This Christmas, I received 3 happy lights. H got me two different models, one of which P had also purchased for me. These are the people who truly know me well - a gift that is both an object and an experience! 

Next year, I'm purchasing only experiences for people. One of my cousins' kids received three Power Ranger toys, which he'll probably play with for 10 minutes. Baby S now has three baby dolls (one that H bought, one that I bought, and one that my aunt bought), two Baby Shark stuffies, and too many outfits (mostly purchased by me - woops). She actually will not sleep without those 3 baby dolls though, so I guess they are being used. How did she develop this personality?  

Meanwhile, I've been trying to substitute coffee with matcha, which has a slightly milder caffeine content (supposedly). Here's the matcha latte with oat milk at The Garden: 

While I've been to The Garden many times, this was actually the first to try their matcha latte, and their quality is fantastic. Not gritty, not bitter with just a bit of sweetener, and a good amount of that matcha umami brightness. Their chocolate chip cookies continue to be perfect, and I will go back soon, just to look at their plants. 

Time to start using that caffeine kick to plan for next year. On this week's list To Do: 

1. Contact a preschool for baby S
2. Start potty traning
3. Read 3 more books to meet my target of 20 for the year
4. Get a hook for the shower to hang my shower poof
5. Declutter to make space for the new baby - nesting has started! 

Winter holidays wouldn’t really be complete without Boxing Day shopping, dim sum, and a trip to the mountains. We did our shopping online at Air Canada (looking forward to travels in the new year!), taking advantage of the 15% deal (code GIFT2016), and we had our dim sum on Boxing Day with T, who was back from Edmonton, M, J&K, who were back from Calgary. We made it up to Cypress today, with M, who was back from Waterloo:

We made some new friends with the Grey Jay residents of Hollyburn:

After an hour on our rented snowshoes (much too short but we had other plans), we went to Boiling Point in Burnaby for lunch with M, M, and C. H and i will be back to snowshoe more. We will also be back to Boiling Point to try all the other soups (#goals2017?). Lunch is a better deal than dinner, you get a cold tea to go with the meal, and it’s $1 less.

More links to information on Hollyburn:

https://www.vancouvertrails.com/trails/hollyburn-mountain/

http://vancouverhiatus.com/hiking/hollyburn-mountain.html

https://www.outdoorvancouver.ca/hollyburn-mountain-snowshoe-trail/

http://www.cypressmountain.com/snowshoetours/

Snowshoe rentals and ticket to access trails for 2 people were about $55. I now have heart burn because of too much food in the past 4 days, and not enough exercise. It's so nice to have everybody back in Vancouver. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS, THANKS EVERYBODY FOR THE WONDERFUL MEMORIES AND PRESENTS THIS WEEKEND. LOOKING FORWARD TO CRAMMING MORE JOY AND LAUGHS INTO THE NEXT 4 DAYS BEFORE 2017.

Read more about how I spent Christmas this year:
http://luwesa.blogspot.ca/2016/12/jolly.html
http://luwesa.blogspot.ca/2016/12/magical.html

These pancakes were not though. Went across the street this morning in search of a hearty breakfast to help me get through Christmas day. Ended up here at Ricky’s for some eggs:

My meal on the bottom - pancakes tasted cardboard, the sausages had a strange aftertaste. The White Spot buttermilk pancakes are so much fluffier and have so much more sweetness and flavour.
H’s meal on the top – chorizo was OK, corn bread was disgustingly salty, as was the eggs benedict hollandaise sauce.

Coffee tasted like water.

I don’t think I’ll come back… Sorry, kind ladies who served us.



H’s Chinese beads bracelet had been on his bathroom floor for at least 2 weeks, and I had noticed that it was there, but never bothered to pick it up because I thought that if I moved his belongings, he would get confused about it. Sometimes, he leaves things on the ground in plain sight. Today though, I had to pick it up, because it was in the way of closing the door. I left it on the bathroom counter, next to the sink. 30 minutes later, at Ricky’s, right after we sat down and had ordered the coffee, the bracelet was staring me straight in the face, on H’s wrist! He either finally realized he owned something like it, or he was just too lazy all along to bend down and pick it up. You be the judge.

We got back to my house, after grabbing last minute groceries, wrapped presents, and now I must rush off to the parties. Merry Christmas. Happy Festivus.

Met up with M to do some last minute Christmas shopping and catch up since she’d just come back from Ireland. She’s staying in Surrey right now, and I really would not venture out for very many people, but she’s a special one and brings much joy to my life so I agreed to pick her up to go to Guildford Mall.  The hunger hit us after having only a Nespresso shot earlier on. I mentioned pho to her, and she knew immediately which place to bring me to. It was the same that J, another Surrey native, had recommended earlier on that week. Is it because Pho Tam might be the only safe place for pho in Surrey? I had to find out if it lived up to the hype.

I had the Special A – any large beef noodle with a spring roll for TEN DOLLARS. How can you go wrong?! Look at all the beef. It was steaming hot, and the spring roll was fresh and crispy. Stomach’s growling now, just thinking about it. I’m sort of curious about the rest of Surrey now… What else is in this supposedly dark, dangerous land?

Parking lot in front of the place is teeny tiny. Be careful! (Always be careful in Surrey.)

Steamworks for A and G’s going away dinner afterwards. Breakfast and extremely last minute Christmas shopping/Boxing Day shopping (the sales have started already…) this morning. The schedule for the rest of this week is packed with eating. I’m planning for January to be a recovery month.

This weekend was just the beginning of all the celebrations and parties and FOOD…

Started off with a work Christmas party, then a party at H’s best friend’s house, then a dinner with my very Chinese family. Snuck in some time during the snow storm today to yoga and then make up for the lost calories with this creation from Lucky’s:

Mont blanc donut – chestnut poop thing on top, sprinkled with sugar and festive gold flakes.

Orange filling. Not really into orange flavored things, but this was really popular with H’s parents.

I would like to try out the rest of the holiday flavours.

Also just wanted to document the work Christmas party at the Vancouver Convention Centre. The food did not disappoint (please see below). Sorry for the crap photos, I was sort of buzzered, even though we only had 3 drink tickets each (open bar all previous years, but 3 drinks is really more than enough).



Won a Biolite… H is such a lucky fella. We won the extra prize draw tickets, and then we won the Biolite. Still haven’t used the pizza oven from last year, but really looking forward to trying it.

Snow sucks. Being sick sucks. Merry Christmas (probably won’t be).

It was so crowded when we got to Cypress around 6PM. Poor J had to line up for an hour to get her rentals. We went for pho after, but I lost the picture. I think my phone has too many photos now and is no longer saving them properly.

Very strange to think that this winter wonderland is less than an hour’s drive away from my house. Will this snow last? I’m planning to enjoy it as much as possible before it’s gone forever.

Much hunger. Could’ve finished this entire Whole Foods carrot cake by myself:

The state of the world has been on my mind for the past month… How do I live a zero waste life?
I’m pretty sure that would be too difficult, but I’m hopeful for change. Here’s something to consider if you like coffee! If you’re familiar with coffee pods, used in Keurigs and such, you will know how much hassle it is to recycle them properly. Nespresso offers aluminum pods that can be brought back to their stores for recycling, which is slightly easier but still takes time to transport each pod back to the store. I read today about 100% biodegradable coffee pod by G-PAK! Not available yet, but these will be a must have in 2016! (I’m excited enough for 6 exclamation marks in 1 post). They’re a local Vancouver company too.

Here's another shot of the inside of the cake:

 

Biked around the city to find a coffee place (not Starbucks) open on Christmas. Propaganda was the only one I found (maybe I wasn’t searching hard enough).

As my attempt to lower my carbon footprint and save money (the world is dying; see #cop21), I decided to stop using disposable cups forever. Other than a slip last week during a team Starbucks run, I’ve been pretty good at using my Intelligentsia Thermos mug and this mason jar:

The mason jar survived the bike ride home, full of coffee, zero drops wasted of my $3 Americano. I am IMPRESSED!!!!!!
I think next month, I will make it a goal to bus or bike to work only. Merry Christmas everyone.