Dec
24
Let it snow, Let it snow…!
Less than a week after we had visited Whistler Villiage only to be disappointed by the lack of snow and less than perfect skiing conditions, we were surprised by the freak snow storms that we had downtown. This sort of weather isn’t very common in downtown Vancouver. If it ever snows, most of the time it is slushy and never sticks to the ground or usually disappears after a day or so. Lately it’s been snowing so much that we have had nearly 20-30cm on the ground!
The city looks beautiful with all the buildings, streets and trees covered in snow, however our dogs have no idea what to do with it! They’ve never been in proper snow before, so the very first day of walking Candy in the snow she had no idea where to go and wee because there was no grass and she kept bunny hopping through the snow. Jasmin on the other hand just disappeared because she’s so small she would just sink into the snow and you couldn’t see where she was.
It’s nice to experience Christmas in North America because everyone gets into the spirit of things and when you hear carols being sung like “Let it snow” you can actually can relate to it!
I must say though… I do miss the 30 degree summer Christmas’s of Australia where you’d throw a shrimp on the barbie…
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…