The weather is getting colder and colder. Regular morning occurrences are spending 5 minutes scraping the ice off my windows. Roads are a little slippery. Not much snow as yet. We did get a little bit but it didn't stick and it was only 1 day. Last year we had snow more times before I had even gone to Australia. And even though it is cold here, we have had a lot of sunshine. Everyone is cheerful!
The Christmas cheer here is phenomonal. So many houses have lights, everyone has Christmas trees, the Christmas music is playing on the radio, the shops and streets are decorated. Its really quite charming! People get into it way more over here. Especially in our churches. Back home not many people do Christmas trees or presents, but here it is very normal. I don't know one person/family that does not! So we got one too! We got the tree for free from some friends and then off to Walmart headed me and Jo and got all the decorations, then the 3 of us (including our other roomie Christina) had a lovely evening in with music and a glass of wine and we decorated the tree.
And the baking! Wow, people really get into there baking over here. Way more Christmassy flavours and things out here. Pepperming, Creme Brulee, Chocolate, Ginger, Pumpkin to name a few. So i got into it this week! I had to bring cake along on Friday night to Ben Beukema's place as he has his house all cozy and wanted to have friends over to listen to Christmas music and do a white elephant gift exchange (I will explain in a minute) so i said i'd bring some baking. I made Pumpkin & Chocolate Cheesecake. Boy was it ever so good! And then I also did a lot more baking this week - til 12am Wednesday night and til 1am Thursday night and did up tins of baking for my close friends - ginger nut biscuits, shortbread stars with maple icing, caramel slice, almond roll, chocolate peppermint heart was what was inside. MMMM mmmm! I couldn't have a December without almond roll - mum usually makes it and I love it! So now I have made Jo think of home, because her mum always does too!
So to explain what a White Elephant Gift Exchange is: Everyone is charged with buying a $10 gift, gender neutral, can be funny. And then on the night, everyone picked a number from the hat and you can go pick a wrapped gift (you don't know who it is from) and you can either pick it from under the tree or if you see someone else with a gift that they already picked, and you want it, then you can steal it! Was fun! I actually ended up with something really cool - an hour glass shaped pepper and salt grinder! Sweet! Jo's gift that she had bought was funny - it was a little game and then a little mini book called dating for dummies! Hilarious! David Torenvliet ended up with that one. :D
So today I am making more almond rolls, did a bit of cleaning and then tonight i believe we are going to Stanley Park near Vancouver - like our Kings Park but bigger, and they have a train there and it goes through all the Christmas lights. We will prob go for dinner in Vancouver too. I'm looking forward to it!
xxx
