Merry Christmas to All;

We hope that each of you have had a good year and that the next one surpasses expectations. For us, it has been busy. We are now well into our 3^rd year here in the Yukon. Time really flies doesn’t it!

I know that for most of you, we haven’t been keeping up with exchanges nearly as well as we have wanted. - this, despite living in the “connected” age (with 4 cell phones and the internet, we even gave up our land line this year). So I hope the following gives you a bit of a snapshot as to where destiny has taken the Choy family.

Kelvin has grown quite a bit – he is now taller than me and in Grade 9. He is just beginning another season of basketball. His Grade 8 team last year won the Yukon Championships for the first time in 7 years. Kelvin is also taking driving school and will be ready to drive this next year. The next semester will also see Kelvin enrolled in the S.A.S.E. (Science And Socials Experiential learning) program. Students in this class cover a majority of their learning in the field with multiple excursions that involve hiking, kayaking, camping, skiing, snowshoeing, and zip-lining. Why didn’t they have high school courses like this for us when we were young?

Jordan is also involved in a similar program – E.S. Grade 11 (Experiential Science) this semester. His off-campus class have done similar excursions plus one month-long trip that had them travel by bus to Vancouver Island where they took their scuba training, lived aboard a sailboat, did caving, hiking, ocean biology, and visited post-secondary schools. Out of school Jordan has plenty of friends, plays bass guitar in a band, and works a couple of nights a week as a host or pizza deliverer for Boston Pizza.

Sharon and I are both teaching in schools about 10 minutes from home. My courses are Chemistry 11 and 12 and Math 11 while Sharon teaches a Grade 6/7 group. My school is a grade 8 to 12 one with about 600 students. Sharon’s is about 5 blocks away and about half the size. We feel very fortunate to be working with terrific, supportive principals (mine was once voted Maclean’s top Canadian principal.) It seems that students are about the same everywhere you go in the world – you have to love them.

One more addition to the Choys has been Mocha – a “pound puppy” we rescued from the shelter in Whitehorse about a year ago. She is some kind of sheltie-cross and is now one and a half years old, medium sized, and black with some light brown. She is an amazing runner with the nicest, friendliest personality you could find. We could not have chosen better.

Living in the North has meant taking advantage of whatever this beautiful part of the world has to offer. We take lots of walks in the woods and mountains, fishing in the many lakes, rivers, and the ocean, sea kayaking, sightseeing, ATVing, snowmobiling, and hunting. So far I have also had the fortune to be able to hunt for moose, caribou, mountain rams, and bison.

What’s in store for us? Well, this Christmas holiday we will be spending a week in the Southern Caribbean on a cruise ship – the Caribbean Princess, then a few days in San Francisco (one of my favourite cities) on our way home. We will probably spend time in Manitoba again next summer. Hopefully we will be able to have a visit with some of you then. Just remember, the road does go both ways. The Yukon is a fantastic place with lots to see and do – come for a visit.

Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Kelly, Sharon, Jordan, and Kelvin