Winter Home

As one year closes and another begins, the anticipation and expectation can be daunting. For 2015, my goals will remain simple: continue to be inspired, continue to grow and continue to love one’s work. This brings me to our recent visit to Canada over the holidays which was equal parts inspiring, fattening…and freezing!

“You Can’t Go Home Again,” written in the 20’s, are words that still resonate today. Thomas Wolfe may have depicted it best in his novel of the same name but there is something particularly resonant to me about this saying, especially after 30 years of being removed from the city that I was born in. Admittedly, people change & their lives evolve (seemingly at a more rapid pace than ever before) but i truly feel that a piece of where you were born & grew up always stays with you in certain ways. Whenever we go to Canada, my daughter likes to gleefully point out to me that the true Canadian still lives within me. Her way of expressing this is more simply put by this short phrase: “…you speak Canadian as soon as we get off the plane”.

This past Christmas we went “home” to visit my family in Edmonton, Alberta. It’s always such a busy time of the year and touring the sites isn’t usually in the cards on these trips. The Holiday season is more about reconnecting with family and spending quality time with the nieces, nephews, sisters, parents, and small furry beasts. This year was particularly busy as we hadn’t been back in a while. However, we did manage a matinee of the play “A Christmas Carol” at Downtown Edmonton’s beautiful Citadel Theater. We drove thru a snow storm (snowier than what my Los Angeles born husband is used to anyway), walked through a snow path of evergreens, and my L.A.-born daughter shoveled a driveway and played in the snow — all the while trying to grasp the fact that not every type of snow is suitable for snowman building. We ate many a wonderful home cooked meal including some fabulous Alberta prime rib, our favorite homemade pierogies and of course: turkey soup!

After being away for so long it’s clear that while it may be hard to recapture the exact state of mind of living where you were born, you can always come home again, if even for just a little while. Family always bring back the happiest memories of the past and something as simple as a board full of old pins collected over the years or a wooden Fisher Price character sitting in a crowded toy chest can quickly remind you of your formative beginnings. Sharing these memories with your child is what it’s all about…no matter where you live.

Photos: Kelly Norris Sarno & Devin Sarno