Christmas in Vancouver

This year, Carmella and I hosted Christmas in Vancouver.  Last year and the year before, we went to Maple Ridge, where we ate great dinners and visited at Catherine and Micheael's place.  This year, we thought we'd host it at our new(ish) apartment in Kitsilano.  Plus, this is our first Christmas as a married couple and we wanted to celebrate that by having the gathering at our house.

Carmella was excited to host Christmas because she could plan a fun menu, and I was happy to host because I could push a gaming agenda.  I've always enjoyed gaming on Christmas, and hoped to play a few this year as well.

In the days leading up to Christmas, Carmella and I went on two shopping trips to get all we needed.  Carmella made the lists, and sent me after specific items.  This is a good way for me to shop, or else I end up wandering around the grocery store, forgetting what I need, or even what I'm looking for.

On Christmas morning, Carmella and I went to church, and enjoyed the empty streets on the way there and the way back.  Broadway, which is usually two lanes of traffic and one lane of parallel parked vehicles, was three glorious, luxurious, open lanes in each direction!

I drove to pick up Catherine and Michael in Maple Ridge, and arrived back at about 2 or 3pm.  Right when we arrived, Carmella served us a bocconcini and tomato salad.  It was wonderful!  Carmella was very creative in the presentation.

 We enjoyed figuring out how to eat the salad, which was sitting in a bed of arugula, and had two basil leaves on the top.  I found that cutting a section off the side, like you would if you were shaving the finest cuts of meat off a big spinning stick in a mall food court, worked best!


After the salad, Carmella was tired from spending so much time in the kitchen, and suggested we take a walk.  It was a nice day, and a great idea.  We drove to Jericho Beach, and enjoyed the ocean.  There are only a few places in the world where you can enjoy the ocean on Christmas, so we wanted to take advantage!

It was very windy and cold, but we persevered.  We walked out to the end of the Jericho pier, and it was fun because it was high tide and the waters were rough.

We got cold and returned home after about half an hour outside.  Carmella holed herself in the kitchen again, and I began to game with Catherine and Michael.  I would be taking care of the bird, but I still had time to game before I needed to do that.  We decided to play the Train Game, since we've played that as a group in the past.

(Notice the fireplace.  I searched hard for a Yule Log DVD, and found one created by a student in North Van.  It has fun features like deleted scenes and closed captions!)

Carmella prepared all the rest of the dishes, and took over my turns when it was time for me to make the chicken.  We didn't want to bake a turkey, because we figured they'd be really tough to do well.

Instead, I would prepare herb-glazed cornish hens.  I'd made those for Carmella before, and they were a hit at that time.  The recipe involves cooking the hens with a basting of sun-dried tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, and a bunch of herbs like tarragon and basil.
 

 

Observe the almost finished spread!  I decided to use one full chicken instead of two cornish hens.  You can't see everything, but here's what Carmella made:

• Baked candied yams (far left, under tinfoil).  They are yams with marshmallows on top!

• Pear and chauvre salad, in the middle.  Very tasty!  Notice our bear-claw salad tongs.  They make it easy to get the big chunks, but very tough to negotiate the bottom of the salad bowl for the choice, small morsels.
• Mashed Potatoes (still in the pot on the oven, but they would go in the pottery that Uncle Finn and Aunt Julita gave us, in the bottom right.
• Bread left over from the reclette Carmella served us after the beach.  It's a swiss cheese dish, where you cover bread, gherkin pickles, and potatoes.  We had it at Swiss House during the Olympics, and Carmella wanted to try it again.
• Finnish pirakke pastries. Carmella made them the night before, at 11pm so they'd be ready!  She heated them up just before supper so they'd be fresh.  You can see them in a picture before.
• Mulled Wine.  We put this in the pottery jug, part of the set from Uncle Finn and Aunt Julita's wedding present.

 The meal was excellent!  Alot of the food was new to us, so Carmella explained what was in each one, how we might eat it.  It was a great meal, and we all enjoyed it. 

Notice that there are no chickens in the picture above.  This wasn't because they were so good they got wholly eaten, unfortunately.  Even though I had subbed in chickens, I continued to follow the recipe for cornish hens. That means I cooked them for too short a time.  Also, we were opening and closing the oven a lot, to prepare the candied yams and melted butter.  All this meant that the breasts were cooked well, but the thighs were still bloody and not quite done.  So, they are being re-cooked in the oven!  I'll do a better job next year!


Luckily, the missing chickens didn't ruin Christmas because Carmella had made so much of everything else, so we were all very satisfied.

We exchanged gifts after supper.  We gave Michael a game called Citadels, which we played afterwards.  It was really fun, and Catherine dominated the rest of us. 

After the game, Carmella and I drove them home, and returned to our house at about 1:30am.  I opted to deal with the dishes the next day.

I attacked the dishes on Boxing Day, hitting them with two or three campaigns.  I slayed the last ones under a dark sky.  I was happy to be the sole commander of this operation, because Carmella had led the rest of night.

Without a dishwasher, it was a well-earned victory.  I had to change water numerous times, but thankfully my brushes, soap, and cloths stayed true and didn't let me down. 

So, Christmas was excellent!  We've already planned to host it again next year, although it might be earlier than normal because of our trip to Ontario for Carol and Craig's wedding.

Next year I'll make a more successful bird. And I hope to unseat Catherine as reigning Citadels champ.

Carmella's work really made the whole day.  She laboured so hard, and produced such great food for everyone.  It may have started a number of new Christmas traditions.

Merry Christmas!

The limelight may fade, but it never disappears!

We're back again!  8 years after the first round...

The Globe and Mail, Dec 28th 2011

The photo they're using is from a shoot they did, probably in September 2003.  A different shot made the paper back then, one of us leaving the front door.  The accompanying article was about crippling student debt facing students, and used us as examples.  (For what it's worth, I've paid off my bank student loans in the meantime!)

I think Erik was the contact, when he was working in Toronto.  The Globe and Mail sent a photographer to our house in Stratford, and we did a few shots of us packing, and a few of us leaving through the front door.

They probably searched their photo database for "university students" and for whatever reason chose us, again!

I've been away from fame for awhile now, so it's nice to taste it yet again!


Hat-tip to Kim for finding the picture!

10 times the profit?

In the summer, Carmella and I decided to walk a few blocks to the grocery store.  On our way, we found a garage sale that looked promising.  There was an Aussie family moving back home, and someone else that was moving into a smaller house.  These two families combined resources to create a solid garage sale.

I will probably never come across a better garage sale score, in theory: two pairs of Fluevog shoes, for only $5 each! 

While the money was definitely well spent, I haven't got the use out of the shoes as I'd like.  I think both models were from the 90s, a time when Fluevogs were made in Poland and Portugal (I think).  Shoes from that time were tough!


I've begun wearing one of the pairs at work, and they are getting comments like Fluevogs usually do, except most owners probably don't hear "Are those shoes for golfing?" and "Are you wearing bowling shoes?!"


Oh dear.  I'll still wear them though, because they're leather, unique, and a great price.


My second pair isn't getting worn because they're just too big.  They're size 13, a size too big.  They're the nicer pair too.  Even if I put an extra insole inside, and tie them super tight, my heal still slips all the way out of the shoe.


I've decided to try and sell the size 13s.  I think I can get $50 for them if I get the ad up before Christmas.  It was abnormally sunny a couple days ago, so I took the opportunity to take these pictures, which I'll use in the ad:

Don't they look great?  Hopefully there's a tall, size 13 musician or swing dancer out there who wants a pair of well-made, retro-twice-over shoes!

Carmella is enjoying Dec 1st!

Here's why!

 You'll notice I've got a bit of stray shaving cream clinging to my face, but that's alright.  I washed it off afterwards.

Movember was fun.  I never trimmed my manly mustache, so it looked like a hunk of whole-wheat Shredded Wheat by the end.

Our team at work raised just over $3000, which is pretty impressive.  Click here for a link to the world-wide Movember fundraising totals.  Canada has raised the most!  Apparently a lot of hockey players participated, giving the movement (is it really a movement?  Maybe.  But the Olympics are definitely not a movement.  In Whistler, I was always hearing about the Olympic Movement.) lots of exposure.

The worldwide total for Movember money raised is more than $100 Million!  I didn't know I was involved in such a large event.

Thanks everyone for your donations!  If you're still looking to get into the action, you can donate by clicking HERE.