Who vacations in Canada in January?

And so, our trip to Canada. We got in the first night, and insisted on calling Paul and Betty Ann (Jeremi's parents) on Skype right away. My parents thought that was a bit funny, but figured that we just wanted to check in. But no, we wanted to tell both sets of parents at the same time that we were expecting a baby! What was funniest is that my mom was completely shocked, despite that fact that some of her coworkers, upon hearing that we were spontaneously visiting in late January, said that it must be because I was pregnant, and wanted to tell them in person. My mom insisted that there was no way, particularly as they'd been visiting us at the beginning of December, and I definitely wasn't pregnant then. Needless to say, everyone was quite excited.

In addition to my parents and baba, who we stayed with while we were in town we were also able to see a few friends who live in and around Toronto while we were there. We drove down one night to see Bea, who Jeremi knows from RMC, and who now lives around Kensington Market in Toronto, and we went out for supper to a Japanese restaurant, and then out to a local bar where her band had played before.

We also made it downtown one night to meet up with my cousin Jen, her boyfriend, her parents (my aunt Joan and uncle Jon, who live near Montreal but who were passing through town), and Gloria at a Mexican restaurant.
Afterward Jeremi headed back downtown to meet up with Bea and some of her friends for a night out on the town, while I headed back to my parents place for some much-needed sleep.
We also got to meet up with a couple friends of mine from McGill, Selom (at left) and Dave (at right). We joined them (along with my parents and baba) at Pacific Mall in Markham for some dim sum and window shopping. My mom was incredibly impressed by the selection of black market DVDs, but I won't write any more about that, in case the cops are reading. (I'm just kidding, but she was pretty nervous about it all, and couldn't believe that they were being sold out in the open like that.)

And we went for supper at our friends' place (the same friends whose blog is linked to in my previous 17 week pregnant post). I know m (seen at far right, who doesn't use her full name on her blog) from working at Camp Hyanto back when I was in high school, and it just so happened that another friend of ours, seen just to the left of me, who I hadn't seen since I was 16, was in town for a conference, and was staying with them. It was crazy to see her after so long. She's also an avid knitter and spinner, and even has a loom! What's more, she gave me the hand-knit mittens that I'm holding in this picture. (I also ended up knitting the same sweater that she's wearing here - which you can't really see - without realizing until I was halfway through, as I think I was subconsciously inspired, but that's another story.)


We also went to Nick and Cathy's for supper (Jeremi's brother and sister-in-law), along with my mom and dad, baba, Chris, and Karen (my brother and sister-in-law). We were terrible guests, playing with their Wii down in the basement while they finished preparing supper, but it was the first time that many of us had tried it (me included), and it was just too much fun. Baba did great at the golf game! I'm sorry that we didn't get any photos from this night, but it was lots of fun, which lots of great food (including ribs, wings, and pavlova with lots of fruit).

Finally, on our last day in town, before we flew out that night, we went for supper at Chris and Karen's to celebrate our nephew Owen's second birthday. While I sat and rested in the other room, Jeremi helped them making delicious pizzas for supper.


And of course there were many presents to be opened, including this Laufrad (pedal-less bike) that we sent over from Germany - they're really popular here.

Here Owen and my dad are inspecting his new train set. I'm not sure who was more excited!
Meanwhile, I was working on weaving in the tails on the most annoying pair of socks I've ever knit. They're beautiful, but ended up with so many tails that it took me over a year to finally finish them. (I did knit other things in the meantime, don't worry.)

And here's Owen, getting some help to blow out the candles on his cake. It was almost exactly two years before that I was passing through Toronto en route from Victoria to Jena for the big move, when he was born. How time flies!