The last months in Holland were very hectic and we didn’t want a party, but our friend Els arranged a surprise party anyway on the night before last. We truly had NO clue until we walked through the door and it was amazing!! The next (very last) day we still had a lot of people stop by for coffee, pie and goodbyes on our own walk-in, in an almost empty and unheated house. To Els and everyone who came by: THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts!!!

A shuttle bus came to get us on 4am Monday morning, and all our neighbours were outside in their pyjamas, they lit sparklers and waved while we left the street. That was incredible guys, we miss you!!! After a looong day of traveling we arrived in Regina at 2am and luckily Tim was still there to pick us up:) Welcome to Canada!

The first months we stayed at Tim and Cortney’s basement (eternal thanks guys!!), adopted Cortney’s old cat Spooky and after a month we both started working. Nico of course had his job at the General Hospital as a Registered Nurse, and through Cortney I found a nice office job as an administrator at Canada Life.

After 4 months we were able to get a mortgage and buy our own cosy little bungalow, so then we could really settle down and unpack all our stuff! We still live pretty close to Tim and Cortney and just a few blocks away from the Stephenson’s. Summer was great (lots of BBQ-ing and enjoying our deck) and after we visited the Rockies in September it was time to expand our family: we adopted 3 more sweet and gorgeous cats from the Humane Society (Rider, who had a broken leg and needed surgery, Tess and her brother Gandalf who we found 2 weeks later by coincidence (or fate?)!

Now winter is here and we’re loving it! Yes -30 with a windchill of -45 is a bit chilly;)) But the dry freezing air is so crisp and refreshing and the scenery is gorgeous – just bundle up, then it beats gloomy rainy days (and wet cold in the plus) any time! We’re looking forward to Christmas, as Nico’s off on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and we’ve been invited for suppers on 3 days:)

I’m a little behind on putting pics online, but I hope I can catch up on my few days off after Christmas. If you haven’t visited our website and gallery (www.wobben.org) in a while, there are a lot of pics online from all the stuff we’ve been doing here on the prairie. And our card shows us and the cats in -30 in front of our house;) I also hope to find more time in the next year to email more and stay in touch more! It’s just been a busy year – but it was OUR year!:)