People & Places
Hobden's Canadian blog January 2008
Darren Hobden's been gardening, Mette's been selling houses, and Daniel and Anja have been limbering up...
December started with a good amount of the White Stuff. We ended up with around 18 inches - which made the dog's usual scampering about a little bit more difficult - and everywhere looked as pretty as a Christmas card. We enjoy the snow, so for us it was a pleasure.
After having a chance to enjoy it for a couple of days we had a major thaw and rainstorm. We went from 18 inches of snow to no snow in a day and a half. Speaking to people who have lived here for many years, nobody could believe how quick all that snow went. They had never known it happen so quickly before. Of course, with the large amount of rain that coincided with the thaw, there was some flooding that came with it. We also had power out for a day but we are used to them now and actually quite enjoy the family time that goes with them. No telly or computers just cards, games and good old family time by candlelight!
My parents spent about half of the month here. It was good to see them again and catch up. We had a Christmas get together in mid-December with some of our friends and a good social occasion was had by all.
Daniel's basketball has taken over his soccer now. Unfortunately, the basketball season overlaps the soccer and his preference is basketball, so the soccer takes a bit of a back seat. He still attends the training sessions but can't play in many games from now until March.
Anja is still busy practicing for three dance shows, the first of which is in February.
For Christmas itself my sister and her family came over and it was the first time that all of us were together as a family for Christmas. We are quite spoiled for Christmas because Mette is Danish and they celebrate Christmas on the evening of the 24th. So every year we have a big Danish Christmas dinner on the 24th followed by our traditional Christmas meal on the 25th. By Boxing Day we can hardly move!
On Christmas Eve were given an amazing show by Mother Nature when a Lunar Halo appeared over our house. We had never seen one before but it truly was an amazing sight.
New Years Eve was another big celebration and we had 22 people around for a meal and party. Our (again Danish) tradition is to wear funny hats all night and there was lots of eating, drinking, dancing and fun.
No more snow as yet, more rain and some sharp frosts but the snow is holding off for the time being. Us big kids will just have to wait a little longer for the next play in the snow.
Tip of The Month: Research is a very important part of emigrating. If possible try to take a fact-finding trip. If this is not possible surf the internet and find and bookmark websites and obtain information this way. If you are able to have contact with someone who has already gone through the experience, make the most of learning from them what they did right or wrong. We had a family who we made contact with through the Emigrate Canada newspaper and they gave us lots of advice and information while we were going through our own emigration. Now we live here we are friends and meet up on regular occasions. Having contacts is a great way to learn about a new country and is very useful when trying to find out information that may be in Canada. We also read the Emigrate Canada newspaper and attended the Emigrate Shows and always found them useful, through both the exhibitors and the other potential emigrants we met. Research, websites, contacts – they are all key element of the emigration process.
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