Very Last Blog Entry!

We're Home!!!! We are FINALLY home, after 329 days of living in different places!

Emma's update:
Christmas: We had Christmas with our Grandma Joan and her partner David. They came from Nova Scotia and stayed with us for Christmas in Gatineau. We had a lot of fun. There was so much to do, and so little time to do it in. One time we got lost with Grandma and David going from the Museum of Civilization to home (the GPS went wonky)! We also played a lot of board games, decorated cookies, went snowshoeing and had our Christmas Eve party. At our Christmas Eve party everyone made an act such as Nathan singing, Dad teaching us a game, Grandma reading a story game (where we passed a present left or right whenever she said 'left' or 'right'), David teaching us folk dancing, and Mom reading a story out of a book. I sang "Silent Night" while everybody held candles. It was a fun night. On Christmas Day there was a lot of waking up early, but the night before we had set up a rule: if the kids woke up before the grown-ups, then they had to wait until 7 o'clock to wake everyone up. Then we could zip down the stairs and look at our stockings. In my stocking there was four little chocolate balls, a mini reindeer (1 inch long), a small stuffed hamster, a book, and a duck egg that you put in water and it hatches in 24 hours. The duckling felt furry. My present from Santa was a game called "Murder Mystery Mansion" and a gift card for $30 to use at Sunnyside greenhouse in Calgary. From Mom and Dad I got a cupcake making set and a book. From Nathan I got a cake mix and some sprinkles. Grandpa Severson gave me a game called Goblet and $100. I also got other great gifts too.

This is Emma, signing out.
Over to Nathan...

Nathan's News:
After Christmas Grandpa came and stayed with us for a few days. Then we went on a plane with him back to Calgary. The plane was fun. We had to take two planes; one from Ottawa to Toronto, and one from Toronto to Calgary. On both planes we got seats near the wing, so, in the middle of the plane. It felt weird when we got back. Not going to our house, but still in our city. We went to Liz's house for a New Year's Eve party. It was good. They had a new Wii (Mario Cart Wii). We went to Heidi's house for a playdate and Heidi showed us a great sledding hill. Now we are back in our house and this blog is over!
This is Nathan, signing off.
Over to Mom...

Juleta and Chris' journey:

After my Dad was successfully through security with the kids at the Ottawa airport, Chris and I packed up the car and hit the road. We spent 4.5 days driving home and had remarkably good roads all the way. Apart from a stretch of wet snow in N. Ontario, and some blowing snow near Regina, all was clear and dry. Now we are settling in to our home again (lots of cleaning, unpacking and re-arranging yet to do) and enjoying having Chris' Dad with us. In a week the kids' extra-curricular lessons and my work at Mount Royal will start up and Calgary life will be in full swing.

It would be very difficult to summarize all the learning and adventure we experienced by exploring Canada this year. We are all very glad to have made the journey, and are now happy to be home.

From the land of crisp, dry winter air and bright blue skies -
Juleta