Merry Christmas

Our first Christmas in Vancouver was super fun!  We enjoyed every bit, including the 51 degree Fahrenheit weather!

On Christmas Eve, after we left Santa Wendel's Organic Power Cookies and his reindeer raw carrots, we went to a friend's party in N. Vancouver. Highlights included:
- piano playing and singing carols
- 11 children/babies
- lots of great food (host is a trained chef)
The mishmosh buffet featured - ham, corn bread, cranberry sauce, collard greens, butternut squash soup, mashed potatoes, shrimp ceviche (made by yours truly), duck and soy chicken, Korean Japchae, spicy crab dip and a range of desserts and beverages.  

Christmas Day was chill, we woke up, marveled at Julian's gifts from Santa.  He insisted on eating Santa's leftover cookies, stating that Santa had some already. It is the first year that Julian understood that it was "Christmas", so we went all out and got him Legos, a scooter, wooden NYC vehicles, and a Thomas the Train sticker/coloring book. All I gotta say is thank goodness Amélie didn't know what was going on, as she would've been disappointed to see her empty stocking.  Hey, at least we got her a stocking, right?  Then, we went to church and continued to spend the day relaxing, with an afternoon in Stanley Park for pictures and so Julian could ride his bike.

Tomorrow (Dec. 26th) is an official holiday called "Boxing Day"...supposedly like Black Friday in the States. I highly doubt it is anything like Black Friday, but we shall see!  We'll be packing up clothes and food for our mini-trip to the Gulf Islands...we have a Monday morning ferry to catch from Tsawwassen to Pender Island and will be staying in S. Pender (links to map) for a few days.  

SO EXCITED TO VEG OUT! Updates on our trip to follow...