Happy Christmas

Christmas celebrations began in true Canadian style... A Christmas Parade...



... with a camel's backside leading the way!


Some Canadian flags were proudly displayed...


... But our mate Bruce held the fort for the Aussies!!


Dan continued her pursuit of ice skating expertise (and dropped into Santa's workshop for a break)...


Whilst Dave instead, pursued the warmth of the fire and the safety of dry land!


A parade of 'carol ships' decorated the harbour... (and gave Dave an excuse to try some pretty swish photography)


We discovered that Canada is the home of the Gingerbread house...


With a Canadian chef winning a Guinness world record for the largest Gingerbread Man! (about 8ft long!)


We didn't attempt the Gingerbread man, but we did decorate our house...


...and 'ahhd' and 'oood' at the beautiful light displays in the many gardens around the city.


Dan and our friend Kari, thought it would be the only time in the year they could get away with being thought of as 'angels'...


... and it worked! Dan got herself a hug!


Have a happy hot christmas and avoid telling us the temperature when you write to us! Keep in touch,

Love...

Dave's Snowboarding Adventures

While Dave has been sending Dan off to work every day (well someone has to pay for Dave's $50 a day habit!) Dave has managed to find his way to a couple of the ski resorts around Vancouver. Grouse Mountain has had over 2m of snow already (it's average annual snowfall is 3.5m and has opened its earliest in about 20 years) although it's been a bit warm for the last week and some of it's melted so it's down to about 1-1.5m now.

The views from the resorts are pretty amazing. There are views of city...




(this is Dave's snowboard, just so you know he actually was there!)

View of scenic mountains in the distance...


And stunning sunsets!


The photos above are from Grouse Mountain (a Guthega sized resort, for those who know about these things, which is about 1 hour by public transport from the city).
The ones below are from Cypress Mountain (a Blue Cow sized resort with much better variety of runs).

Yet more scenic mountain views...


Action shot of Dave on the chairlift!!! (no "nigel no friends" comments please!)


The photo below is looking over Vancouver which is covered in fog. It is an amazing feeling on the bus ride up to the resort when you get out of the fog and emerge into one of the most amazing, bright sunny days imaginable. There's some kind of temperature inversion at the moment and the cold air is trapped down below where it's a miserable 4-5 degrees and then you get up to the mountains and its a balmy 10-15 degrees! Dave does feel a little guilty about enjoying this while Dan is at work though, but not too much that he doesn't tell her about it when she gets home!



While still searching for some of that famous Canadian powder, so far Dave can't complain too much!

Kits

Due to high demand, here are a couple of photos of our house and surrounds…

Cute house…



Mountain views…


Autumn leaves…



What more could you want!!!

Ice Skating

We've been out ice skating a couple of times so far to try and fit in with the locals. One of us has been a bit more successful than the other. See if you can pick who from the pictures below...




We've also had a roller blading lesson which went pretty well, although I think the instructor spent more time telling us how good he was than actually trying to teach us!

Of course it hasn't been all fun and games. There's also been time for some serious contemplation about life...



And of course there's always time to sample a couple of halloween cupcakes...mmmmmm cupcakes...