December saw us watching the Olympic Curling Qualifications where both Japanese teams won in front of a lot of fans from Japan and NHK TV. The women’s team was from the small town of Tokoro, on the north coast of Hokkaido, where I curled in bonspiels (outdoors and indoors) many times in the 80s and 90s.

Apart from the fire on the road below us and the chaos to the south, a very enjoyable year. On the home front, we finished making screens for the porch and a trellis, completed 3 walkways and some steps, installed some yard art, finished a cabinet in the guest bedroom, and spent a lot of time on forest management – felling and limbing trees and making huge piles of branches for mulching and burning. And spent a lot of time getting our new charity project launched.

Found time to make sausages with our neighbor again and help him harvest grapes and bottle 1,000 litres of wine from previous harvests. Lots of skiing (twice this current month), social golf and dining with friends. Graced by several visits, including by Mizuho’s mother (3rd time) and sister (2nd)!

And we had some delightful trips. Paris, southern Spain and Lyon in May; several motorbike camping trips in the summer and fall; Banff/Canmore in August; NYC, crossing the Atlantic on the QM II and some time in London in October; and Mizuho had a jam-packed 3 weeks in Tokyo in November.

On the house-front menu for next year is getting some professional irrigation work done, making 3 cabinets, tarting up the wine cellar, and installing some more yard art. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!