Well, Christmas is almost here. We had some cold weather here in November - the windchill was down to -40 for a couple of days there. Snow came with that, but it's mostly gone now. We have this phenomenon that other people living in the 'lee' of the Rocky Mountains might be familiar with - here in Alberta it's called a 'Chinook'. It's a first nations word for 'snow-eater', a name that the original native people in this area gave to strong warm winds that blow off the mountains and seems to eat the snow. Seriously, in one night six inches of snow can just about disappear given the right circumstances. At any rate, in the winter we get about one of these 'Chinooks' a month. Kornelia doesn't like them. She's afraid they'll blow the house away. In fact, you can feel the house move a little sometimes when the wind gusts. Right now it looks like we might not have a white Christmas. Whatever happens, I'm sure we'll manage.
It's been a pretty busy fall - Kornelia and Erik did their swimming lessons and they both passed and enjoyed themselves immensely. We hope to register them again in the new year. Erik really enjoys his junior kindergarten and loves his teachers. He's been bringing lots of Christmasy crafts home lately and we just saw his class' Christmas concert today - Erik was dressed up as a shepherd. Kornelia is doing very well with her Spanish. She is very dilligent at working with Ewa on her homework every day after school and the effort shows. She has been singing in the school choir and they will perform for us on the day after tomorrow. Ewa has been enjoying volunteering with Erik's class and she made costumes for both Kornelia and Erik's school concerts. I finished up my part-time teaching at SAIT for the fall at the end of Oct. My full time contract is keeping me busy just right for now. They've given us the week between Christmas and New Year's off this year, so that'll be a nice break.
We'll be staying in Calgary this year for Christmas. My family will all be here and now that the kids are a little bigger, we're going to try and get an old family tradition going again - having a big fondue all together. It looks like we'll have some company after Christmas as well. Kelly Ruston and his wife Brandi will be down from Prince George for a night or so before they fly off to the Caribean. Also, Len and Sandy Loewen will be visiting my parents over New Years, so we hope to get together with them as well. If any of you are in the area, be sure to look us up!
And finally, a little news flash. We're moving! Not far, though. Just down the street pretty much. Here's a picture of our new house. There's been a bit of a lull in the real estate market here in Calgary, so we decided to take advantage of it and get a house really close to the schools that the children will be going to next year. We're really excited. We move at the end of January.
