We are there two days from Christmas practically and with each passing year, we are adding some traditions to our end of the year, more specifically related to Christmas. For six years we really cared about this, before the kids, the Christmas tree was the most we cared about, besides, of course, the exchange of gifts. This year, however, I notice that our traditions have been taking security and I see that they have come to stay. Some have been with us forever and others we adopt here in Canada. Here's the list of things that are our Christmas traditions this year: CHRISTMAS TREE It was their job to put…

Alice enjoying the colors of autumn – love these colorful chrysanthemums On September 22we welcomed the autumn and unlike many people, who hate to see the summer say goodbye for 9 months, I love the most colorful season of the year here. It is that short time of being able to wear clothes and coats more beautiful, boots that never come out of the closet, because they can not be worn in the snow and are very hot for spring and summer. What's more, the cold so, brings cozy nights, perfect for a fondue with the fireplace on and a wine to accompany… Hehe But the colorful leaves are really…

10 years of our arrival! Behold, we have reached a milestone in our immigrant career, a decade of new country, a fresh start and readaptation. With 10 years in Canada, we no longer feel "newcomers" obviously we feel safe and adapted. In fact, it's not a decade, it's been a few years since we felt that way. We get used to the rules, the customs and the way people are around here. Of course, being a country with a large number of immigrants and many things here are different from those we learned in our 25 years in Brazil, learning never ceases entirely. There's always something new to learn, some…

Ottawa, the Canadian capital and also the city we call home around here. From our early days here, when people discover that we are immigrants and more precisely, from which country we come from, we have always been asked how we adapted or what we thought of Canada's climate. And of course, many people who come to Ottawa for tourism, ask us the best times, how are the days, the level of cold or heat etc. Anyway, climate is a popular subject. The weather comments this year here in Ottawa are being that we haven't even had summer. Everybody says that. The fact is that yes, we had summer, but…

In our first year of permanent residents in Canada. I was here evaluating our 10 years in Canada coming up, how much has happened and how much we've learned. The certainty that we did the right thing comes to us every day, but of course, back in the early days everything was very uncertain, it was even like a game, we were betting all our chips without knowing if we would give our number. I get countless questions from people, usually families, who have the desire to come here, who get lost in the bureaucracies of the immigration process (or study or work), but above all, wonder if it's worth…

At Ottawa airport, the day we arrived as permanent residents in Canada. Just like art in other fields, the art of immigrating is yes, in a way, complex and not for everyone. Today, after basically 9 1/2 years of the moment we became immigrants, I remembered those first days and months when we arrived with so many things to learn and so many uncertainties. We are with renovation here at home currently and after almost 30 days without stove and 2 weeks camped on the basement floor of the house where the laundry is doing cooking times, we are slowly returning to our normal rhythm. The kitchen here is not…