Family reunion with real change of pace
Having a brother-in-law who lives overseas has its disadvantages and advantages. The shame is that as a family we do not meet very often so have not seen our respective children grow, and we’ve missed special moments.
But there are advantages.
Like going to see him is effectively both a family get-together and a holiday, as he lives in Toronto in Canada.
Last week, we flew there to spend time with his family and we enjoyed a birthday celebration too. My niece is also having her first baby this summer and we were also there for the big gender reveal (its a boy, btw!).
Sometimes you only really understand what you’re missing out on when you get a brief glimpse of it. And it left us all wishing we lived physically closer, even though we have regular Facetime catch ups.
Still, we made the most of our time there. Meals out, walks and just watching telly together was just that bit more special than being at home. It also gave me the chance to run somewhere different and I enjoyed daily outings down the banks of the Humber River ending up at Lake Ontario where I could see the city skyline with the impressive CN Tower, head and shoulders above other buildings.
As a family we love the snow, which we rarely get in the South of England, so we grabbed the opportunity to travel up to Blue Mountain. There, we were the only people out snowshoeing on the wild trails, watching woodpeckers doing what their name suggests and enjoying the super-crisp air that is a rare thing in our usual suburban home.
There were a few tears shed as we left to come home but with a bit of luck we will be back again before too long, when hopefully there will be another addition to the family.
I do hope you too make the effort when you can to see family who are far away, as it would be all too easy to lose touch without some thought.
We were the only people snowshoeing on the wild mountain trails