Christmas!

Well, Christmas happened, and much fun was had. It was a bit weird being away from home (espeically since due to 'inclement weather' (rain...)) I wasn't actually working as planned. Hard to know what to do with yourself in Xmas day with no family to hang out with.

Anywayz, our Christmas efforts started with our modest, but perfectly formed $7 Christmas tree - lovingly decorated with real candy canes :D (And eventually my sheep (aka 'Giraffe the second') joined in the effort as our Christmas fairy sat on the top - alas that picture is on Hannah's camera, but i assure you that sheep makes an excellent guardian of the tree.



Having invited some friends around for Xmas dinner I spent Xmas eve shopping for ingredients and having a mini adventure. In an effort to find a real butcher, i ventured further into West Vancouver than I ever had before. Alas, my efforts were thwarted when I got there only to discover that the whole stree had had a power cut so they couldn't open their fridges for fear of ruining all the Xmas turkeys by warming them up. I decided that unfortunately i couldn't really hang around in the rain waiting for it all to come back on again, so that lovely organic specialist butchers shop i found (more or less the only one in vancouver as far as i can make out) shall have to wait.

While i was pondering what to do, though, I found a beach and the sea, and on the beach i found a christmas tree garden. It was awesome - never have i ever seen so many xmas trees in one place before. Really wish i'd had my camera with me. I think they were all sponsored by local businesses cos some of them were themed (eg. decorated with trowels for the local landscaping business) - awesomeness.

Anywayz, xmas eve was spent doing preparation and stereotypically north american xmas activities. I present, a gingerbread house making kit:



And post 'one for the house, one for me' decorating strategy:


So that was that for Xmas Eve.

Bright and early on Christmas day (6.15 to be precise!) my alarm went off in preparation for the work day ahead. However, a quick call to our 'snow phone' confirmed what the sound of the wind outside rather suggested - that we wouldn't open. Sort of good news, but rather a shame about the time and half i missed out on! It did give me the chance to skype matt and dad though; a perfectly timed call just coinciding with the end of Doctor Who.

It also gave me plenty of time to cook the most leisurely roast dinner i've ever cooked (having gained an extra several hours to cook it, and having prepared it all the night before!).

The fruits of my labour:

You can't even begin to imagine how chuffed i was with my yorkshire puddings (which, incidently, the Canadians don't have! (They also give you very strange looks it you try to ask for mince pies in a shop... ). The trick is a higher egg to everything else ratio, i've discovered.

So by that point Hannah had got home from work, and Shima and Michelle had arrived so we broke out the wine and served up a scrumptious dinner :D


And then ate it all up. And wore hats.


And finally, over cake (yule log...) we played "Clue" as the Canadians like to call Cluedo (presumably because it's more bilingual that way...?). I was most upset to be narrowly beaten to victory by a kamakazi guess, just because I knew what it was but couldn't get to the middle in time!


So that was my first Canadian Christmas!

I also enjoyed a second roast dinner (Canadian stylee) on Boxing Day when all us mountain 'orphans' were given a free Xmas dinner together by Mount Seymour's volunteer co-ordinator (and resident Santa for a couple of weeks) John. Apparently a couple of years ago him and his wife decided that they wouldn't give gifts amoung themselves, but instead put on a xmas dinner for those of us away from home - we even got very small gifts. I can quite honestly say that he is one of the loveliest people i know. The world would be a better place if everyone were as awesome :D


Exciting tales and pictures of all things New Year will follow shortly, but basically we spent the New Year at Shima and Michelle's nibbling on food and playing games, as well as watching the "live" (i'm extrememly dubious...) streaming of Times Square New Years count down to midnight, at our midnight (you see why i'm dubious?). And today, instead of the traditional new years walk, me and Tabitha we for a New Years snowboard on Cypress mountain (where my flatmates work). It was an absolutely stunning day, and hopefully i'll have some pictures up soon enough. So i guess as new years go it was pretty excellent. Now bed. Work again tomorrow and if the weather sticks, it's likely to be extrememly busy. (More about busy mountains next time too - remind me to show you my favourite Canadian sign so far sometime - it has a bear in it, you can't fail to like it....)