Getting reacquainted with home...

Getting reacquainted with our backyard winter wonderland
- the swamp

We had a pretty seamless journey home from Oz...
We flew out on December 17th in the evening and arrived in Auckland, New Zealand at 5 a.m. We had a 15 hour stop over so we checked into a hotel at the airport and slept for about 6 hours. We then headed into downtown Auckland for a little sight-seeing and some lunch and then headed back to the airport for our evening flight to Vancouver.

Tom back to clearing a ski trail

When we arrived in Vancouver, we were steered to the customs line for questioning and to have our baggage checked. They must have been skeptical of our $300 worth of goods claim after a year of being in Australia. The guy in front of us insisted that he wasn't smuggling in food in his suitcase only to have the customs officer unzip his rather large suitcase and try to explain why there was packages of rami noodles spilling out and onto the counter....hmmmm. Well, I guess they felt we were probably not toting similar cargo so they checked our passports again and let us go. Yippee! We made our way through the arrival doors and found uncle Steven among the waiting crowd.

Winter's beauty

skiing through the back swamp

We had a lovely visit with Steve and Theresa - spent 5 days with them. The kids stayed with their uncle and Theresa every night while Tom and I camped out at our friends, Jay and Sherry's place. We went to the aquarium, the science center, and even got up to mount Seymour to play in what we hadn't seen in a long time - snow. We managed to hook up with Jill, Mark and Ruthie and had a great visit with them - rode the Christmas train in Stanley Park and had dinner back at their place.
Before we knew it, we were back on a plane (our last plane ride for a while) to Toronto where we spent some time with Papa and Gramma G and Vana Ema, Peter, Vana Vana, Andy and Violetta. We discovered that Rein had a head full of lice eggs that we had brought back with us from Australia - I was devastated. I was so diligent with Silka because she was the one that kept bringing them home while we were there and didn't think of Rein. Then Rein also got really sick with a gastro bug at Tiiu and Peter's place. So, we left a bit of a wake of destruction. Thankfully, neither afflictions were passed on....

skiing on nearby Goldfish Lake

We had a fantastic visit with the Tippings, our exchange partners, at Tiiu and Peter's place. We only had a few hours, so we talked none stop about our experiences over a nice dinner that Tiiu and Peter put together for us.

A winter wonderland...

Buck Lake Sunset

picnic and ski with Shawn and Julia

The next morning, we packed up, had breakfast and headed for Buck Lake. As we got closer, the kids and I would excitedly yell out familiar landmarks and cheered the whole way in on our road to the house. When we arrived we spent some time walking through the place - it was nice to be home. Friends had left us a welcome basket full of food and wine. We also got a classic Canadian welcome...Tom and Silka were standing out our windows and looking out at the lake when Silka eyed a red squirrel on a branch of the white pine in front of our house. Just as she pointed it out, it took a leap towards another branch close by only to narrowly miss the talons of a large hawk that swooped down to snatch it from mid-air. It was thrilling!
There wasn't any snow but when we woke up the next day we were in a world of white - winter had arrived. We enjoyed some fantastic visits with our local friends, Kelly & Matt and their girls, Ruby and Neko, Julia and Shawn, Jay and Jana, and Rob and Cyndy and their girls, Ruby and Skye.
We hosted New Year's eve and enjoyed a lovely dinner with Kelly & Matt, Julia and Shawn, Jay and Jana, and Samara and Justin and then ended the night with our first sauna since being back.
Since those first days, we have been settling back into our Canadian lives - back to school, back to work and catching up with other friends and family when we can. Visits from winter have been in the form of freezing rain or rain more often than flakes of snow. We have made the best of it, though, skating, skiing and tobogganing when the opportunities arise. I have even gone out on the lake with the kids and flew kites and played soccer one day...