It's Christmas time again and we find ourselves reminiscing about all that has happened in the span of a year.
At this time last year, so much was still unknown for us. We didn't know where we were going to live, we were still in the planning stages of our move while living in two different provinces and we got engaged upon Neil's arrival at the airport on Christmas Day.
At the start of 2010 we finalized and finished our move, solved our housing situation, and Neil was settling into the routine of his new job. We learned it's tough to heat an old farm house in the middle of the Prairies. North winds can freeze the pipes in your kitchen, but then again, after reaching any temperature below minus 20, ANY wind will freeze your kitchen pipes! We learned that deer travel in herds and stare at you from across the street behind the church in the middle of the night (surely plotting to attack). This gave rise to the question of “where do the deer go?”... think about it... there is no forest here.
After a winter of driving 30 minutes each way for a jug of milk, we decided it was time to move closer to civilization. In June we found a great apartment in Weyburn and we were finally able to unwrap and unpack all of our belongings. Here we endured some of the “worst storms” in the Prairies according to the locals who apologized and/or blamed us for the “crazy weather”. It was by all accounts one of the wettest springs and early summers in recent memory... or at least that's what everyone told us.
By August, we had started to settle into our new life, just in time for our first visitors. Neil's parental units arrived and we started to explore the Province. By that time, all the fields were green, yellow and purple with the wheat, canola and flax crops. It really is beautiful out here. We went to Moose Jaw, Regina and Roleau (a.k.a. “Dog River”, the town where “Corner Gas” was filmed”) and had a great time.
We also visited the usual suspects Oungre, Tribune, Weyburn and Estevan which we also visited with La Mama D.P. (Veronica's mom) who came to spend Thanksgiving with us. The d. P. girls let loose and did lots of shopping in Weyburn. And whoever says shopping doesn't pay off should know that a shopping spree in search of Weyburn souvenirs is what led Veronica to her new job!
We started as visitors to a Museum in Weyburn and now Veronica is the new manager!! See? Shopping = job. We also went to Saskatoon with La Mama. We fell in love with that city. If you've never been, you should go. We highly recommend it. We'll even meet you there!
Time really does fly when you're having fun! And so here we are again at Christmas time. We really can't believe it's been a year already! We've had snow since Halloween, but we really don't think about that anymore. Something happens when you live out here. Maybe it's because there is no escaping it, or we're just getting used to it, but we don't really complain about the snow as much as we did when we were in Toronto. There's snow... lots of it and it comes down almost daily, so we bought winter boots (which neither of us had done in many, many years), we put on lots of layers, we have emergency kits in our car and away we go!
So what have we learned this year? What do we know for sure? For one thing, we have learned to practice what we preach and that if an opportunity presents itself, you should always take it. Wrong or right, there is always something to be gained by taking a chance. As we write this letter, we know for sure this is where we are meant to be for now. We miss our family and our friends and we can't wait to see you all wherever we meet. We can't wait for the next year to get going to see where we end up in another year from now! We have caught the bug! The travel bug! It is so much fun to explore new places and to have all your new surroundings be an adventure and we still have so much more to see!! Will we do it all over again? You bet!! Where do we sign up?!! For now, our home is here and we are happy.
We will be spending Christmas here as Neil has to work over the holidays and so we will certainly be missing the sights, sounds and smells of past holidays spent with family and friends, missing you all terribly and wishing to see you soon! :)
Our wish for you this Christmas is to take nothing for granted! May 2011 be full of your own adventures and may you see all your hopes and dreams come true.
Merry Christmas and a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year to you all!
Lots of love from the Prairies,
Neil and Veronica
Of course, we couldn't leave our Christmas letter to you without a few pictures of Killer as a few people have been wondering what he is up to these days!
So here he is claiming all the gifts under the tree and because we weren't paying attention to him...
...he then decided to claim one of the tree ornaments for himself.
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