Celebrating our birthday – on Christmas Day I start the year wishing you much health, prosperity and love for everyone! What a rush that was that last month of 2016 huh! For us it seems that so much has happened, all together mixed together. My message for the new year that we be more focused on our own goals and our achievements, whether they are large or small. Let us celebrate who we are and what we have today, not just past things or the plans of the future. And also, that we stop comparing our lives and choices with those of others, things that are not always easy with…

Amazing how the notion of time passing has two sides: sometimes we can not understand how we are already in the middle of November, just over a month of the holidays and at the same time, wow, how much to remember in these 11 and a half months of 2016. I have nostalgic days, or well saying, I'm always with that feeling that these two young ladies here at home have been growing up, talking, inventing jokes and interacting super well, but too fast. I'm sure whoever's a parent will agree with me. It is sweet and bitter, this conviction that our children grow, thus, in the blink of an…

Jack-o-Lantern 2016 This year, October came arriving quietly, soft, but with the usual beautiful color. Only suddenly, the cold came to stay, gave even snow (which has already melted) and finally came one of the most anticipated days of the year for children, Halloween (see 2015 here). Over the years, we've been getting more and more excited about this commemorative date here, but more in the sense of being an opportunity to wear costumes and be, for a few hours, something different from who we are in everyday life and the best, to see the children so excited and willing tas to go out on the street knocking door to…

Yesterday, kind of unexpectedly, because as far as I know, the weather forecast only said flurries, but it ended up snowing a lot considering that we are still in October. The result was about 5cm of snow and a winter setting in the middle of Canadian autumn. Rarely snows in October in Ottawa and we hope it is not a sign of a longer or snowy winter (in fact, there are rumors that it will be…). The temperature already promises to rise tomorrow and all accumulated snow must have melted by Sunday, but we have already given a preview of what awaits us in the next 5 months … monochrome…

And that time of year has come once again where we put mentally in the balance the fact that we live in a country so far from the one where we were born. This year, we turned 9 years old in Canadian lands, 9 years in the Ottawa/Gatineau region, 9 years of many learnings, mistakes and successes, but above all, the certainty that we made the right decision back there, when we decided for adventures that would undoubtedly change our lives. I thought it would be a good idea to talk about things, after these years here, we would have done differently or still want to do if we imitated…

At the beginning of June this year came out the ranking of the best cities in Canada and guess who took the very first place in 2016? Ottawa! (special thanks to Gaby in Canada who warned me!) We are very proud of our city, which occupied the second place of the best cities to live in 2015 and jumped to the top of the list in 2016. The silver medal went to BURLINGTON, Ontario and third place went to OAKVILLE, also in Ontario. See the list of the first 25 placed and the report that was source for this post here. The questions are diverse and there are several classifications within…