I love spring. The melting of snow. The warmth of the sun. The awakening of plants and trees from their dormancy. The grass turning green. The newness of life.

The thing is, we’re still waiting for those things here in the Great White North! I shouldn’t be surprised. The last week or so brought some snow. And winds. Together. I’m not sure how much snow we got, but enough for our car to get stuck in it. Twice. In two days. That is a first for us, after 2 winters here in Canada. And, I had to trudge through a foot or more of snow in our back yard to take this picture:

The plants are getting ready to look alive! I took this one from our front window on the first day of snow because it was too cold and crazy to go outside:

You may not be able to tell from the picture, but over a foot of snow built up on our railing. Funny, yes?

Spring will come. Or at least summer will come. In the meantime, we’re just trying to enjoy the pretty white stuff a little longer. And, we’ll be traveling around TX this spring, so I’ll get to wear my flip-flops soon enough!

As the previous post says, my parents are here visiting. My dad was really wishing for snow while he was here, and did he ever get his wish! He’s even been excited to shovel our sidewalks. We’ve had a good bit of snow the last couple of days, and as I type, it is about -16°C (3°F). Brrrrrrr!

Needless to say, we’ve been drinking lots of hot chocolate, tea, and coffee!

Today is winter solstice - the longest day of the year…as in the shortest amount of daylight and the longest amount of, well, night light. For us in the great white north, that means that the sunrise was at 8:43 this morning, and sunset will be at approximately 4:30 pm. No wonder I feel so tired at night! By the time 8 pm rolls around, it feels more like 10 or 11 pm to me! I love the long summer days here, but I feel like I’ll never get used to such short days in the winter! Oh well - for now I have more time in the evenings to enjoy the Christmas tree lights!

I got back on Saturday night, and look what we woke up to on Sunday morning:

Brrrrrr! Most of that has melted away, but I hear there’s more to come this week. Hello, Winter!

I have learned a lot about Canada and more specifically Alberta since we’ve lived here over the last year. To name a few:

1) Albertans love their beef. They are proud of it. And they are proud of loving it. And it is good beef. Unless you’re vegetarian.

2) Alberta really is similar to Texas in many ways. Except the cold. And the mountains. And the way they say: about, sorry, bag, again, been…the list goes on and on! We’ve had MANY conversations (and laughs) about things we say and how Canadians say it differently. But really, it was much more of an adjustment for me to move to a small town than to move to another country because Alberta reminds me of Texas. But not in the winter. Did I already mention that?

3) Canola is a big cash crop here in Canada and especially Alberta. Canola, a combination of the words “Canada Oil” or “Canada Oil Low Acid,” is the world’s only “Made in Canada” crop and it is often the nation’s most valuable one, with annual exports of canola seed, oil and meal that are valued at over three billion dollars. (See http://www.canola-council.org/portal.html).

Canola is one of the “prettiest” crops, and is a definite highlight of summer in Alberta. Just look at it:

This is a common site while driving around here. We’ll miss the bright yellow fields soon as the harvest is coming…quickly!

Now you can sound really smart next time you buy canola oil or see it at the grocery store!

Mr. Snow Man!

It’s nice to meet you, my cold friend. But, quite honestly, I would rather have met you in December - on Christmas Day, perhaps. Or maybe even in January or February. I’ll even give you early March. But not at the end of April! What in the name of Old Man Winter is going on here? So, really. Please come back when you can stick around here a little longer. Because SPRING is coming soon. I just know it. I think. I mean possibly. Maybe. You never can tell around here!

Many people here are surprised to learn that we are from Texas because we don’t have typical southern drawls, we don’t carry guns, and we don’t say “ain’t” and “ya’ll.” They say that Alberta is the Texas of Canada. True, there are many similarities. But “the snow” is not one of them. Please understand that “the weather” in Canada is a big deal. It is talked about almost as if it is another member of the family. People think about it before they even get their morning coffee.

Snow in Texas is a big deal. Everyone knows that you should get out and enjoy it or you just might miss it. Neighbors you might rarely see otherwise get out and frolic and play in it as though their inner child has not been let out in a long time. You see snowmen all over town, (even though there’s typically only enough snow to make a “snow-child” or “snow-youth).” Here’s a masterpiece that Joe and I created a couple of years ago at our house in Lubbock:

Not bad? Well here’s the poor fellow just 2 days later:

Snow is just a fact of life in Canada, even though Alberta does not get nearly as much snow as other provinces. We have yet to see a snowman. You just accept that it’s really cold and then go about your day as normally as possible while still hoping that it will stop snowing so that you won’t have to shovel the driveway… again.

Because people here know we are from the south, we often get asked, “How are you handling winter?” Well, we are handling it just fine. At least Joe gets some exercise while shoveling the snow, and Evan loves to play in it, walk on it, and eat it (even if it’s from someone’s shoe in the front entryway):

“Shoveling the drive” is a foreign concept in Texas. For those of you that don’t know what it’s like, take a look:

And here’s a birdhouse that looks more like a bird-igloo:

Pictures don’t do justice to how tall the snow piles actually are. And they keep getting bigger! Here’s a picture from October for comparison:

Our first winter in Canada has been quite an experience, and we can absolutely say that we are still happy to be here…even though we are really looking forward to our first summer, too.

Okay, so Christmas is already over (sigh), but we do wish you a Happy New Year! As most of you know, we celebrated this Christmas in Canada. We tried to start some of our own traditions this year. One of those included waking Evan up at 8:45 am. I don’t mind if he continues that tradition for a very long time. I also made monkey bread, and I think that will be our Christmas breakfast for many years to come. (I don’t know why they call it “monkey” bread, and I don’t think I want to know, but I do know we enjoyed it!) We also had a wonderful time reading the Christmas story of the Bible and singing some of our favorite hymns and songs as Joe played the guitar. Evan was especially fun to watch this year since he is now old enough to open his gifts with only a little help. Evan enjoyed his gifts…even before he opened them!

We certainly missed our friends and family back home, but we also felt blessed to share such a special day with our friends in Canada. We enjoyed Christmas afternoon at a friends’ home (with 24 other people, I might add) eating delicious food, some of which was new to us. We also had fun playing games, laughing, and well, eating some more. Even after all of the eating, there were still leftovers! We had a very Merry Christmas, and we pray you did, too.

Blessings to you in 2007!

The Thomases

One of Evan’s favorite gifts was his new alphabet magnets. He only wants to put them up as high as he can reach on the refrigerator and when he takes them off, he takes two of the same letter!