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!