Karen and I were incredibly fortunate to be successful in getting a house sit in the City of Chestermere, just outside of Calgary, Alberta. This is especially significant for us as we are from Calgary and had not been back in four years. For people familiar with Calgary, the first question to us was “Calgary, in winter, why???” Fair question. But the chance to catch up with ours sons, mothers, family, and friends was long overdue. This was our first family Christmas in seven years.
The view toward the Rocky Mountains as we drive into Calgary. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I choked up a bit the first couple of times I was reacquainted with this view.
After spending the last seven years as far away from snow and cold as possible it has been a wonderful challenge reacquainting ourselves with an Alberta winter. But once again our luck has held. The month of December was perfect.
December was the perfect winter month. Reasonable temperatures, plenty of snow and blue skies. I took this shot from the end of our street Christmas morning. It was perfect.The City of Chestermere, where we are currently house sitting, hosted the Western Canadian Pond Hockey Championships. The weather was perfect for spectating and honestly, it doesn’t get much more Canadian than watching a bunch of teams playing hockey on a frozen lake while you drink hot chocolate and cheer them on.
We have tried to be tourists in our own backyard while we have been back. Part of that was spending a day enjoying the historical attraction of Heritage Park.
The park has a Twelve Days of Christmas event every year. With the perfect weather around Christmas it was a great opportunity to take in the sights and sounds of the park.They even had the blacksmith shop fired up and creating Christmas gifts with traditional techniques.
As I mentioned earlier, the Rocky Mountains are something that are close to my heart. Once the New Year came we did a trip out to Banff and Lake Louise to soak in the grandeur. The weather wasn’t perfect, but hey, it is winter in the mountains.
The weather wasn’t perfect for our trip to the mountains, but they were spectacular none the less. It was fun watching the people skating on Lake Louise.The yearly Ice Sculpture Competition was on at Lake Louise. The lighting made photographing the ice quite difficult, however the quality and detail in the work was phenomenal.The light was flat, but the views were still amazing around the lake.We also stopped into Banff and checked out the snow carvings on the streets. Incredible what these artists can do.
One of the best aspects of being back is spending time with family and friends. Though we enjoy great support from everyone for our nomadic lifestyle, it is still difficult to be away at times. Visiting and reconnecting has been the best part of being back.
I was able to take part in the City of Chestermere’s first ever Santa Fun Run. The event was a total success because I was able to run it with our youngest son Steven. We hardly noticed the -13C temperature.
January certainly brought with it a serious reminder of what winter in Alberta can be like. Going from a nearly perfect month of December we were plunged into a cold snap with daily HIGHS of -28C.
It wasn’t so much the brutal cold as it was realizing one year ago we were trying to survive weather extremes at the other end of the scale.There is something amazing about the beauty of winter. We all complain about the cold at one time or another, but for us, thus far, it has been a wonderful return home.
