This is our Christmas letter for 2013. Apologies if you’ve already read it.
Our best wishes to all our friends and relatives for the holiday season and the fast-approaching new year. We hope you had a happy and healthy 2013. Here are some brief snippets of ours.
Our major event, of course, was the arrival of our grandson, Caleb. I’m including a few pictures, including one with the proud parents, Stephen and Jennifer. Caleb is eight months old now and a delight, pulling himself up on his own and starting to get into things! Gill and I are very pleased to visit Caleb, and “Uncle Mike” has happily adopted his avuncular role.
Gill is still busily producing pots, both her brightly coloured and salt-glazed “jugbirds”. You can keep track of what she is doing on her blog (www.gillianmcmillan.com), as some of you do. I still keep my hand in with academic writing, along with occasional guest lectures and conference presentations. And we are still enjoying traveling. In January we had a very interesting four days in Mexico City, reacquainting ourselves with that bustling city and its great museums, followed by a week on the beach in Puerto Vallarta (in photo).
In the spring we drove to more local conferences in Portland and Whistler. The Whistler event, in the beautiful setting of a major ski resort, was particularly meaningful for me. The Canadian Archaeological Association awarded me their highest recognition, termed the Smith-Wintemberg Award after two of Canada’s pioneer archaeologists, for lifetime achievement. I was extremely touched and honoured by this recognition of my career.
We had a wonderful time in September in England. Gill was particularly pleased with the large family reunion kindly hosted by her sister Mary and husband John. Her siblings and their spouses were there, plus many nephews and nieces. The picture shows all the senior generation (the “crumblies,” as the younger English relatives unkindly say). We also stayed with brother Bill and Lottie near Cambridge, where a rather high-end gallery now stocks Gill’s work (so our suitcases were stuffed with “jugbirds” for the trip over!). After that we had two weeks traveling on a bus tour around the Danube region (from Munich to Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg), enjoying the wonderful history and architecture. The photo is of us in Budapest.
All continues to be well with our family. Steve is busy with his faculty position at the BC Institute of Technology and, of course, Caleb keeps him and Jennifer hopping. Mike is still enjoying living centrally in Vancouver and working with the Disability Foundation. My brother Brian and his wife Val are celebrating their first wedding anniversary this Christmas holiday (and we are very happy to have Val in the family). So we have much to be thankful for as we look back over the year.
Gill and I send our warmest wishes to all of you. Once again, Merry Christmas and our best wishes for 2014.
