Dec
30
Happy anniversary babygirl…! Wow… can you believe it’s already been a year! Time has sure flown by…
We definitely have had our fair share of trials and triumphs over the past year with all of out adventures and achievements in the past year, but all I can say is that it’s been a great rollercoaster ride!
I guess mom and dad will have to eat a slice of our wedding cake for us (or can Fedex it to us) for our one year anniversary…
This is just the beginning and I hope on the anniversary of this day that we exchanged our vows you know that I love you with my whole heart…
Love Always,
Saj…Â
Dec
27
On Christmas day we drove up to Billabong Lodge to join the Tavakoli family (my brother in law’s family). They have a log cabin in Hope which is about 2 hour drive from Vancouver. It was a little hard to get up early in the morning after the dinner (that involved a bit of boozing) at Marina’s the night before, nevertheless, we made it just before lunch time. There was Diane, Ata, Aaron, Maria, little Ayden, and Brigid.
It was a perfect day to open Christmas presents under the tree with the snowy view outside the window. Little Ayden was so busy opening up presents from everyone, since he’s the only child around in the whole clan, he was definitely spoiled rotten. He is really cute and so sweet plus he’s such an affectionate child that loves cuddles and kisses from everyone and has an amazingly big heart for such a tiny person.
 
 
Little snowflakes were falling down from the sky but it wasn’t as cold, it was dry actually so we had a little play outside the cabin and Saj made what you can call a teddy-bear-wannabe-snowman. Haha actually, I think he did a really good job. We went for a walk along the hills and went on top of the hill which has the most beautiful scenery of snowy mountains, pine trees and houses that were covered in snow. It was so serene…
 
I couldn’t think of a better way of spending Christmas in Canada, here we are thinking that we’ll be all alone this Christmas but it was definitely far from it. Diane and Ata prepared a huge meal for all of us and I learnt some basic cooking tips from Diane while Christmas music was playing in the stereo, accompanied with a glass of red wine. They made this scrumptious roast beef, roast chicken, roast ham, cauliflower cheese, and baked potatoes with pumpkin. We played cards, played poker, watched movies, made a snowman, Saj made the most gigantic snow ball (I swear that thing could kill a small child if it rolled on them), made snow angels, played snow fight, went tobogganing (in which Aaron almost had an involuntary vasectomy due to some loose branches:P) and we went and played some more…
 
The next morning, we woke up to 10 inches of snow and it snowed quite heavily during the morning, so the boys started to plough the snow away from the front yard and the cars. Another relaxing day to play more games and watch even more movies. That night we had the most delicious kebob that Ata made for dinner.
 
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end… Saj had to work the next day so we had to drive back home after dinner. What can I say? Even though we are far away from our families, we had a great time spending Christmas with the Tavakoli family as they always treat us like their own family.
And as for the White Christmas as opposed to 41 degrees Celsius heat? I’d ask myself this very question… Do I hear myself complaining..? Nah.. I don’t quite think so…
Dec
24
 So much for worrying about being lonely this Christmas as both of our families are in Australia and probably were having a shrimp on the barbie with nice cold aussie beers…
 
Thanks to my dear friend Marina and her family for inviting us to their house on Christmas Eve. She came up to my cubicle one day at work “Hey Tash… what are you gonna do for xmas?” I was like… hmm dunno yet, well we don’t have anyone here so probably just stay at home. She said to me “you have to come over to our place on Christmas eve.. I’ll ask my parents but I’m sure they’ll be happy to have you over. Rodrigo and I were by ourselves last year and it sucked, I can’t let you experience that..!”. Bless her little heart… She’s a really sweet girl and oh how much am I going to miss her smile and our girly chats 
 
So we spent Christmas Eve with Marina and her family who are from Brazil, so not only did we learn a little bit about their culture but also got to experience the delicious food. They made this really yummy roast ham, rice with turkey and cheese, eggplants, and potato salads. We had loads of fun especially playing the Secret Santa game after dinner “with the slight twist”. Unlike the traditional Secret Santa rules, we were allowed to steal another person’s gift to put it in a nutshell. I think we laughed a little too hard when we saw the facial expression after a gift was stolen from someone… It was definitely the season to be jolly!
 
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Obrigado to the Silva family for being our surrogate family and for allowing us to celebrate Christmas in their tradition… The excitement was a little too much for some…
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Dec
23
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Season’s Greetings to all our friends and family including those back in Australia… while you guys are sweating your asses off in 38 degree heat we’ll be doing snow angels in 2 feet of snow…! We miss you all and would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and have a safe new year…
…you all better behave, otherwise you’ll be begging for presents from the jolly fat man…
Lots of Love From…
Dec
10
 
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On Friday night, Saj surprised me by taking me to “Bright Nights” in Stanley Park. It is basically a charity event that is funded by Vancouver Park Board and BC Fire Fighters to help the burn fund and the burn survivors with their families. More than a million beautiful twinkling colourful lights brighten up the forest in Stanley Park, the admission is by donation and there is also a train ride too. The waiting line was so long so we decided not to go on the train but to donate the money instead. There are a few windy pathways that you walk along through the forest and they have little houses on each side with their own themes; There was a gingerbread house, Disney house, Mr and Mrs Claus’s house, snowmen and candy canes were everywhere, accompanied by live Christmas music and of course the reindeer and the sleigh ride. The aromas of roasted chestnuts and organic popcorn were enticing and there were even farmyard houses too, in which you can pet the farm animals such as donkeys, cows, pigs, goats, bunnies and guinea pigs… That was just the icing on the cake! I petted this gigantic size bunny, about 3 times bigger than Jasmin, and he just sat there and enjoyed the attention from people… I think the donkey was tired of all the attention as he tried to chew his way out of his stable…Â
 
I do realise that this may not be as exciting as it sounds for some people, but my husband knows how much I love Christmas and the whole thing that comes with it!… it definitely made my night twinkle.. It was a very simple gesture, and it didn’t have to involve a lot of $$$…
 
 
…and although by the end of it we were frozen to the bone, knowing what’s underneath it all that made it so special… ~*
Dec
07
This is a panoramic photo of Granville Bridge that I took on a clear winter evening just as the sun was setting. The sun is starting to go down earlier and earlier these days… it now becomes “night” between 4:30-5pm… It starts to get a bit depressing when you get up to go for work and it is dark… and when you come home it is dark… Granville bridge and the seawall are only a 5 minute walk from our apartment and is right next to the park where we walk the dogs.
Those of you that have seen Good Luck Chuck might recognise the following location. During the movie there was a scene where Jessica Alba is walking along the waterfront with “Chuck” on a date and she walks straight into a light pole and hits the floor because she wasn’t looking where she was walking. There are quite a few movies and advertisements filmed around that area. During summer we went to the park to walk the dogs only to find the entire place covered in snow! It turned out that they were filming a Nissan commercial in the area and the snow was part of the props. The very next day just as quickly as it had appeared, the winter wonderland had disappeared…
Just another thing that adds to the beauty of the downtown area…
Dec
03
 
This weekend we drove up to Whistler and stayed at the Fairmont Chateau located in the upper village. Tash got a great deal on the rate so instead of paying $400 a night we ended up paying under $100. Aaron, Maria and young Ayden joined us as well and the plan was to make it a weekend of skiing since the slopes just opened and the mountain had plenty of snow dumped on it over the past week.
 
The hotel was very warm and cosy with the festive decorations out in force, however, for the high price that you would normally pay per night, I was expecting a very glamorous room with premium furniture on par with Burswood or Sheraton’s level of class. On the contrary, the room had a warm cottage feel, but nothing that special in my opinion to warrant a $400 per night rate other than the spacious area and mountainside views.
 
Saturday morning Aaron and I got a late start on the mountain, partly due to the sleeping in and also the heavy morning breakfast that we wolfed down! Once we got onto the slopes there was a slight flurry of snow and the mountain was just as I expected… at base it was -10 degrees Celsius and up there according to the thermometer it was -20 degrees Celsius! While we were skiing you couldn’t feel the cold that much, but when we stopped the blood flow to our fingers ceased and they started to hurt because of the cold and to the point where they would get numb after every run. Aaron’s goggles were fogging up so he tried the scuba diving method of defogging they by spitting into the lens and wiping it off… only problem is it FROZE instantly! The slopes were nice and powdery with the occasional ice patches but all in all a good first ski for the season… No real mishaps except for once stack where I twisted my knee a bit. My skis were adjusted for more aggressive carving so they didn’t clip off when I hit the snow.
 
The best part about the trip would have to be seeing how excited Ayden got with the notion that he would be able to play in the snow. In his excitement he ripped off his gloves to make some snowballs and a few minutes later he was balling his eyes out because he fingers hurt so much from the cold. Being the cute little curious kid that he is, he befriended many random people including a bunch of girls. He randomly walked up to them while they were taking photos and started to talk to them. Not long after he was hugging and kissing them and even stealing ornaments off the Christmas tree for them… what a smooth operator! I’m sure Aaron must’ve had some influence on him with that one! Equally excited to be in the snow was Tash… she was like a kid in a candy store. Tash absolutely loves anything to do with Christmas and seeing all the snow and decorations made her so excited. To give you an idea… Tash looks for her Christmas carol CD’s around September… so seeing Whistler village covered in snow with all the lights and trees decorated was her own little haven…
 
 
All in all it was a nice relaxing weekend… until the drive home… with all the beautiful snow a 2 hour drive home ended up being 10 hours… The road conditions were really bad because of the ice and snow so we couldn’t do more than 30km/hr. This wasn’t bad until we encountered heavy traffic because of everyone coming back from Whistler and then over 5 kilometres of gridlocked traffic because a semi trailer had jack knifed and blocked the only highway back to Vancouver! The Sea To Sky Highway had become one big parking lot and because there was no way to change your route everyone was forced to sit and wait over 6 hours for the semi trailer to be cleared away. People got so bored that they started to make snowmen on the highway, and some people got a little carried away with it adding certain anatomy appendages too explicit to mention. Once the traffic cleared as we drove along I would have counted over 30 snowmen… I guess people needed to do something to keep themselves sane during the wait…
 
 
So far on our North American based road trips we haven’t had too much luck when it comes to traffic. First was the 6 hour border wait coming back from Oregon and now the new record of over 10 hours for a 2 hour drive… Nevertheless, it was a truly beautiful winter wonderland..~*