Holiday Spirit 2010

Pictures from the Toronto Downtown Christmas Parade, the Lakeshore Christmas Parade, Kitchener's Christmas Market and our backyard....

Children's Christmas Party 2010

Please find some more pictures from the company's Christmas party starring Andres, Johann and Santa by clicking on the following link.

Dia de los Muertos

We took advantage of a city stroll to pass by Harbourfront centre in Toronto which hosted a festival dedicated to the Mexican tradition of the "Dia de los Muertos". Quoting Wikipedia, Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de los Muertos) is a holiday celebrated by many in Mexico and by some Mexican Americans living in the United States and Canada. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. The celebration occurs on November 2 in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2). Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts.

Halloween 2010

Halloween is quite a tradition here and we used the occasion to visit a heritage site in Missisauga which displays Halloween traditions from past times, but also offers a lots of activities for the kids of today. And for sure Johann went "trick and treat"-ing with his friend Zara. she was dressed up as a pink and white rabbit and Johann as a lion. Too bad that daddy and Mummy had to eat almost all the sweets afterwards ;-)

Thanksgiving in Upstate New York

Not far from Toronto and only separated by Lake Ontario you'll find a very different world... rural, slow-paced, charming and though very American Upstate New York. We went there for the second time and once again enjoyed its' stunning scenery with gentle hills, vineyards, little Victorian mansions decorated with the star-spangled banner, all that in the very special light and colors of autumn. Our target destination was Letchworth State Park, also called the grand Canyon of the East, a 14 miles long deep valley carved by the Genesee river over several thousands of years. We stopped at a winery, visited beautiful Hemlock lake, attended a county fair and did some hikes around the park's waterfalls. And for the records, we bought almost 2 kg of cheese from a local cheese maker to take advantage of the reasonable prices compared to Canada.
Please find the diapanorama here.

Alsace-Lorraine and Brussels

The comfortable ICE train crossing Germany made travelling pass by quickly, Johann even had a bouncing horse in the infant compartment and well, his father enjoyed some German brewery craftmanship ;-)
We spend some days with Stephanie's parents and family, taking the time to see Johann's cousins and some old friends close to Strasbourg.
And then we went on to Nancy in order to attend the baptism of Stephanie's best friend's son. A very lively worship service was followed by a delicious lunch at a typical country inn. Stephanie and Johann finally conluded their trip in Bruxelles visiting her godmother Nicole, whereas Sebastian left for Canada from Luxembourg.
As always, please find some more pictures clicking on the underlined...

Saxony

After a quite interesting flight combination (DNR->EMA, EMA->SXF) we were picked up by my parents in Berlin and arrived safely in Dresden. We spend this time with the family and discovering or rediscovering the surrounding areas.

Paris and Britttany

In September we flew over to France to attend our friends' Maiwenn and Hugues wedding. But the very first stopover was in Paris to meet with a longstanding Torontonian who returned back home, Jean-Marie. After some sightseeing in Paris we finally arrived in Brittany, under clear skies and bright sunshine. We had great fun over the two days we spend there, enjoyed the beautiful setting as well as the excitement and little touch of glamour which make a French wedding so special.
Mai and Hug', we wish you many happy days together!

To stay within the spirit of the day, I found a quote from David Viscott being the mot juste:

" To love and to be loved is to feel the sun from both sides".

And thank you for the invitation which made it possible to live these moments with you!

Taste of the Kingsway 2010

There's a street festival every year close to our subway station, with lots of entertainment, food and music. We went there quite early on a Sunday morning to enjoy the pancake breakfast.
Some impressions....

Point Pelee

The last long weekend of summer, labour day weekend, was the occasion to get out once again and discover a new part of Ontario, Point Pelee. This is the Southern most part of Canada on the 42 parallel, at the same level as Rome in Europe. Point Pelee is also the oldest wine-growing region in Canada and we used the occasion to visit Colio's caves and have a sampling at Smith and Wilson's.... The rest of the time we spent in two very beautiful Provincial Parks, Pelee Peninsula and Rondeau. But also the huge tomato fields (Heinz's factory is in Leamington were we stayed overnight) and delicious blueberry sundaes will be remembered for a long time.... Please find the diapanorama by clicking here.

Winona Peach Festival

One of my colleagues recommended the Winona Peach Festival as a local must-go outing and we enjoyed a beautiful sun-filled late August day there. It was much fun to see the art and crafts booths, cheap rides, to taste a huge peach sundae. Johann got his photo taken with charming peach princesses....

I also added some pictures from the Lake Ontario beach close to our home and Johann's helpful undertakings at home.
Here are the pictures....

Manitoulin Island

End of July, beginning of August Sebastian's parents stayed with us for holidays.
They invited us to join them on their trip to Manitoulin island to see one of the traditional Native American pow wows.
Here are some pictures from our their time with us taken during different excursions....

Bastille Day 2010

Almost becoming some sort of tradition the diasphora of francophone or francophil Torontonians organises every year a lively get together to celebrate French National Day. Here's a short diapanorama of our picnic under the trees at High Parc.

Summer outings 2010

Here's a short slideshow with pictures from Africafest, the birthday party of one of Johann's girlfriends and toboganning the companies summer event.

Johann's first steps

We believe one day Johann just forgot that he could not walk. And since this day he is unstoppable...

Family Holiday [Sauble & Bruce Series]

We went for 3 days up to Lake Huron, enjoying the perfect and very warm summer weather at the beach.
Some more pictures...