What to expect
Calgary
Merry Christmas
After a great Christmas with my family and a fun (and very rainy) night out in Amsterdam, we were off to Canada for our second Christmas of the year.
Family time
With Blake’s new job he had to work during the day. So I got to spend some quality time with Blake’s family. And what better way is there than to spend it at an awesome breakfast spot: Cora.
Always blue skies
It was so great seeing Blake’s family again! After a delicious breakfast, I went home with Blake’s sister Erin and went for a long walk with her, her kids, her dad and their dog Frankie.
I had definitely missed the blue skies in Canada!
Friends get-together
In the evening Blake and I met up with a lot of his former school friends which was also a lot of fun. However, I could certainly feel the jetlag.
Belated Christmas dinner
Today we had a belated Christmas dinner with Blake’s family. Every year it is so kind of them to hold off and wait for us to arrive from Germany.
Blake’s mom’s food is always delicious and would easily feed two entire hockey teams (and their families).
I love the family’s tradition that before eating the food, they are going around and each person (even the kids) says what they are grateful for.
Breakfast with friends
In the morning we caught up with Blake’s friends Garret and Anna for breakfast who have recently had a baby.
Road trip to the mountains
And then Blake and I were off doing our favourite thing: road tripping to the mountains! We were going to spend three days in a mountain cabin in Canmore with Blake’s family.
Canmore
We had a great time with Blake’s family in the mountains where we spent some time:
- on a snow hike
- in the games room
- sledding down the hills with the kids
- in the local swimming pool
- and in the hot tub
We absolutely loved it!
Happy New Year!
For New Year’s Blake, his sister, her husband, their kids and I drove further to another hotel in Canmore where we caught up with another couple and their kids to celebrate New Year’s Eve together.
Back in 2021 the six of us and their kids had already celebrated New Years Eve together in Invermere where the “moms and dads” managed to stay up longer than Blake and I.
Hot tub celebrations
This year we all went to the hotel’s swimming pool and hot tub together before celebrating New Year’s together with a massive charcuterie board and lots of fun games. In the future I probably wouldn’t recommend going to the hot tub before trying to stay up longer as it made me really tired (on top of the jetlag). But Blake and I couldn’t let the parents outbeat us again on staying up longer, so somehow we made it to 3 a.m.. “We still got it” as Blake would say 😉.
Banff
Blake and I have this tradition where we spend at least one day together in Banff whenever we are coming back to Canada. So today was the day.
We strolled through downtown with a coffee to go and some goodies from “Good Earth Coffeehouse”.
Winter wonderland
Afterwards we did a walk around Two Jake Lake, on which I had first tried ice skating in 2018 together with Blake (which didn’t go that well for me 😉).
The frozen lake was stunning!
A great ending to a great day
In the evening I relaxed in our hotel’s spa while overlooking the Banff Chateau and the mountains before meeting up with Blake’s cousin for a drink.
Later that night we had a nice dinner at “Earls”, which my mom had kindly treated us to.
Kananaskis
Before the spa is after the spa
The spa yesterday was only a tease for what was about to come today: Kananaskis Nordic Spa.
Blake and I had already visited this spa in 2021, and it’s been our favourite one so far! If you are deciding to go here, make sure you don’t go during the holidays (if you can) as it costs CAD $175 p.p.! We couldn’t believe it, especially since we are usually not paying more than 40€ for a good spa in Germany or in the Netherlands. But I guess we were already here, so we couldn’t back out now.
The whole experience, however, had been amazing again! From the Finnish saunas, over to the hot tubs to the cozy couches by the fire place – and all of this surrounded by the Rocky Mountains! It was pretty unique and such a fabulous day!
In the evening we met up with Blake’s friends back in Calgary. (Brett and Chelsea, who we had spent New Year’s with in Invernere back in 2018.)
Calgary
The next few days back in Calgary flew by. Blake and I spent a lot of time with his family:
- We caught up with his family friends Bonny and Paul and their two daughters for a delicious dinner
- We celebrated a belated Christmas dinner with Blake’s extended family.
- And we went ice skating in Bowness Park with the kids and the rest of the family
And then it was already time to fly back to Germany for me. Blake is going to spend three more weeks in Canada with his family as he can work remotely from here.
I always love spending the winters in Canada and I already cannot wait to be back for spring break. Little did I know it would still be “winter-like” here in spring time…
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