Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night

Some of you may know that one of the great Goepferd family traditions is that my dad writes a holiday poem about our family.  Since I am not nearly as clever as him I decided to somewhat follow in his footsteps and write a list about Christmastime in Montreal.

You Know It's Christmas in Montreal When........

1) You can walk faster than most busses can drive.

2) Going to work is like a free trip to the hot and cold spa- you freeze on the 15 minute walk to work, sweat profusely in the subway, freeze on the 10 walk to your office from the subway and sweat once you get to the office.

3) Your eyes are the only visible part of your body when you go outside.

4) Parents bring their kids to school on a sled because it is less effort then shoveling out the car.

5) The beeping of the ice melt truck starts to sound like a Christmas carol.

6) The live models in the store windows are now wearing parkas.

7) The dogs wear just as many clothes outside as the humans.

8) Your face looks like the face of a boy who just shaved for the first time because you got so many cuts from the ice storm.

9) The chimney sweepers no longer look like Dick Van Dyke but like the abominable snowman.

10)  You go outside and hear this, "Where's the car parked eh?"  "Third snowbank on the right ya hoser"

Thanksgiving Surprise

Thanks to Forest's sister Joni we were able to go back for Thanksgiving.  Joni got us tickets to come home and surprise everyone.  It was really great to be back in Iowa for a couple of days and to see family again.  We landed late Wednesday night in Cedar Rapids where Sam and Steven came to pick us up.  On Thursday we surprised Forest's parents and the rest of his siblings.  It was really fun to see everyone's faces and to be hugged by family again.  On Saturday we went to Iowa City and surprised my sister and parents.  We had a wonderful time with everyone and can't wait to see people again for Christmas!