  He hired Ross full time this past year and the business grew by about 100%......so what’s this retirement that you speak of?  He is gaining quite the good reputation around the central and southern Okanagan Valley and we keep getting more and more referrals.  Let’s hope that continues for a couple more years!!

Theatre
Ed directed and Ross produced “Here on the Flight Path” by Norm Foster in July to great success for Many Hats Theatre Company.  We are taking the show over to Castlegar Oct 1 for one night.  Also we are doing a show for Summerland Singers and Players (over 105 years of community theatre!!) for late October - “Mesa” by Doug Curtis.  Great cast and crew so HAS to be a good show!!!  Next year we never know what shows with come our way (Though Ed already has a couple on the back burner!!)


House and Home
The garden and house just got away from us this year so we have hired a landscaping firm to cut grass and weed and a housekeeper to keep the cobwebs under control.  With theatre and income tax there never seemed to be enough time to get outside and do what needed to be done, now the place is looking much better.

Family
The Ross clan had an amazing family reunion with cousins, their partners, and families.  Jan hosted the shebang and Chris Ross, Jan, and Ross organized it.  Pictures, stories, family trees, fishing, BBQ, jet ski rides, and of course a couple of dirty hands of PIT........great times and wonderful to see everyone.
Jan and Chris are still living at the lake and loving it more each day.  Tanya, Dylan, and their brood continue transforming the old house on the West Bench (Penticton) into an amazing piece of architecture.  Clint, Jen, and their brood are sharing space with Tanya and Dylan..........and everybody is getting along.

Ed’s daughter, Carolyn and her husband Alex are now settled in Richmond in their new condo with our grand daughter, Emily.  In April Alex’s other daughter, Angie, immigrated from Columbia to live with them.  Emily continues to amaze us......her language and motive skills are improving daily but we have yet to hear either “Grandpa Ed” or “Grandpa Ross”........soon we hope.

Pets
Teddy and Mojo continue to bring smiles to our faces on a daily basis.  Teddy is getting a little white around the muzzle.........but so are we!!!  Mojo just keeps being cute, and getting away with it!!

Health
The aches and pains are getting more pronounced but our doctor is happy with how we are doing so we guess that things are generally OK.

We will be continuing our travel blog again this year so keep watching your computer to find out what’s happening with us  http://losviajesdelososos.blogspot.com/  There will also be postings to FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/texasedschneider  or  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=540903409   and Twitter http://twitter.com/texased   

And we hope that each of you has a blessed Christmas, a wonderful New Year, and peace and happiness follow you throughout the year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS




Sunday, September 11, 2011

Well, Here we go again!

Hard to believe the speed with which 2011 is racing by! Here we are well into September and in just over a month the Bears will be on the road again!


We felt that a new Blog was warranted so we are retiring the Santa and the Wrangler (partly because the Wrangler has been promoted to 'Executive Assistant') and now we are 'The Travels of the Bears'  or en espanol 'Los Viajes de los Osos.' The other reason is that this winter's travels will take us to MEXICO!!


As we speak Prince Reindeer is waiting in the driveway and we are slowing getting him packed and organized for the trip south. 


We will be posting our 'Christmas Letter 2011' shortly and will be starting to update the blog as we roll along.


In addition to our California Adventures this year we will be joining up with Santa Bruce and Sue and Santa Buck and Heather and heading down the Baja in a caravan starting mid January 2012 but much more about that later!