Snow Land

It was something anticipated for a long time. Something I have missed for many years now. The snow. The real white snow, fluffy, falling from the sky. The snow, the cold and the mysterious drape of richness the landscape wears on for a while. The snow that does not melt in 24 hours. The snow to play with.
I love winter. Hard to justify to people born and raised under the tropics, but I love it deeply, it is in my blood. And now after a long period of no-winter (for me the Beijing no-snow land is not really winter, despite its below zeros moments), I was happy to take everyone for a real Canadian one, during the holiday season.
So our landing in the white landscape was successful. For the entire duration of our stay, we had a daily dose of snow, and very mild (winter) weather (read: nothing below -8 degrees). It was wonderful.
The kids enjoyed the pleasures of winterland and there was many first times: sledging, skiing, skating, snow fights, snowman construction. Even ski-dooing for the big boy. The best snow for skiing ever. Grand-papa had as much fun as the kids.We watched a real hockey game, complete with a fight (oops!) and saw a distant cousin repeat her figure skating solo for her next provincial competition. We even did some bowling (a winter indoor sport, that is!). There were more snow days, days with cousins and distant cousins, food at one aunt or another. And lots of gifts. Santa knew about our trip, it was good we prevented him in our letter.
We enjoyed some winter sliding galore in Quebec City with the kids before heading in the street of the old city, where we celebrated the new year with old friends, under the snow, with the music of DJ Boy Georges. We stayed in the most interesting hotel of the region, the Hôtel-Musée of the First Nations, in Wendake (indian reserve). The New Year brunch there was exceptional.
Montreal's streets were covered in snow after the snowstorm of the century, and me pulling the kids around in a sled. The vibrancy of its streets. Visiting old friends after so many years. Good food. Oh did I say good food?! More outdoor fun. More fun with the cousins.
The only damper to all this was dressing/undressing of the kids in little winter mummies, in itself a Canadian mom national endurance sport.
Some pieces of evidence here: