Reflections

The last couple of months has been quite busy and full of surprises and changes. On December 7 after battling cancer for 2 years my mom passed away peacefully at home. Towards the end she was in a lot of pain and just not feeling well, so I am glad that she is now out of pain and able to reunite with loved ones that she has and has not met. Due to her death we as a family were able to return home to Canada for Christmas. Her funeral was held on the 13th of December and was very nice. So we flew home on the 11th and were able to spend time with family. All of us were home for it and it has been a few years since we have all been together. I guess mom wanted all home together around Christmas time. After the funeral as fmaily member headed back to their homes we made a quick trip to Utah to visit with Rick's family. We surprised them as we didn't tell them we were coming and they all thought that we were still in Canada with my family. We were in Utah for a week and it went by fast. I wished that we could ahve visited with everyone of our friends there but the time was too short. We headed back to Canada on the 22 of December and arrived in Lethbridge to see the live nativity that the Lethbridge East Stake puts on every year. this year the peopl involved in it were from Stirling 2nd Ward which is my Dad and sister's ward. My nephew Zach was a shepherd on Saturday so we went to see him be shepherd like. There was a super strong wind blowing and it was a bit chilly, but we still sat and watched for the 15 min presentation. After that we drove around Lethbridge for a bit and looked at Christmas lights. Christmas was good with 2 of my brothers still at home. We headed back to the Netherlands on the 26th. We arrived in Frankfurt Germany on the 27th and came home and crashed due to the jetlag. We basically slept the next 2 days and around 3 am on the 30th we drove to SHAPE near Mons, Belgium (close to the French border) to go on a bus trip to London for New Years. London is a very beautiful city but is super expensive if you are visiting and not paid in Pounds. I definitely want to go back and visit and hope to do so this fall with my dad and brother when they come to visit. We got back late on the 1st (early 2nd) and recuperated a bit from our travels the next few days. On the 6th I dropped Rick off at work so that he could fly to Italy for a week of classes to help him with his job. On the 7th Alex and Shania started back to school after being out for almost a month with mom's passing and the holidays. So now I have updated you from the past month or so. My goal for this new yeart is to write at least once a month if not more on this blog to keep you all updated on our little world over here in Europe. I hope that everyone has a healthy and happy 2008. May God bless you all this year. Until the next time I write. Cheers