This is like the Christmas letter. You know the one. It comes with the Christmas card and fills you in on all the details from a busy year from friends and family when you don't get to catch up with one another very much. Hope you enjoy! Here goes:

It was an amazing year at Bodhi Tree Yoga. The year got off to a bang with a crazy Tapas week followed by workshops with Neil Pearson, Andrea Peloso and Colin and Sarah’s famous Valentine’s Couples mini-retreat.

The spring saw the launch of Saraswati Yoga Tours and a huge south India yoga adventure! Over 20 yogis joined Colin Hall and Dr. Nivedita Pingle on a two-week tour of South India with beach yoga retreats in Goa and exploring massive temples in Madurai.

In May Sarah was the recipient of the YWCA’s Women of Distinction Award. It was a win not just for Sarah, but for Bodhi Tree and for yoga generally in the Queen City and demonstrates just how much yoga has become woven into the fabric of our beautiful town.

We started our first ever Summer Intensive Teacher Training in June. It was a challenge to fit a full year of material into three weeks, but we did it and graduated a fresh new crew of yoga teachers in August.

Our Summer Sizzler unlimited yoga pass sold out and was a massive success. It is the best way to spend a summer in the city! Speaking of summer that also means Yoga Party in the Park, which was also a hit. Hundreds of yogis stretched, breathed, danced and laughed in Victoria Park. A particularly special moment came courtesy of our great friend Dev Kashyap (aka. DJ Inquilab Zindabad) blasting Tribe Called Red and getting a big yoga dance party going on Treaty Four land on Canada Day. Fantastic!

Sarah spent part of August in Sequim, Washington studying with Katy Bowman as she works her way toward becoming a certified Nutritious Movement educator (because why not add even more depth of knowledge and experience?) It was an epic family road trip that took us over 5000 km, three provinces, three states, and countless hours of 80s sing-alongs in the car.

When we got back home we drove to Winnipeg for the Prairie Love Festival where Sarah taught a huge main stage class focusing on alignment and movement. Colin taught a pranayama workshop in a beautiful yurt tucked away in the forest. It is a truly magical event and we are hoping that even more Saskatchewan folks will make the trip next year.

The fall saw Sarah becoming one of only three International Association of Yoga Therapists certified teachers in Saskatchewan (another one is Bodhi Tree’s own Meagan McIlymoyl.) We added another five classes/week to our Yoga for Backs program to deal with the 70-person waiting list.

We were featured in Prairie Dog magazine’s Best of Regina issue this year, when Sarah won for Best Holistic Health Practitioner and Colin won Best Small Business Owner.

We closed out the year with the most successful Twelve Days of Christmas promotion we have ever had. After twelve days of Facebook Live broadcasts with a giveaway from the Bodhi Boutique every evening, we racked up over 20,000 views and made some great connections with our amazing students.

Right now we are taking a few days off to spend with our friends and family, spending some cozy evenings in front of the fireplace, playing board games, drinking tea and reading our Christmas books. We are looking forward to yoga in the New Year, kicking off with Tapas Week 2018 with $5 drop-in classes with the best yoga teachers and the most diverse and well balanced schedule available in Regina.

From the Bodhi Tree family to yours, we wish you all the best in the New Year and hope that 2017 provided you with plenty of adventure, challenge, and accomplishment. May 2018 provide you with more of the same!