addios 2010

Dear family and friends:

As 2010 draws to a close, so we at the Rossouw home draw a sigh of relief.  Who would have guessed that a year that started with Nic’s winning $210M in the Powerball Lottery, Joellen’s Supporting Actress Academy Award, George’s winning of the Rhodes Scholarship, Gavin’s Grammy Award, Mina’s second consecutive Turner Art Prize and Java’s victory at the Westminster Dog Show in the first two months of the year would have ended with our unfortunate bankruptcy, Nic’s incarceration for public nudity at a Rick Astley concert, the unfortunate fire caused by our 4^th of July fireworks that burned down Northgate Mall and our $212M donation to Rossi for Senate proving to have been an unsuccessful investment in the future of eternal Republicanism.

Along the way we enjoyed a series of highs and lows and some things that could turn out to be one or the other, especially in our part-time acting careers.  Next year make sure to check your local multi-plex for George’s movie debut in “Zombie Kung-Fu Space Aliens III – a Love Story”, Joellen’s reprisal of Julie Andrew’s role in “Sound of Music II – Hip Hop Meets Lederhosen”, Gavin’s starring role as the break dancing skateboarder in “Men in Black (tights) IV” and Nic’s supporting role as the kilted villain in “The Haggis Juggler – Spiderman Saves Glasgow” and of course Mina in her first lead role as the horse riding heroine in “Annie Oakley Liberates Dodge from the Un-dead”.   

We did not limit ourselves to acting though and as you can see from our family blog: Gavin became the youngest person ever to summit Mt. Everest without oxygen, Mina ran her first sub- four minute mile, George placed a respectable 3^rd in the Tour de France and Joellen and Nic had fun sweeping the mixed doubles titles at Wimbledon and the US Open, despite our unfortunate loss in the semi-finals at the French Open.  As you might have seen Java surprised us all when she revealed her ability to use the computer and then secured a contract for her recently completed autobiography “My Life as a Dog – Tennis Balls and Cat Food”.

Naturally we also found time for the simple pursuits of life, such as opening our own vegan restaurant where all the food is grown in the back yard of our own home and powered by the wind and solar generators we built and installed on our roof, expanding our home winery and the release of Mina’s new multi-platinum CD on our own label, all as seen on our BRAVO reality show “The Simple Life in Maple Leaf” and the second season of “The Real Housewives of Seattle”.

We hope that the year end finds you and we look forward to seeing you at one of our book signings at a location near you.

Love to you all,

Joellen, Nic, George, Gavin, Mina and Java