Some dear friends sent this quote along with their condolences over the death of Neil’s brother:
“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. For you see, in the end it is between you and God. It never was between you and them anyway.”
Those words are my Christmas gift to all of you…if you are searching for true peace in your life, focus on the life and atonement of our Savior.

December 15, 2008
Arrest in fatal beatingMurder charge laid in man’s death downtown
By SHANNON VANRAES, SUN MEDIA
WINNIPEG — An arrest has been made in the fatal beating of a 45-year-old man at a downtown Manitoba Housing complex Saturday morning.
Ivan Malachi Anderson, 27, has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Mark Arnold Harreveld. Police were called about 8:25 a.m. Saturday after a body was found in a suite at 185 Smith St., where Harreveld lived.
Winnipeg police did not say when or where Anderson was arrested. The homicide unit is still investigating the killing.
Harreveld’s family described him as a gentle man living with disabilities.
“Mark was handicapped. He was in a car accident when he was 15 years old and had permanent brain damage,” said his mother, Jarda Harreveld, adding her son was good-natured and easygoing.
The 81-year-old said she was shocked when police told her her son had been killed, and that he had been beaten to death.
“Mark was a strong guy, it would take a lot to get him down,” said Jarda, adding her son was 6-foot-2 and weighed about 225 pounds.
“I don’t know why anyone would do this to him.”
She began to worry about him Saturday morning when he didn’t show up at her house to shovel the driveway, adding they were usually in close contact.
“He put up my Christmas tree last week,” said Jarda Harreveld. “And he comes every week to shovel my driveway.”
She said Mark lived with her until about a year and a half ago, when they decided it would be best for him to have his own place.
“He liked living there very much,” she said of his downtown apartment. “He called to tell me he could see the fireworks from The Forks one night.”
Jarda said she had never heard her son mention the man charged in his death and didn’t know if he lived in the building.
Residents of the housing complex said Mark’s body was discovered by his girlfriend. They described Mark as a quiet and kind person.
Const. Jacqueline Chaput, a spokeswoman for Winnipeg police, could not say yesterday whether the victim and the accused knew one other.
Anderson remains in custody at the Winnipeg Remand Centre.
Jarda Harreveld said Mark’s brother lives in Florida but is flying in today or tomorrow to help make final arrangements.
The slaying is Winnipeg’s 27th homicide of the year, up from 26 in 2007.

I wanted to avoid writing about this altogether, but because it is such a big part of what is going on with us right now there really is no way to avoid it. Also, I know a lot of people who don’t normally read this blog may be checking it out since I listed our blog address on our Christmas card.

Neil’s 45-year-old brother died Saturday morning. He lived in Canada, which is where Neil is originally from. How did he die? Okay, here goes…he was murdered. There, I said it. Now I am just going to copy and paste the article that appeared in the Canadian newspaper this morning so you can read the details. After this article was published, an arrest was made. As of now, that is all we know…

Police treating death as homicide
By: Jen Skerritt
13/12/2008 9:52 AM Comments (0)
Police are investigating the city’s latest homicide after a middle-aged man was found dead in his downtown apartment this morning.Winnipeg Police taped-off the 17th floor of the Manitoba Housing complex at 185 Smith St. shortly after 8 a.m. this morning so members of the identification unit could investigate. Sgt. Jacqueline Chaput confirmed the death is a homicide.Police have not confirmed the man’s identity, and are not releasing the victim’s name until relatives are notified.Residents who knew the victim alleged he was beaten to death.A friend of the victim, who did not want to be identified, said a man and woman came to the victim’s suite shortly after 1 a.m. to party. The victim’s girlfriend — who also lives in the apartment building — went home when they arrived since they were people she “didn’t like at all.”Another tenant said the man who went to party also lived in the building, and was mentally unstable with aggression problems.Residents said the victim’s girlfriend found his body this morning.“He got beaten to death,” one man said.Friends described the victim as a quiet man in his mid-40s who never yelled or got angry.He was over six feet tall, husky and “big”, and friends say it would’ve taken quite a struggle to overpower him.“He was a nice guy,” one friend said. “He never did anyone any harm.”Friends said the victim was part of a group of people in the housing complex who socialized and watched out for each other — he would lend a cigarette or sugar if you were low on cash. He moved into the building about 18 months ago, and spent some nights watching TV with his girlfriend.Friends said the victim went to visit his aging mother every Saturday.One friend last spoke to the victim around 4 p.m. yesterday and said everything was fine and that the victim was at home.The death rattled some building residents who are concerned about lax security and widespread alcohol and drug abuse. A group of tenants watched anxiously from the main floor foyer as police combed and patrolled the building, several cloaked in protective white clothing to investigate the 17th floor.Tenant Pierre Clusiau said people regularly wander into the complex from the street and are found sleeping in hallways and stairwells. Many of them, he said, are addicted to hard drugs and alcohol.“This is a bad building and I’ve been crying for better security for years,” Clusiau said. “Manitoba Housing refuses to get us that.”“This place is way too rough.”

Here is a question for all of you, especially my “365” blog friends: What kind of camera should I get?

I will mainly be using it for indoor shots of my cards and scrapbook projects to post on my stamping blog.

I have a couple of requirements:

1) It has to be compact enough for me to carry in my purse

2) It has to have a rechargeable battery

Please, please, please leave me a comment and suggest what I should get!