There's No Place Like Home, Auntie Em!

Running full tilt to my dad's truck, lugging heavy suitcases filled with gifts and winter clothes, trying not to fall on the ice, skin shriveling up against the frigid exposure of the Manitoba air.  This was Jeremy and I on December 23rd when we arrived home for the holidays.

Not having the need for winter parkas in Florida, we've asked my parents to store them for us and my dad was so kind as to bring them along for us when he picked us up from the airport.  We just had to get from the airport doors to the truck first before we could put them on!  That was fun.  Nothing like a brisk reminder of home as it stings your face and freezes your fingertips.  It lets you know you're alive!

Our time back home at Christmas was excellent!  It all started with my birthday, the day we arrived.

Quick recap of the day before, my last day of work before the holidays, my office buddies surprised me with a birthday cake and a lovely card, I was thrilled!  We've mentioned it before, but I really can't express enough how welcome and loved our colleagues have made us newbie-Floridians feel.  They truly are special.

And then my thoughtful husband surprised me with a gorgeous birthday gift that night.  It was one of those little gifts in a velvet covered box.  I don't normally get things like this, because I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a jewelry person.  I like it, but I don't buy it for myself, I don't ask for it, it's never a priority or something of supreme importance to me.  I'd rather buy a chair or a kitchen mixer or get my car fixed.  But being surprised with something so lovely, I was speechless!  

And surprise #3 for my birthday - Vereneke!!!!  My mom made one of my favorites!  AGAIN!  There are few things in this world that can get me bouncing off the walls like the prospect of eating cottage cheese filled dough pockets covered in cream fat.  Sounds utterly disgusting, but it's one of the greatest artery clogging foods in the world.  And the other lovely perogies in this picture were filled with sauerkraut and covered in fried onions and bacon.  My 2nd most favorite heart stopping food.  Top it off with a little farmers sausage, and we're golden.  There would be absolutely NO bouncing off the walls about half an hour after these were ingested, though.

Even though we were 'visitors' this Christmas, we still travelled the usual distances we are used to every year at this time.  Christmas Eve was spent at my Grandma and Grandpa Friesen's in Altona where we closed the evening with a $10 grab box gift exchange.  We always have lots of fun with this as there is the usual gift stealing and trading and friendly banter.  This year, seeing as we were bringing our gifts from 'merica, we thought we'd do something uniquely 'merican.

My aunt Jodi landed Jeremy's gift, which was full of chocolate bars one can only find in the US, along with some Gingerbread peeps and some straws filled with chocolate balls that you use to sip milk.  See, it helps kids get the nutrients and calcium in a glass of milk, while luring them to it with the promise of sugar.  When I was a kid, I just drank my glass of milk because I was told to.   There was no bribery involved.  Ah, 'merica.

My gift was chosen by my brother Jason.  He hit the jackpot.  A box of Dulce de Lecce Cheerios, a bag of ice cream cone shaped (and flavored) marshmallows, a bag of peppermint shaped (and flavored) marshmallows and a box of Cheez Its crackers shaped like Scrabble pieces (educational processed fun for the whole family!)

Christmas Day was split between two households... breakfast at my parents in Altona, followed by dinner and a sleepover at Justin and Tannis' with Jeremy's parents from Brandon and our nieces, Piper and Raelle.  We spent a good portion of the holiday playing Bop-It with Piper, which is a super addicting game.  Unfortunately, our other niece Sophia had come down with a nasty cold and flu and could not travel to Winnipeg from Brandon, so we made the decision to drive up for the night on Boxing Day so see the little munchkin and Danielle and Trevor.  We made the drive after a Christmas lunch with my Mom's side of the family in Winnipeg, at my Oma and Opa's house, and after saying farewell my brother and sister in law as Jason and Jessica were flying back to Toronto that afternoon.

*On a side note - say what you will about travelling over Christmas and trying to fit in all of your family gatherings and make time for yourself and your immediate family at the same time... but I'd like to express how extremely thankful I am to still be able to follow through with family traditions on both sides of my family as I am fortunate enough to be 31 years old and have both sets of my grandparents to continue to share Christmas memories with.  This is not the case for a lot of people I know, and I understand how lucky I am.  Here's to many more years of family traditions at Christmas time!

Smart-alec

Our time in Brandon was short and sweet and I'm very happy we were able to see Sophie!  We Skype with her from time to time from Miami and we were so looking forward to seeing all of our nieces when we were home, and giving them all big hugs.  We did, and by the time we got up there, Sophie was feeling much better... as you can see here when she got a hold of my glasses.

Being home for the holidays also meant we had to make the rounds!  See a bunch of friends we haven't seen for a while, get some quality visiting and catch-up time in.  This included two trips to Steinbach to see friends we miss so dearly... and we spent New Year's in Steinbach, too!  It's almost become a tradition, to ring in the new year with the Plett family.  Last year, we joined my best friend Melissa and her family at the Brass Lantern and had an evening of dancing and beer spilling hilarity.  This year, as BL has since shut down, we had to take the party to the Frantz, where I'm positive we were the oldest people there. (highlighted by the moment we bumped into Melissa's underage nephew...awkward!)

We had a great time once again... and I was super grateful for Melissa and Keven to drive out to Altona to meet up with Jer and I for some extra visiting time.  Being a visitor, we now know what it feels like to rely on people to come to you, or borrow a vehicle to get around in.  My grandparents kindly made one of their vehicles available to us, so I was thankful for that, although extremely nervous driving it!  With M&K, we went to Boston Pizza and made the fatal mistake of veering from their pizza menu.   There's a reason they don't call it Boston Steak.  But the visit was awesome, as always.  This photo here can properly illustrate just how much I've missed my best friend while we've been away in Florida.  Why won't someone develop a transporter already?  Gene Roddenberry foresaw this essential technology 40 years ago, surely today's brainiacs can figure this out.  Get on it, you scientists!

Mom and I, bundled up in our Jets toques!

Dad was a good sport and joined me on this occasion!

I loved being in the true winter for the holidays.  Up until that point, the week of Christmas had been the coldest of the season.  But that didn't stop me from producing a snow angel or two.  Or going for a walk by the Buffalo Park toboggan hill.










It also didn't stop me from taking part in one of the world's greatest sports and perfected by Manitobans. (arguably)  Curling.

We won!

Dad's team needed a substitute and they accepted my application.  It was tonnes of fun!  And I didn't hog any rocks.  (At least, I can't remember if I did... I was trying to keep up with my teammates, beer for beer...)  But WOW was I sore in the days to follow.  Curling is one of those sports that if you play for the first time, or play after a long absence, you FEEL IT in every inch of your body.  What a great workout.  Tell me this, what other form of exercise can you do while drinking a beer, huh?  Exactly.  Curling, one of the greatest.

Our trip wouldn't be complete without a stop at the Winnipeg Jets store to stock up on some new fan gear.  At this point, the NHL lockout was nowhere near completion, but we wanted to represent anyway.

And now, as I write this, the Jets are 2 games into this shortened season, our game gear is strewn about the house and we are eagerly awaiting the Jet's THREE visits to South Florida to take on the Panthers in the next 2 months.  Starting with next week Thursday night!  We've already gotten a pretty decent sized contingent of Spanish speaking Miami-ites to join us as we aim to create a cheering section dedicated to our Jets!  Stay tuned to that blog post late next week!

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We are back in the warmth of the Florida climate, which we now call home and are happy to be here.  Our skin has recovered in the humidity, we've put our winter sweaters back in storage and our pups are happy we are home so we can take them to the park.

To all of you who are suffering through the freezing spell with the -40 temps and frostbitten toes and finger tips... we feel for you, honestly we do.  My suggestion would be to hop on a plane and join us here under the palm trees, get outta that cold!  You are always welcome!

Feliz Navidad! (Better Late Than Never...)

Merry Christmas everyone!

(crickets....silence.... awkward cough....)

Um... so it's been awhile since we've posted an update.  Boy oh boy, do we feel bad about that.

Actually, our New Year's resolution was to stop blogging.  So, really, we were just trying to follow through with it, don't hate.

Kidding!  And in all seriousness, we are very sorry for the neglect, friends!  My justification can only be that January has been THE busiest month at beIN to date and Jeremy has also started to work.  So, a lot of our time has been dedicated to that.  Excuses aside, we promise to be more diligent in our posting and won't let a MONTH absence happen again.  (We hope!)

Now it's time to catch up on all the things we'd love to share from the past month of blog-silence.

The funny thing is, we had a blog post all ready to go for Christmas, and never posted it.  So let's start there.  Below you will find a Merry Christmas entry written by Jeremy... some of the references are a little dated, but just transport yourself to the excitement of December 23 and the anticipation of Santa, presents and the future food babies in your tummies.

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This blog update comes from roughly 35,000 ft above the outskirts of Eastern Ontario as
we make our way home for the holidays. It is also Terri's 31st birthday today (23rd) so if
you didn't wish her a happy birthday, I've now given you an excuse you can use: 'I called
you but you were in the air so...'

Travelling back to Canada is something we've been looking forward to since the fall.
We are steadily falling in love with Miami - but Canada is home and that feeling of
comfort we get when we see Canadian things - yes, even CBSA Officers - just warms us
inside.  I have been looking forward to hearing 'Welcome Home' from them for months
(a GREAT touch whomever thought of that by the way!) - and even though we had to
hear it in Montreal, we heard it nonetheless (our US flight ended in Mtl and we caught a
connector to Wpg).

Prior to departing however, we had this little business of getting our Xmas tree up and
decorated.  See, I was of the mind that it would only be up for a few weeks and then we'd
be gone - and come back home in January where we have to take it down again. That
argument didn't wash and one Tuesday morning a few weeks ago, out came the tree
and the decorations. A few hours of getting everything together and onto the tree was
time well spent as even Grinchy-Me admitted it was nice to have the tree up.  I even
went so far as to put together a platter of stacked & different sized Xmas balls that
were leftover to use as a coffee table decoration. Ya, the Xmas spirit didn't take long to
overtake me.

Jonny almost immediately called 'dibs'

We are not exactly avid Bombers fans, but something that reminds us of home!

Another thing that reminds of home... :)

This Mother/Daughter ornament is from 2002 - a decade of of being on Terri's tree!

Timmie Ho's

Been on my tree all my life

"Give me the whip!"

Jerry Rice

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As we may have mentioned before (or not - we're at 35k feet and cannot check past
blogs), our neighborhood is ri-donk for decorations.

Seriously.

Since 'Black Friday' in November (and even slightly before in some areas), the lights
and blow-up lawn decorations have been out in full force. Some of the folks around us
truly go all out and we decided to take a drive 'round the 'hood one evening and snap
some photos for you! And that's essentially it for this blog entry! Oh, one last thing....No
matter what your faith, we hope you all enjoy a safe and happy holiday season with your
significant others and your families. We also hope to see most of you in the coming
weeks during our time at home.

Enjoy the photos. Merry Christmas!

Tough to see, but this is an inflatable crocodile with a Santa hat

Large Santa at night...

... the morning after.  Santa should pace himself...

Snoopy on his hawg

Massive Santa

Vacation Santa, fishing off the back of his boat.

Xmas inflatables are not limited to lawn placement...

What we are missing here is a picture of one blow-up that was Santa in a bathtub, scrubbing his back with a loofa.  It was down the street, but we failed to capture the moment.  There's always next year!