Here it is already...New Year's Eve 2004. Sometimes, it feels like we have been living this new life for a year and other times it feels like we have just started. We have certainly covered many miles in one year, experienced a lot of changes and learned a lot of things. Now the world seems smaller while simultaneously never seeming so large. We've both been back to Ontario (Rick once, me twice) and have seen three of our five children at least once each while we were there. We haven't seen Jamie in over a year. We miss our friends and families but at the same time we have made many new friends and our family here has grown.

Rather than bring in the New Year at a party or with anyone else, we opted to spend it alone together. Rick got a new digital camcorder for Christmas and we both received a DVD burner so today he is hooking it up and learning how to use all of the new equipment together. This afternoon we went out and purchased the cords necessary to operate the DVD burner through our current system along with a few groceries and tonight we are staying in. We already miss the new baby but before long we will be on the road again not seeing him for a much longer period so we might as well get used to it.

The weather today is quite nice, mostly sunny though cold, about 6C and the forecast for the next few days is the same. When we were out today we ventured into areas of Burnaby that we had never been to before and were met with some more spectacular scenery. The white-capped mountains in the distance are a gorgeous backdrop to the cityscapes seen from every suburb here in Vancouver, reminding us of why we love it so much. Hopefully next winter we will be someplace warmer for Christmas and New Year's (like Mexico) where we can entice some family members to join us, but nowhere else will we see the beauty of BC. Our goal for spiritual growth has certainly been met and we have been richly rewarded with many interesting experiences.

Cheers everyone! Have a Happy New Year!