Christmas 2004
Cardiff Hall Great House
Runaway Bay, St Ann Jamaica
January 2005
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I have to apologise for the lateness of our annual “Christmas” letter this year ~ I’m sure you’ll understand by the time you reach the end. As always, it has been another busy year for the Rance family.
JC is now 10 years old and is ½ way through a very difficult year in school. He is in 5th/6th grade where most of the year is spent studying for the high school entrance exam that he will take in March. He participates in soccer & Boy Scouts and is generally a good student, though he tends to daydream. In August, he finally became a certified diver ~ though he’s been diving for 2 years now; he was too young to get certified.
Dominic turned 8 just before Christmas. He’s as precocious as ever and gives his 2nd grade teacher a run for her money, I’m sure. Still very bright and always a ton of questions, he regularly finishes his homework in 10 minutes during the car ride home! He also participates in soccer and Boy Scouts and is passionate about video games just now.
Our little Jessie is now a big 6 ½. She started first grade this year and enjoys it very much. Her class is overrun with little girls which she has really enjoyed, coming from a ‘boy-overrun’ house. Jess is still a water-rat; she’d live in the pool if we let her. Although she tries to keep up with her brothers, she is still very much a little girl at heart ~ preferring princess dress-up clothes to video games these days.
As for visitors, it’s been a quieter year for us, relatively. We were fortunate to have Claire Henderson, Kellie’s cousin, visit in February from England. March brought Nana & Papa Lawrie, Rhoda & Mike Bruch, Kellie’s sister, Laura and her friend, Shannon, who flew in from an archaeological dig in Honduras, and Kellie’s cousin, Keri, and her friends from Medford, Oregon.
By April, things got really crazy as Kellie began the first of 8 trips to Florida to staff scuba instructor courses, transport children around, and pick up scuba gear while Christian stayed home to manage children, business and house on his own. Craig Twell returned to Jamaica in early April to help out at the homestead and keep Christian sane. J In early July, the children headed to Oregon with their nanny, Nadine, in tow for a summer of fun in Oregon. Christian and Kellie joined them there in August for the annual camping trip at Detroit Lake with the Carney-Yocom gang. Sarah Imbach and her new hubby Andy Nowka joined us again for a few days this year which was nice as we don’t get to visit with them often. We celebrated JC’s birthday at the lake this year and were joined by Doc Campbell and his grandkids ~ and everyone wearing special “commemorative” t-shirts provided by Grandpa – JC got a real kick out of that.
August brought us Hurricane Ivan affectionately referred to as ‘Ivan the Terrible’. Kellie was stranded in Florida at the time and Christian, Craig, and Cam were left to batten down the hatches and prepare for the storm. Fortunately, Cardiff Hall weathered the storm like a trooper with the only signs of damage being loss of foliage and some downed trees on the property. We were left without power for several weeks, had intermittent phone service, and lost our water tank; but overall we felt blessed as the damage could have been much worse. Jamaica recovered quickly and by early October it was back to ‘business as usual’ on the island and by the end of October, the Rances were ready, yet again, to host the annual Halloween party where fun was had by all and kids from all over the area came to gorge themselves on candy, bob for apples, and be scared by the Pirate Skeleton “Billy Bob Bones” who swung from one of the trees.
Nana & Papa Lawrie returned to visit in November and Chris had two more sets of hands to help him while Kellie returned to Florida. Nana Elle Rance also came for a visit in early December and then the fun REALLY began.
We took the kids for a two week vacation in Orlando, just prior to Christmas, compliments of Grandpa Lawrie. Everyone had a great time, if not all together relaxing! We spent 8 days roaming through just about every Disney Park and Universal Studios, as well. Then, we boarded a Disney cruise ship for a 3 day cruise in the Caribbean. Grandpa has to travel in style and we were all treated to accommodations at the Grand Floridian and the Royal Suite on the Disney Cruise. It was complete heaven. It was during this trip that Kellie was notified that she’d been accepted for the PADI Course Director Training Course that she’d been working towards all year.
As all good things must, the trip came to an end and Kellie and the kids headed to Oregon for Christmas with her parents. Nana Elle was also able to join them there, though Christian stayed behind to keep an eye on the business at our busiest time. We all thank him for that and came back with stacks of gifts for him (that he still hasn’t had time to open).
Whew! Seems like 2004 just flew by and never know where the time goes, but enjoying every minute of it. We all wish you and yours a fantastic 2005 and hope that you had a really wonderful holiday season. Please keep in touch and know that you are always in our thoughts and minds.
Much love, Christian, Kellie, James, Dominic & Jessica
Christian: crance_at_yahoo.com
Kellie: maxjam00_at_yahoo.com
Kids: kellie_at_jamweb.net
JC: jcrance2001_at_yahoo.com
Write
us!
Christian
& Kellie Rance
PO Box 4056
Half Moon
Post Office, St. James Jamaica
Websites:
Family: www.geocities.com/crance
Caribbean Treasures: www.CaribbeanTreasures.com
Jamaica Scuba Divers: www.scuba-jamaica.com
