Category: Misc

Boy, how time flies. Why, it seems like just yesterday that we were running around in T-shirts. Wait… that was just yesterday! At least, it was in Toronto anyway. I know that our friends in Calgary — and other places where they experience normal weather patterns — will mock us, and so they should. Nice as it is, though, it certainly took the fun out of getting our Christmas tree. Going for a haywagon ride with hot chocolate and a campfire just isn’t the same when it’s plus 15 out. Upside: No shovelling.

Our year started as all years should — with a big party, in this case up north at our friends’ farm in the wilds of northern Ontario. Then it was off on a mini ski-trip with Becky’s brother Dave and his family at a hill in Calabogie (also in the wilds of northern Ontario). After a hair-raising, white-knuckle drive home, we rested up for a month or two, and then made our way down south to Becky’s parents’ place near Venice, Florida with her sister Barb and family for some swimming in the ocean, some playing catch and some sunset-watching.

There was also a great trip to Busch Gardens for some rollercoasters and gondola rides and animal-watching, with much fun had by all three girls, then there was time left to feed the horses and we also celebrated Zoe’s 8th birthday. I also wrote a feature for the Globe about teaching Caitlin to drive, and illustrated it with some humorous photos.

After we got back from galivanting around down south, there was some Easter-egg fun at Becky’s cottage up in Muskoka, along with an ad-hoc game of Survivor for all the grandchildren, and not long after that there was time for some croquet-type fun at Mathew’s cottage in the Ottawa Vallley. After we got done with all that merriment, Mathew dove head-first into organizing a Web conference called “Mesh” that was held at the MaRS Centre in downtown Toronto for two days in May, with about 450 people attending and a series of keynote interviews, as well as panels and workshops on blogs, wikis, podcasts and all sorts of other Webby goodness.

Then pretty soon the time had rolled around for Meaghan’s 13th birthday — another teenager in the Ingram household. Hallelujah! And by then it was warm enough for a little bit of pool-type fun and some horseback-riding for Caitlin.

June and July were not great, unfortunately. Becky’s father Bob was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and went downhill fairly rapidly, and passed away in mid-July. But he was in no pain for the last few weeks, and was surrounded by his loving family. He lived a wonderful life, and we all miss him very much (I set up a tribute website for him here and if that’s down I set up a mirror here). It was difficult to enjoy things much after that, but the kids had fun canoeing around and even kayaking, in Zoe’s case. There was also a trip to camp for Meaghan and Zoe, where the youngest Ingram spent the week sleeping in tents at the outdoor camp and had a terrific time.

And in between there was time to go fishing at the Ingram cottage at Golden Lake, to lie in the sun on the boat reading books, to catch a fish over by the swamp, and to play some cards at the kitchen table (and yes, Zoe beat all of those teenagers at whatever game they were playing). We also made time to go on a hike up a mountain or two, and to get up early and watch the fog roll out in the morning, and then hang around on the beach doing as little as possible. Soon, fall was starting to creep in and it was time for Thanksgiving, at which point we decided to deep-fry a turkey using a marvelous contraption that Mathew’s mum gave him for his birthday. It worked great — although it was a bit nerve-wracking boiling 15 litres of oil.

The fall also saw Zoe dive into playing hockey, the first Ingram ever to do so. She became a member of Team Bubblegum (a name sure to strike fear into the hearts of her tiny opponents) with a bright pink jersey to match, and has played her heart out, including a thrilling game as goalie. Then she dressed up as an angel for Halloween (the older girls were too cool for Halloween this year), and later Becky and Mathew followed her lead by dressing up too — for a murder mystery at Becky’s brother’s place. Pretty soon it was time for making gingerbread houses and Christmas get-togethers of various kinds.

And that’s about it for 2006 so far. A couple of big parties left and that will be all she wrote for another year. If you feel like checking out some more Ingram pictures, you can usually find them either at photos.mathewingram.com or at Mathew’s Flickr photo gallery page, which is here. For e-mail purposes, Mathew is at [email protected] or [email protected]and Becky is at [email protected]. Mathew also writes several Web and media-related blogs, which you can find at www.mathewingram.com. We here at Ingram and Co. wish you and yours all the best of the season.

Yes, it’s that time of year again. No, not tax time — that will come soon enough. I’m talking about “rush around at the last minute shopping and baking and visiting and office parties and driving in the snow and trying to find a &^%$^*#& parking spot at the mall” time. Yes, it’s Christmas. And boy, our lights sure do look pretty, if I do say so myself. Someone actually came by to ask us if we could turn some of them off — something about how Ontario Hydro was going to have to bring one of the mothballed Pickering reactors back online just to keep up with the power demand. But I told the guy to take a hike. That’s politicians for you — no Christmas spirit.

Our year began and ended as it did for most Canadians — with snow. Way back in the early part of the year, it was all about tobogganing near Buckhorn, then later on we headed down to Ottawa for a little Winterlude snow sculpture and Beaver tail action on the canal, and then — as if we hadn’t had enough winter — branched out into a little snowshoe racing up in Buckhorn. And that took us pretty much straight up to Zoe’s 7th birthday, which was followed quickly by a trip to Muskoka for a little canoeing through the ice. And as spring rolled around, there was even a little time for some creative trampoline jumping on the one hand, and some investigative trips to the swamp with Grandma on the other hand.

As the weather got warmer heading into May, Meaghan did a little dancing at a big outdoor dance festival and Caitlin made a trip to Niagara Falls. And Zoe, who is now in Grade 2 and has lost and gained several teeth at various times over the year, “graduated” from Sparks (the tiniest version of Girl Guides there is) and became a Brownie — a ceremony Becky got to preside over. And June brought a couple of major events for Meaghan, who is now 12: she had her birthday and she also graduated from Grade 6 and began the big move to middle school — a magical place filled with amazing inventions like “lockers” and “detention.”

And after graduation, of course, comes summer! That meant water volleyball up in Muskoka and fishing in Golden Lake, a few sunset trips on the boat and, naturally, lots of swimming — and even a little water baseball, an interesting sport that is being considered for the Olympics. There was also the occasional splinter, and some running down country roads. And Meaghan and Zoe spent a week at summer camp in Golden Lake together and had a great time. Caitlin and Meaghan also spent a week at the Health Club in Muskoka serving as “mother’s helpers” for Becky’s cousin Libby and her sister-in-law Jane. Then a whole pile of Becky’s cousins and aunts and uncles came up from the U.S. for a week-long party and get-together known as “The Boondoggle.” And towards the end of the summer, a smaller version of Becky’s family got together for a big photo op out in front of the sauna at the cottage.

Meanwhile, Caitlin made a big move this year too: she joined the ranks of the province’s drivers. I thought Becky and I handled this development pretty well, all things considered. As fall rolled on, Zoe got inducted into Brownies and got to ride her old friend Bobby the pony at Family Day. After the pumpkins of Halloween came and went, Meaghan and Zoe started rehearsing for their drama club’s Christmas pageant, in which Meaghan played a Queen and Zoe played a donkey named Samson. And finally, the year came to an end with the Globe and Mail Christmas party, complete with Meaghan’s favourite — snakes — some face-painting, and of course, a visit with the old guy in red.

Duke University lawyer and Creative Commons director James Boyle has a thoughtful piece in the Financial Times about the Web and whether it would (or could) be created today the way it is now. He ends with a depressing thought (via Slashdot):

“Why might we not create the web today? The web became hugely popular too quickly to control. The lawyers and policymakers and copyright holders were not there at the time of its conception. What would they have said, had they been? What would a web designed by the World Intellectual Property Organisation or the Disney Corporation have looked like? It would have looked more like pay-television, or Minitel, the French computer network…. The lawyers have learnt their lesson now. The regulation of technological development proceeds apace. When the next disruptive communications technology — the next worldwide web — is thought up, the lawyers and the logic of control will be much more evident. That is not a happy thought.”

Another Christmas arrives to find Toronto largely snowless – although we got just enough to make the lights look pretty, after what was one of the warmest Novembers since the Pleistocene Era (not to be confused with the more malleable Plasticine Era). Many of the T-shirt-clad people lining the street for the annual Santa Claus parade no doubt felt sorry for poor old St. Nick, in his ermine-trimmed coat and boots (synthetic ermine, of course), but I expect that plenty of others were more than a little thankful for some global warming. Everyone into their SUVs – and whatever you do, don’t stop idling!

The various members of the Ingram family (eastern Toronto division) made it through the year with their usual aplomb, thanks to careful planning, a few lucky breaks, and the occasional 20-dollar bill slipped to a teacher along the way. We had quite the generation gap this year, with Zoe in Grade One (she’s six) and Caitlin in Grade 10 (she’s 15) – Zoe was learning that the round part of a “b” goes to the right and the round part of a “d” goes to the left, and Caitlin was learning about polynomials (whatever those are). Meaghan, meanwhile, was playing the flute and learning French and all the other joys of Grade 6.

We spent some time in sunny Florida, courtesy of Becky’s mother and father, where the girls learned to play shuffleboard, Zoe enthralled the gathered throng at the weekly sunset “drum circle” on the beach with her interpretive dance (that’s her on the right) and we saw the famed Lipizzaner stallions. Caitlin experienced the rollercoaster at Busch Gardens while on a school trip to Virginia Beach (that’s her on the right), Zoe learned to ride a two-wheeler (she didn’t hit that car, in case you’re worried) and Meaghan made some new friends at camp. Oh yes, and she also turned eleven. The girls practiced their diving and puttered around in boats, and even chipped in to do some painting at the cottage.

In between there was plenty of jumping in the pool (not our pool, alas), some beautiful sunsets, and a little golf (thanks Bob), not to mention naps for both young and old. In the fall, Meaghan and Zoe got dressed up for Hallowe’en (Caitlin’s too old for that sort of thing, of course) and so did some people who should know better. Later, there was time set aside for squeezing through caves and walking in the woods, or sitting in trees and the wearing of pretty hats. And now we are quite ready for Christmas, with all the various treats prepared, including the ginger cookies and the star-cookie Christmas trees. And the girls have decorated not just their own Christmas tree but their cousin Jessica’s too and have met Santa.

And so it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut Jr. used to say. Another year filled for the most part with fun and frolic (and the occasional splinter, bee sting, hacking cough, vomiting spell, heart surgery, etc. — but let’s not talk about that). If you have a lot of free time on your hands and feel like surfing through some more pictures of the Ingrams, you can find some at mathewingram.com/photos. If you want to drop us a line using that newfangled e-mail thing all the kids are talking about, Mathew is at [email protected] and you can reach Becky at [email protected]. We here at Ingram and Co. wish you and yours all the best of the season.

It’s that time of year again! The Ingrams have been busy this year — in one of the highlights of the year, Caitlin, who is in Grade 8, took part in a student walkout in support of the teachers at her school, who were on a “work to rule” campaign to get a better contract. About 400 students walked out at Joseph Howe in Scarborough, and Caitlin actually got quoted in a story about it in the local paper! “I don’t think that, as kids, we should have to be doing this,” she said. A budding trade unionist in the family 🙂

In other news, there were balloon animals, and also lots of birthdays, of course. Zoe had fun in her Sparks group (they’re like starter Brownies, and Becky is a group leader) and fun swimming in the lake, and dressed up as a pirate for Halloween. She also got to sit on the throne during the Christmas party and looked quite regal — like she belonged there! Zoe and I also went for a walk in the woods at Thanksgiving, and it seems like we had a deep conversation, but for the life of me I can’t remember what we talked about. I assume I was sharing the made-up names of various plants just like my mother taught me 🙂

In the summer, there was jumping practice at the lake in Muskoka, and some swimming time at my family’s cottage in the Ottawa Valley, and a windy day on Rouge Beach near our house for Zoe and her friend Cynthia. There were also rainbows, and Becky and her brother Dave coordinated a reunion of what they called their “Tin Can Navy” — a group of friends who all had cottages near each other in Muskoka, and drove around in their aluminum boats delivering newspapers and generally getting up to no good 🙂

Caitlin graduated from high school and looked thoughtful about her future. She also took a trip to Nova Scotia with her cousin Christopher, and they did a tour of the province (or at least some parts of it) with their uncle Jack, who lives there. Meaghan dressed up for Halloween as a rocker and posed along with Zoe in her Dalmation outfit (she also likes to pretend she’s a dog sometimes, up to and including barking at strangers in the grocery store).

We got an impromptu flute concert from Caitlin and Meaghan in the kitchen, and Meaghan, who is in Grade 5, also wrote about the best Christmas gift she ever got, which was the time her grandmother surprised her by visiting us one Christmas when we lived in Calgary. This year, Meaghan got to explore her love of snakes at the annual Globe and Mail Christmas party, and we had an early pre-Christmas at our house in Toronto, where the three girls dressed up in their matching Christmas nightgowns.

For Christmas proper, we all got together at Becky’s family cottage in Muskoka, including all 10 grandkids (Note: I realize the photo linked to there doesn’t show all of them, but I assure you they were there). It was a bit of a tight fit, but somehow we managed it! Meaghan and Zoe even got to have a bath in the big tub together. And that’s about it for our year — hope you and yours had a great one as well. And just remember, while you are doing whatever you are doing, Zoe is planning to take over the world 🙂

Hi everyone! Merry Christmas from Becky and Mathew and Caitlin and Meaghan and Zoe Ingram. We are settling in to our new home near the Rouge river in Toronto — Scarborough to be precise. I (Mathew) am working on the Globe and Mail’s live news website, an experiment that launched last year just in time for the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. Living in Rouge Hill as they call it makes it easy to get in to the Globe by taking the GO train, which runs right by our house (we are down by the lake). For Becky, much of the year was taken up by a court case in Peterborough, after our friend Kris’s dad was brutally murdered last year by a mentally-ill neighbour on Halloween night.

Other than that, we spent some time in Florida at Becky’s mom and dad’s place in Bay Indies, a retirement park near Venice, south of Sarasota. We took a boat ride across to an island called Rum Bay that has a great BBQ rib restaurant on it, then walked around on the private beach where Zoe did one of her trademark poses. There was a parade and all the girls and Becky got dressed up and made friends with some neighbour kids, and then we went to an aquarium called Moat Marine up in Sarasota and spent some time with Becky’s cousin and her family at their place on Siesta Key. And we had lots of great beach time and pool time and dinner at a place out by the Venice airport (where some of the terrorists from 9/11 did their training apparently, as I found out later) and ran down the jetty at Sharky’s out near Casperson’s beach.

Back home there was a birthday party at Bob and Edie’s cottage in Muskoka and climbing on rocks in the woods and then some jumping on the trampoline at my uncle John’s place in Mississauga and another visit to the cottage in Muskoka in June and a big get-together with Becky’s family and then her cousin Libbie got married at Toronto’s hilarious fake castle Casa Loma where Zoe did her famous Zoe face. There was lots of swimming at the cottage and picnics on the deck and rafting and Meaghan helped her grampa make bread in the bread machine and there was some go-carting and mini golf and tubing and picking berries and saunas to be had and more of Zoe’s trademark posing for the camera. Meaghan had fun in Girl Guides, which Becky helped out with, and the kids got together with their cousins Scott and Curtis and Lindsay at Golden Lake and Meaghan tried the windsurfer and Zoe did some minnow catching and then ran out of gas.

Continue reading “Ingram Family Christmas Letter for 2002”