Happy New Year!
The past 2 weeks have been so hectic with us both working 6 day a week shifts and lots of overtime, but we made it through and even managed to have some fun as well. On Christmas Eve we went to a nearby church for candlelight midnight mass and to sing lots of carols. There were only about 15 people so when we didn't recognise some of the music, it was quite obvious when we sang the wrong notes. After the service was over, we walked home in the crisp night air with snow underfoot, it was awesome!! When we got home Father Christmas had been so we quickly opened our stockings and then bedded down for the few hours left before work. Christmas morning started with 6.30am shifts at work, and for me an extremely busy breakfast shift with hungry hungry impatient customers, but then when we got home the day got much better. We had a Grizzly House Christmas dinner/feast and we finally lit the fire. The picture on the right shows the personalised placemat Nick got from Santa.
Sabrina and Chris made the starter, which consisted of Fois Gras, Aubergene Cavier and Smoked Salmon. Claire and Shelly made Roast Ham and Turkey, and even made me Nutmeg Sauce for the ham. They made loads of roasties for Nick too! Then for pudding Nick and I made quite a few puddings - lemon ginger desert, chocolate yule log, apricot crumble, chocolate truffles... and the big finale was Nick's Christmas cake that had been lovingly and devotedly prepared for weeks. He even made the marzipan and icing because they don't have either of them in Canada. After dinner I could hardly keep my eyes open so I went to bed, but everyone stayed up and played a card game called Phase 10. Its similar to Uno but much more exciting.
For New Year's Eve we made a roast, and had roast beef and yorkshire puddings. We had some drinks in the flat with Sabrina and Chris and then ventured outside in -30oC to a pub where we were meeting some of Nick's colleagues for a few drinks. Next we watched the fireworks on Banff Avenue at midnight, and Nick had his traditional hip flask of whisky. The original plan was to go home after the fireworks because we were working at 6.30am again, but somehow we convinced ourselves to go to a bar and had a bottle of champagne and did a little boogieing. Finally we went to be at 1.30am, which was immediately regretted when my alarm went off the next morning, and I had extremely impatient customers at work.
Monday and Tuesday we both had the day off work finally. I decided to have a very lazy day on Monday, and Nick went up to Norquay and shadowed a skiing lesson to get tips for this Saturday when he'll teach his first class! Nick and I were able to go skiing on Tuesday at Sunshine again, and you'll be pleased to hear that my ski's made it down the hill without hitting anymore rocks. It was such a cold day, so when we got home we had hot chocolate with Cointreau and hot chocolate with Kahlua. We also have some exciting news, we bought a car on Tuesday night. Its a 2001 Dodge Caravan (minivan), its silver and has a few dents, but its runs well and we got a great deal because when we went to test drive it it wouldn't start. This was only because it hadn't been used in a while. Nick has been starting it everyday since and its started each time. We still need to get it insured and registered, but that shouldn't take too long.
Yesterday afternoon I went ice skating on Bow River with Sabrina and Chris. I was a little worried about skating on a river, especially when there were some cracks, but it was great fun. We just skated on a track where the snow was removed from the ice, so if you were going to fall over you could just throw yourself onto the snow. Its my birthday soon, so we shall keep up posted on any birthday shenanigans.
