Merry Christmas!!!

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Thought I would share some adorable pictures of some of the little sweethearts in our life that we hope to see over the holiday season.


Annie Rose

Otto & Jacob

Julianna

Miranda & Braiden

Georgia

Trevor

Claire

Kaz & Hugh

And of course, there are a few I don't have pictures of yet....Finn, Roan and Kalan (hopefully I didn't butcher the spelling too badly!) Darren's little cousins who are visiting all the way from Melbourne, Australia and just saw snow for the first time ever last week! Tyler & his sister Faith, and Austin & Aiden. Holy smokes we know a lot of kids!!!

An Inconvenient Truth

The other night Darren and I watched "An In Convenient Truth" the Al Gore documentary on global warming. It was a huge eye opener and I really recommend watching it. There are so many small, everyday things that we can do to reduce our impact on the environment. You can find out what some of them are and find out more about the movie at: www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/whatyoucando/



I really hope some of you will take the time to have a look at it and think about the changes that we can all make in our every day lives to help this situation. Here's an example:

Unplug electronics from the wall when you’re not using them
Even when turned off, things like hairdryers, cell phone chargers and televisions use energy. In fact, the energy used to keep display clocks lit and memory chips working accounts for 5 percent of total domestic energy consumption and spews 18 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year!

Isn't that crazy??

Christmas Craft Ideas

Ah, the internet is such a wonderful resource at Christmas time! I hate to spoil the surprise of what you're all getting this year, but I can't help but share. I just learned how to make slippers out of Maxi Pads!


You need four maxi pads to make a pair. Two of them get laid out flat, for the foot part. The other two wrap around the toe area to form the top.
Tape or glue each side of the top pieces to the bottom of the foot part.
Decorate the tops with whatever you desire, silk flowers (this is most aesthetically appealing), etc.

Ha ha, don't worry I won't subject any of you to this.....not when you're already getting tampon mangers!



Special Christmas Turkey Recipe

1 whole turkey
1 large lemon, cut into halves
sprig of rosemary
salt and pepper to taste
butter or olive oil, whichever you prefer

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Rub butter or oil over the skin of the turkey until it is completely coated.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper and any other seasonings you prefer.
Take a knife and gently separate the skin from the breast meat;
Slide lemon halves under the skin with the peel side up, one on each side. This way the juice from the lemon will release into the breasts.
Place sprig of rosemary into the turkey.
Cover and bake for 30-45 minutes. Remove cover and continue to roast until juices run clear, basting every 15-20 minutes.

If you've followed these steps correctly, your chicken/turkey should look like the one in the picture.

Bon Appetit!

First Trip to Whistler....

Finally here are some pics from our first trip to Whistler in October. This was the view from our window.


I was trying to get a group shot of everyone and Joel was putting on Mom's belt because his pants were too baggy and he forgot his.

Sneaky Tiffany decided to seize the opportunity and pantsed him. It was pretty hilarious! Is that how you spell "pantsed"??? Wonder if that one's in the dictionary?

We did some shopping in the village.


Darren and Mom tried on some crazy hats!

Toured around and checked out homes. This one was built into a cliff. It was crazy!! It even had an elevator.

Everyone passed out after a hard afternoon of shopping and eating.

It was so nice to have a table that could fit us all at the same time!

Taralyn and Jason came over for a visit and spent the night one night, so we pulled out Cranium. Little did we know that they are masters at charades!!! All Taralyn did was these two gestures and in a matter of seconds Jason blurted out....

XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS!!

It was so much fun!

Finally some pics from Keats Island!

Trial Lawyers Dinner

We went to the annual Trial Lawyer's Association dinner the other day....here is a sweet picture of us with my Dad! lol.

Winter Wonderland

I came home to an amazing pile of snow....which now that I finally have pictures up of is almost gone. It was so funny because I told Darren how warm it was in Hong Kong, so he thought that I would be coming home with a harsh tan and he didn't want to be all pastey so he decided to hit the tanning bed.

Little did he know it was actually overcast most of the time and there was no tan to be found! He only went once the day before I came back and he looked like he had just gotten back from Mexico!!! They must have put him in the super bed cause his tan lines were so crazy he looked like he had a white bathing suit on...lol. I was so jeaulous.

Check out these monster icicles on the back of our roof!!! You could do some serious damage with these bad boys!

Darren and I walked over to Safeway one night while it was pouring down snow.

It was so beautiful. Check out how deep it is!! We went around shaking off trees so that their poor branches wouldn't snap under all the weight of the snow.

I was so upset this week when I walked through Tipperary Park on my way to work and the 1 tree that remained of the 2 that grew together where Darren & I had our first date and where he proposed had collapsed under the snow. It was so sad. Well, I guess on the brighter side it's not lonely anymore.

Rice-tastic!

Before I left Hong Kong I decided that I could not go home without experiencing the Rice-tastic burger at McDonalds!


The rice bun part wasn't as bad as it looked, but the chicken inside was McNasty! Glad I got that out of my system!

Bon Voyage!

I don't know what is wrong with me....I am still feeling jet lagged and cannot help but wake up at 4 in the morning most days with no hope of falling back asleep....it is definitely giving me lots of time to update the blog in case you haven't noticed.

This was my "bedroom" at Sarah & Suds' place...complete with a Canadian flag so I wouldn't get homesick.

Here is Lexi checking out their cute little Christmas tree. Sarah put it up while I was there and I blinked my eyes for 2 seconds and it was already decorated!

Here is the train to the airport. It's cool cause all of the trains there have a glass wall in front of them and the doors only open when the train pulls up so they don't have to worry about jumpers!

Last Day in HK

On my last full day there Sarah & I went to Shenzhen (the knock off capital) to do some shopping! Poor Sarah was feeling a little under the weather that day, but she was a trooper.

Here I am with my bag full of goodies. Got some incredible deals on jeans and jewelry. My only regret is that I didn't have more money and a bigger suitcase! Shenzehn is part of mainland China so I had to get a special visa at the border to go there and the customs guys were are scary!

That night we went to this really great Indian restaurant for dinner with Sarah's friends Natalie & Gill to celebrate Suds' b-day and my departure.


In the lobby they had the same lattice that Suds had put on the back deck at their old house in Coquitlam. I'm pretty sure Suds misses his lattice!


Here are some random shots of things on the walk back home to their place.

Me putting the moves on a dragon!

In case you can't read what the signs say, this one is Fook On Ho Furniture & Arts.


And this one is Hing Fat Kok. I took these ones for Kevin & Joel:)

Visit to Macau

Sarah & I headed off to Macau on the ferry for a day trip. Macau is also a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China like Hong Kong. When we got there we haggled with a few guys over rates and finally hopped in a pedi taxi to go see the sights.

Here is our view from the back...I felt super guilty that we were just sitting there while this poor guy peddaled us around town in the sun but it was cool cause he was really nice and told us about the areas that we were riding through.


Our first stop was the A-Ma Temple. Here are people lighting their incense...apparently it is considered a means for communicating with the spirits.

Sarah has already been there so she opted to stay in the cab and read her book while I went for a quick visit.




Some of the surrounding boulders were carved with red characters.