christmas in canada.

It's about time for another blog post. It takes us a long time to get around to these. This one is about Christmas. It was two months ago. We are slow. Sorry.

Christmas morning stockings.

We had the pleasure (thanks to our wonderful parents) to visit Canada for a couple weeks over the Christmas break. We hadn’t planned to be back home this early, but it was a wonderful time seeing family and friends. We knew that we had limited time, and it was our vacation/Christmas, so we didn’t want to pack too much in trying to see and do everything. So we focused on family, church, and were lucky to connect with some friends – although we wish we could’ve have seen more. Apologies to everyone we didn’t get to see. But also, if you really wanted to see us you would come to Colombia.😜

Boys showing gingerbread men of themselves.

The main flight from Colombia to Canada flies overnight (leaving at 11:30pm) from Bogota to Toronto. Sleeping on a plane is always the worst, and I (Matt) am always too hot. This time I was lucky enough to have Judson lying on me the whole time, which made it even hotter. But we did make it eventually.

Boys love flying/screens.

We spent our first week in Vancouver. I forgot about how dark Vancouver can be during the wintertime. Our first few days it was rainy and overcast, and as a contrast to almost always sunny Cali, I kept thinking to myself, “Where is the sun?” But we eventually got to see the sun and it reminded us of how beautiful BC is. 

Lolo Frans and Judson with his new puzzle.

Before we left we brainstormed with the boys some of the things we wanted to see and do while at home. For the boys, the clear winner was to go to the aquarium as well as to eat sushi - two natural enemies. It was Judson’s birthday while we were in Vancouver so on that day, we headed downtown to the aquarium. It was extra nice for Kristin's cousin Hannah to come with us.

Classic aquarium pose.

Ceph Rogen, the resident octopus, coming out from hiding.

Of course, one of our favourite foods living in Vancouver was sushi. It is hard to find good sushi in Colombia, and what you can find is expensive, so we had to make sure we went to our old favourite sushi restaurant on Commercial Drive.

Sushi leftovers.

Family birthday party for Judson - lucked out and found the only Angry Birds cake in the Lower Mainland (probably).

Another highlight was seeing Melanie, Jess, Ryan, and the girls from our old community house – visiting them at the Brooksdale location of A Rocha Canada where Jess and Ryan now live. We grew close to and loved everyone who was a part of the community house over the years and there is a special bond with this group as the boys also had community members their age. It did not take 10 seconds before the kids were back where they left off. 

The old house back together. We miss these people.

Psuedo siblings.

It was a little bittersweet seeing life on the farm and being reminded of the things that we don't have in Colombia, like nature close by, simplicity, and homegrown food. I never took full advantage of our garden space and friends' gardening knowledge while at the community house (to be fair, we were pretty busy with everything in life) – but we sure miss benefiting by knowing Ryan, Jess, and Mel being experts at growing their own food. We definitely took advantage of the outdoors and nature when in Vancouver and that is probably one of the harder things about being in Cali. It's extra frustrating because we are, in theory, fairly close to beautiful nature living in one of the most biodiverse places in the world. But in practice, it's actually quite difficult to access these places and we don’t do it nearly as much as I wish I could. It is one of my goals this year to try to explore the outdoors more.

Life on the farm.

Taking a walk around Brooksdale.

The best part of being home is getting to spend time with family. We always look forward to Christmas breakfast and a big gathering with Kristin's family. There is usually no shortage of events happening. We took advantage of Kristin's cousin Josh's new townhouse where he hosted Christmas breakfast this year. The boys were very sad to leave Vancouver but we had to keep moving and see the other side of the family in Saskatoon.

Waiting for present-opening to begin.

Sad to leave.

We knew Saskatoon would be cold and that we wouldn’t be prepared for it. And we weren’t. But I (at least) love the cold. We went sledding a few times, something we only were rarely able to do in Vancouver when our street froze over – and definitely never in Colombia. I don’t know if Judson had ever really done it before. Of course, he loved it - at least until his hands and legs started to burn from the cold. Then he cried.

White powder!

Sledding. Somehow no one got hurt.

Saskatoon was lower key than Vancouver. With fewer friends to try to visit, it was nice to fill it with family activities. Being around family and watching the boys play with their cousins filled my heart. Under normal circumstances, we would have missed not being at the cabin this year, but I think we were all too busy enjoying just being together to really think about it.

It's not Christmas if we don't play crokinole.

Boys rock climbing while their cousin Knox takes a break.

And of course no trip to Saskatoon (or Christmas vacation) is complete without a visit to the Western Development Museum. Somehow, every time it still gets a little bit creepier (Depression-era Christmas robots not pictured).

Cousins rolling together.

Minecraft Lego face.

It was hard for us to leave but we did have some things to look forward to when heading back home to Colombia, like warm weather and routine. Unfortunately, our flight from Toronto to Bogota was delayed, and although we were originally scheduled to arrive and get to our hotel well before midnight on Dec 31st, we ended up being in the air when New Years struck. It was fun/annoying that they woke everyone up, turned on the lights, and counted down to midnight. Once we finally did get into Bogota, we were lucky enough to stay in one of the worst hotels I have ever booked (you're welcome, Family). Then Ezra got sick on the flight back to Cali. And then we all got sick getting home and needed at least a week to recover. So it all ended in disaster, as all good things do.

Cato Family.

Wall Family.

Colombia is known as the land of fruits, but they don't have Saskatoon berries. So really, what's the point?

It was all worth it for this home-made Saskatoon berry pie, though.