Christmas in Canada!

We've been in Canada for nearly 2 months, which is very hard to believe. And we officially celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas north of the border. We were blessed to have both of our families visit us already here, so we've had the opportunity to start seeing some sights!

For Thanksgiving, Jeff's parents came to visit us. We hadn't moved into our house yet, so unfortunately, they weren't able to see our new home, but we did get to see a bunch of fun places while they were here. We headed up to Banff for the first time while they were here. Banff is simply AMAZING. It should be on your "must see" list!

We headed up to Lake Louise, which in the summer is a crystal blue lake surrounded by beautiful in the mountains. In the winter though, it's a frozen, snow covered lake surrounded by mountains. Still a pretty scene no matter what!

Just one of hundreds of beautiful views here!

We were so thankful to have Jeff's parents be here for Thanksgiving! Since it wasn't an actual holiday here, (Canadian Thanksgiving is in October) it was a bit strange, but we still cooked up some turkey and fixings and had a traditional dinner! We did some shopping, saw the Calgary tower and just enjoyed spending time together.

Towards the end of December, it was my family's turn to head up north. We headed to Banff again for some skiing. While there, we celebrated Jeffro's 26th birthday. Here he is with the cookie cake I baked for him!

Then we headed to Sunshine Village for some skiing. Wonderful skiing and beautiful views.

Here's John!

Overlooking the town of Banff right before sunset. Just to the left of the picture, there were two mountain goats hanging out and eating a little dinner as we stood there.

My family checking out the views.

Once we got back to Calgary, we checked out a few more sights and celebrated Christmas by heading to Christmas Eve service, opening presents and having a little Christmas dinner. My family headed back on Christmas day, so it was very sad, but we had the opportunity to celebrate with some friends here that evening with dinner and games, so it still made for a fun day!

People keep telling us that this has been the mildest Calgary winter they've seen in years, so I have a feeling that we may be in for a shock when the real winter weather hits in January and February. I just received some brand new ski boots from Jeff though, so bring on the snow! 

From Canadia,

Emily and Jeff