Christmas 2017 promised to be something different for both of us as our normal Christmas involves lots of family and friends and plenty of barbecues and swimming at the beach or in the pool. This year however our Christmas consisted more of rugging up with extra clothes and hoping it would snow to complete our dreams of a white Christmas. The Tuesday before Christmas we woke to an exceptionally cold morning. When we looked outside however we were overjoyed to see piles of snow all over the ground making the city look like a winter wonderland.
The week leading up to Christmas all the weather stations were predicting that Vancouver was definitely going to get large amounts of snow on Christmas Day. However, not surprisingly the weatherman was wrong and the most we received was a slight sprinkling of snow on our way to church on Christmas morning
Our Christmas really began on Christmas eve when we spent the evening skyping family who were either just finishing Christmas lunch or just about to start Christmas dinner as well as some friends who were driving to Christmas lunch. Then on Christmas morning we made our way to a church service at St Andrews Wesley United Church. The church itself was amazing to look at and incredibly beautiful however the minister went on a bit too long with his sermon.
Once church was over we made our way home to open presents, stopping off on the way to pick up a peppermint hot chocolate from Tim Hortons to warm ourselves up after the cold walk. Once our surprisingly large stack of presents was opened and all the wrapping cleared away, we dressed once again in our multiple layers and made our way to Robson Square in the heart of downtown Vancouver to try our hand at some ice skating.
Once we put on our skates and ventured out on the ice, the difficulty of what we were trying to attempt hit . The first few laps of the ice were spent holding onto the side of the rink and trying to make our way round all the Asian tourists who were hanging onto the side taking selfies for Instagram or snapchat and pulling duckfaces for the camera. At this point our skating abilities were best described as newborn giraffe trying to walk for the first time.
However as we persisted we improved and by the time we finished up and took our skates off we had both managed to do one complete lap without holding onto the board and Jess even had time to stop and chat with a friend from work without falling over
Once ice skating was over we came home and relaxed for a few hours before Jess cooked up a delicious turkey roll and vegetables for Christmas dinner. Then it was one last skype call to check in with the family and off to bed, ready to work the boxing day sales the following day.
Fast forward six days and we come to new years eve. Poor Jess had to work til 5 so left to my own devices , the best thing to do was to go out for coffee and cake. Once again Pure Bread was the café of choice with delicious salted caramel slice and coffee. Such a great way to start the day.
Once Jess made her way home from work we did more skype calling to wish everyone back home a happy new year. Once the skype calls were all complete we headed out into the cold to try ice skating for the second time. The famous motto says that practice makes perfect and that came true for Jess and I as we were much more confident on the ice. Within the first few laps we were even venturing away from the boards and closer to the middle of the ice.
From there we were off to Canada place for a free street party organised by the city of Vancouver. The street party consisted of lots of food trucks, multiple stages with different bands playing each hour as well as two lots of fireworks (one at 9 for kids and then again at midnight). As it was freezing cold we stayed long enough to watch the kids fireworks, have some pulled pork poutine from the food trucks and watch a few bands before we called it a night and returned home to the warmth of our apartment to ring in the new year.
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