Winter Goodies!

What a great holiday we had!

Seeing so much of family and friends gave us excellent memories to carry back to Kuwait. We also enjoyed re-acquainting ourselves with freezing temperatures and snow. However, Kuwait had record low temps this winter and this pic of Brent's phone was taken afew days after our return. Northern Kuwait actually had snow for the first time in a long time, and we found ourselves the objects of blame as everyone accused us of bringing the cold back with us in our suitcases!

Boxing Day found us at the Blaine's in Stratford for the van Staalduinen Christmas doings. We awoke to crisp, cold temps to find that Stratford had been covered by an amazing coating of ice.

Roth Christmas

We made it back to Canada in one piece (Yay Emirates and their seat-back entertainment systems!) and spent a nice couple of days at Russell's house in London. It was great to see everyone in the same place at the same time, and we had a nice celebration with Mom & Dad, Randall & Carrie & Ben, B&R, Russell, and Ryan. And Russell pulled out all the stops for a huge and fan-tab-u-lous Christmas meal that took at least three days to digest... as all great meals do!

Blasting through Larnaka, Cyprus

Thanks to the super-cheap fares on Jazeera Airways, we were able to make a quick getaway to Larnaka, Cyprus. We had planned on staying there for almost three days, but a Larnaka airport renovation (which the airline neglected to inform its passengers about) meant that our flight was delayed by about eight hours, so we arrived quite a bit later than we'd hoped. The same renovation meant that our flight was delayed going back to Kuwait also, so we arrived back in Kuwait after the school day had started--fortunately we both had preps in the morning so no harm done.

But despite the whirlwind, we enjoyed spending a day on the beach next to our hotel (see pic) and wandering around old Larnaka before flying out. We'd like to go back someday and get away from Larnaka, as we hear the island is quite stunning when you get away from the city. Next time, eh?

B&R

We had a nice time in Larnaka, which isn't the most exciting location in itself. But it was nice to get away even for a weekend, and we enjoyed walking around the old city.