Easter with the Mallorys

Almost all holidays are spent with the Mallory clan gathering at the cottage for a day of fellowship, food and games. Easter is a highlight of course because there are always lots of treats. Everyone gets some chocolate from Laura Secord or a specialty chocolate store. We always have an Easter egg hunt. I guess we are all kids at heart. A few years ago, I started hiding money instead of chocolate eggs which seems to have rekindled everyone's interest in the hunt. I go to the bank and get rolls or loonies, quarters and dimes and hide the money around the house or at the cottage. Months later someone may find money in a shoe or a pocket which is an added bonus. We also try to do a craft and have an outdoor activity. We have painted lots of Easter eggs, made Easter bonnets, cooked special cookies and made bird purses over the years. We have done orienteering egg hunts, blindfolded egg hunts, scavenger hunts, and had races. Old and young join in the fun and we now have extended family friends who always like to join us over the holiday. A special prayer of thanks and a hearty meal ends the day.

Maple Syrup - like the pioneers

Every other year, the extended Mallory Clan head off into the bush to tap and collect maple sap to make maple syrup. We do it the old fashioned way where we tap the trees and hang the buckets. When the sap is running everyone is needed to help collect the buckets and pour the sap into the big plastic barrels which we haul in a snow boat behind the snowmobile to the fire. We slowly boil the sap in a huge cast iron kettle for hours. Dan tests to make sure the syrup is ready by tilting a spoon and seeing if the syrup has a tail when it falls to the ground. Then it is panic time and all hands are required to pour the syrup from the kettle through felt cloth and into the bottles and tins. We tap about 40 trees since it takes 40 litres of sap to make one litre of syrup. As a reward, an outdoor breakfast celebration is usually planned with sausage, pancakes, eggs and lots of maple syrup.

Adam's strength

Adam is the strong, quiet person in the family. When he talks everyone listens because you know he has thought through what he is going to say and it is important. He gets right to the point and doesn't say anything more than is necessary. He is a patient instructor who is constantly assisting the computer semi-literate (his dad & mom) in the family.
Adam did his first presentation on his own recently where his peers packed the conference room at his work. It was a positive experience for Adam with lots of congratulations and high fives afterwards. Adam considered that a stepping stone. He wants to do more family presentations where he presents with another family member.

Adam's real strength lies behind the scenes with all the technical issues that go along with doing a presentation. He has devised and implemented ways to improve all the presentations. He was the main videographer on the mountain. Having a computer geek and electrical engineer in the family really helps when problems arise on presentation day.

Dan's enthusiasm

Over the years, Dan has given slide shows and power point presentations of our various adventures to family and friends who love to hear his stories and see our pictures. His bird-watching hobby has taken the two of us to many remote areas of the world to catch a glimpse of a rare and magnificent bird. His voice radiates his enthusiasm for adventure and nature.

Dan is a modest soft spoken presenter who really enjoys sharing the family adventures. For him telling the story of losing contact with Laura on Mt. Everest for over 6 hours is still very emotional. The feeling of helplessness - wondering and waiting were the worst hours of Dan's life. Thankfully, everyone returned safely home.

Alan's sense of humour

During university Alan attended Toastmasters where he honed his presentation skills. When we decide to start to do presentations he was eager to begin and developed the first family presentation for Hatch Engineering in Mississauga.

Alan is an active, expressive presenter who likes to use a lapel mic so he can move about. He connects immediately with his audience whether they be corporate executives, seniors or youth groups and seems to naturally know when to add a bit of humour to the presentation.

Laura's bubbly personality

We now have four people in the family who are actively inspiring people to make their dreams real through our presentations. Each person has developed their own presentation and has their own presentation style.

Laura is a very confident young lady with a bubbly personality. She has presented with the whole family, her brother Alan and on her own. She continues to grow in poise and confidence. She will be presenting to several high schools in late April. An inspiration to youth and young women in particular, the story of her summit day is a story of drama, courage, determination and success.

Special Christmas Hats

At Christmas in 2007, Dan's sister's family gave us each a special gift. What could possibly be inside the colourful gift bags? On the count of three, everyone threw their tissue paper into the air and whoops of laughter and delight could be heard around the Christmas tree as we all donned a special peaked hat. Nancy, Rob, Ethan & Kelsey had given each of us a hat with the name of a mountain we had summited and a flag of that country on it. The mountains were one of the famous seven peaks - the highest mountain on each of the seven continents.

Alan - Mt. McKinley/Denali - North America
Laura - Mt. Elbrus - Europe
Adam - Mt. Aconcagua - South America
Barbara - Mt. Kilimanjaro - Africa
Dan - Mt. Everest - Asia

Dan got a hat of Mt. Everest because that was his next goal. He had already started planning the trip and being a positive family everyone was convinced he would summit. On a gear shopping trip, I found some more Mt. Everest hats and gave Adam, Alan & Laura each one at the airport on their return from Nepal after their successful summit.