So what happened on the other side of the ocean the last month: my mom came over for a 2 week visit. We had a great time! And did of course a lot of shopping. Her first words at the airport were "Den Delhaize is hier" She brought tons of goodies like chocolate, beer for olli, candy for me, horse stuff for Elmo, ... She even brought "Sinterklaas" with her from Belgium.
Mom is already blending in with our Canadian friends. She went shopping with Bonnie (Nicole's mom) and they went for dinner with the family while we were at Olli's Christmas party. We are already looking forward to her next visit! (olli already ran out of "Verboden Vrucht"). And thanks again for all the gifts!
Last time I talked about our first dressage show. Unfortunately the show was cancelled... Not enough participants... Dressage is not very popular over here. But hopefully we will have our first real show in March. Date TBA soon.
We have heard that it snowed a lot in Belgium! Not a lot of snow here in Cochrane. And temperatures are not too bad either. Normally around -8, -15. On sunday we even reached 4 degrees! It felt like summer!!
We celebrated Christmas evening at home. Olli made a wonderful diner for me. Bell pepper soup to start, maple salmon with carrot mashed potatoes and carrot-mango salad and strawberries with chocolate to top it off! It was amazing! I have a secret master cook in the house ;)
On Christmas day we were invited to Bonnie's house. She made us a wonderful meal again! It is always so much fun to hang out with the Brooks family!
In Canada it's a tradition you give cookies to your friends around Christmas time. Monty (the lady where Elmo is boarded) made us a huge plate with homemade goodies. So to return the favour we made her something real Belgian: vlaai and broodpudding. The first time we made it and it turned out delicious!!!
My mom enjoying a giant plate of Canadian King Crab. 
An image we really wanted to share with you. Perfect snowflakes!
Our first batch of 'Broodpudding" and 'Vlaai'. Speculoos and Peperkoek donations are always welcome. 