It was absolutely awesome seeing so much family again after a long time (too long as in many cases we hadn't seen some extended family in many years). We didn't get back to Alberta to visit friends and check on our house there since we spent the full two weeks in Ontario. Being rather homesick throughout the last part of 2008, spending lots of time with family was exactly what we wanted. Despite a delay due to heavy snow we arrived just in time on Christmas Eve for supper with Phil's family ... we were just glad that the plane wasn't cancelled because many were.
In London (Ontario, not England) we had a great time with Christmas traditions, fantastic food and company, and spending lots of time with our dog Riley who is now living with Phil's mom and dad (seeing how well he gets treated / pampered he certainly is "living the life of Riley" and enjoying his senior years). Huge thanks and love to mom and dad for having all four of us "back home" and ensuring we felt welcome.
We borrowed mom & dad's van and drove to Barrie to see our Feder family (immediate and extended). Neil and Jodie opened their home to us and it was pleasing to see how well Harrison and Parker played and got along with their cousins Kaleb and Kaleigh who are just about the same age. We arrived there just in time for the biggest family gathering we have been to probably since we got married. Neil and Jodie did a great job arranging it and it reminded us of the big Feder family events we used to go to early in our relationship when grandpa and granny were still with us. Other highlights from Barrie included a super fun "card night", celebrating our cousin Thomas' birthday, and (although I usually hate shopping) getting some amazing deals on clothes that would have been easily triple the price in the UK.
In as much as we enjoyed seeing family, it also felt great to get a reminder of how awesome Canadian culture is. Tuning into Hockey Night in Canada, watching Team Canada on tv for the world junior hockey championships, reading Farley Mowat, shovelling snow, sledding ... these are the iconic Canadian things we enjoyed (just about the only thing we didn't do was go to Tim Hortons). Our impression of Canada is that it seemed much less "developed" than we remembered it and it was a little odd to see so many houses (probably in contrast now to our experience in the UK which is more densely populated and we have become accustomed to tall city centre apartment housing).
Both of the boys loved seeing "proper snow" again ... Parker didn't remember what it was like since he was only a year and a half when he had last seen any snow. We had fun tobagganing with family throughout the vacation both in London and in Barrie. The cold weather was "amusing" for the couple of weeks that we were back in Canada but to be truthful we were glad to get back to a warmer climate in the UK (and we really haven't had much rain to speak of this winter).
It is tempting to have an "Oscar's List" naming people who we saw over the holidays but instead we will just say how much we enjoyed seeing everyone and a general but sincere "thank you" for taking the time to see us. Probably the highest compliment is that it gave us serious pause to consider the consequences of living so far away from everyone ... but our lives are here right now with Harriet benefiting from some outstanding educational opportunities and our whole family enjoying the "international experiences" we couldn't get living domestically.
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