2024 in Pictures

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Our Dear Friends and Family,

Sitting to write this letter, which would usually go in a card that a more relaxed and organized Vanessa would typically have designed and ordered weeks ago, I’m keenly aware of the to-do list that isn’t shrinking the way I need it to as the days before Christmas get fewer and fewer! Far from the Advent that we’re called to have as a dedicated time of peace and quiet anticipation before the Christmas season, our Advent – like many of yours, I’m sure – has been more of an exercise in buckling up and hanging on tight as the rollercoaster that has been 2024 seems to only be speeding up and taking some unexpected turns before the year is over. In a run-in today with a colleague at work, I got some much-needed perspective, though. A reminder that despite all the things that are pulling us in 1000 directions right now, and demanding time, attention, and energy that are in short supply, there is still so much to be grateful for – that it is truly the small, simple things that matter in the end. In this moment, I’m choosing to be grateful for the mail strike, because it means I don’t have to edit my letter down to the size of a 5×7 greeting card 😊.

Like any good rollercoaster ride though, there’s been lots of excitement in 2024 for the whole Sweet family, and sitting down to reflect on it all has been a blessing indeed.

Charlotte is now 10 years old (double digits!) and in Grade 5 at Sacred Heart. She continues to be a delight to be raising. Her whole life is narrated in song – there’s a soundtrack to her life that on any given day is a mashup of Taylor Swift, Wicked, and parts of the Mass. She had the chance to put her musical skills to use in the Elementary School musical this year, where she played Squirt in Finding Nemo Jr. Despite having only a few lines herself, she regularly performed the whole musical at home! She was also selected to sing a solo at the school Remembrance Day assembly. She’s keeping busy with piano lessons and swimming, and she joined the Shu-Mil 4-H Club this fall where she’s started with the Dairy project, following in Vanessa and Opa’s footsteps. She continues to be drawing and doodling in all her spare moments (you can see her beautiful 2024 nativity drawing, which was on the cover of the school Christmas concert program as well!) and loves spending time with her cousins and her neighbourhood girlfriends. She got some dedicated solo summer time with Oma and Opa and also with her ‘very old’ friend Leone where she did some camping, lots of swimming and even a little golf. A big highlight of her fall was being an Altar Server at the Eucharistic Congress in Halifax, where she was one of the candle-bearers who led the Eucharistic procession with 500+ people 5km through the city!

Pat has had a busy and very successful year! He’s now a little over two years into his PhD at Saint Mary’s University, and his huge hurdle for the year was passing his comprehensive exams this fall. After summer-long studying marathon and a 5-week writing marathon (while he had pneumonia, no less), he passed with flying colours and is now a PhD ‘candidate’ not merely a PhD Student. As though his PhD work weren’t enough, he’s continued working with COVE on leadership development initiatives, and has started working with Engage Nova Scotia working on their Nova Scotia Quality of Life initiative. He’s also managed to put a little bit of fun back into his schedule and picked up Guitar lessons again this fall, and in the last couple of weeks has started playing pickup hockey (with a group of guys who are mostly 20 years his senior, so that’s a great confidence boost for the ‘young fella’ on the team).

Vanessa has continued in her anesthesia work, with a couple of quick locums in Brandon MB and Summerside PEI this year. Her most adventurous anesthesia undertaking, though, was a 2-week mission trip with Mercy Ships on their field service in Freetown, Sierra Leone. That was absolutely a highlight of her year to have had that experience, and she’s hopeful that there will be more opportunities to serve with them in the coming years. Through her Quality & Patient Safety work she found herself in Scotland numerous times throughout 2024 for the Scottish Quality & Patient Safety Fellowship which has allowed her to do some exciting work on Sepsis for Nova Scotia Health. She’s also kept busy with music on the side (sometimes too‘on the side’ for her piano teacher’s liking!), working toward her Level 10 Piano exam which she will play this coming January, singing in the choir for the Eucharistic Congress, and leading our church’s new special events choir.

In the midst of all of this, we made the (crazy) decision to embark on a major home renovation in the Spring (our house has been gutted!). We’re living next-door to the construction project which has been wonderful and awful in equal measure 😂, but we’re planning on being back in our house in early Spring 2025 (and then living there completely unchanged until we die). We managed to get away for March break, tagging a trip to Paris onto the end of one of Vanessa’s Scotland conferences. It was deliriously fun to tour the city with Charlotte – she was absolutely captivated by the Louvre, save for the Mona Lisa, which she will say is ‘wildly overrated’. We got our usual camping trips in at Kejimkujik National Park, and were able to explore a section of the park we hadn’t previously seen on a multi-day canoe trip. We got a bit of time in with family and friends, but it never really feels like enough. We are really looking forward to making more time for that in 2025 with some of our other projects and obligations wrapping up early in the new year.

And of course, we’d be remiss to not update you on the pets. The frogs, Dill and Pickles, continue to live a peaceful existence with their unnamed snail friend in Charlotte’s fish tank (which currently has no fish in it). Massey is now 12, and like many of her geriatric dog friends is less enthusiastic about how her hips feel when she takes the stairs. The cats continue to run the house, but Stuart McLean is taking his health a bit more seriously this year and has started a bit of a diet to work on his figure (the vet said he was too fluffy). Shelagh Rogers continues to be the goofball of the pets. She can hear a can of tuna being opened from anywhere in the house, so she can be counted on to join Pat in the kitchen for his lunch every day.

At this time of year especially, we want to thank each and every one of you for the special place you have in our lives. Even if our paths only cross occasionally or we’re far away from each other, please know that you and yours are dear to us and you’re always close to our hearts. We hope that this season is a time of joy and celebration and that you’re able to step back from the busy-ness of it all to truly revel in the simple things. May 2025 bring beautiful new beginnings for all the places in your lives that are in need of renewal, and time to enjoy all of the people and experiences you treasure most.

With love,

The Sweets

But the Angel Said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people’

Luke 2:10