OK I’ve got a whole hodge-podge of pictures and stuff to show you from the last couple weeks.


Here is me, trying to figure out how to play Wasabi, after receiving this game for Christmas. Luckily it is not too hard to learn.


After Christmas dinner I made sourdough turkey cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches for our lunch. Mmmmm sourdough bread is so nice. These sandwiches were delicious.


I painted picture frames to bring home for gifts. I got the frames for $1 and painted them with acrylic paint. I also had some varnish left over from something so I got to make them nice and shiny. Here are my bunting frames.


I also made a Settlers frame for Natasha and Richard.


And this is the chevron frame I made to match Cassia and Pablo’s apartment. I am really pleased with how this one turned out.

I forgot to give out the little sticks to put in the back of them to stand them up. I will mail you guys the sticks, ok?! Oops.


Here is the Ace Gang, at Leslie’s house. The first time we were all together in several years.


After New Years we all trekked out to Jac and Laurie’s house. They live 75 km from us!! It had been a long time since I had been to their house. It was lots of fun, we ate yummy tacos and talked and laughed and told old stories. We even Skyped with the Monnon’s in Florida. Laurie showed us some funny pictures of all the animals she took care of, and we even found a bunch of pictures of our parents. Even Natasha and I were in some of the pictures, as little babies.

Here is the painting I did for dad’s Christmas present. You can click on the picture to see it a bit bigger. It has all sorts of elements (past and present) from our cottage. Little funny things from all the years we spent building.

It’s pretty large, 16″x20″ I think? Acrylics on canvas.

I started to hate it a bit when I was painting because I was struggling with painting something that is in a FORREST and also on a huge CLIFF, but dad calls it folk art style and really seems to love it. He’s shown it to everyone that has come over, so that makes me feel pretty good. I’m glad it ended up turning out ok.

Yesterday was really really fun and delicious.

It started off with dim sum with the family. I got to have all of my favourite things, including (don’t laugh at my spelling!!!) ta siu bao, shrimp ha gou, that noodley thing, tons of turnip, eggplant with shrimp, shiu mai, and more!

After dim sum we came home and bummed around for a little bit. Then Rosemarie and I picked up David and Stephanie and we went rock climbing at Coyote Rock Gym.

i'm pretty sure i fell off right after this picture

rose and david bouldering

I was really terrible. I could only do the really easy walls. Any of the rated walls I would get about half way up and then fall off 5 times. My arms are soooooo weak! Rosemarie was excellent. She looks really good up on the walls, very strong and flexible.

I don’t think rock climbing will really be my thing, unless I somehow get bulging biceps.

After rock climbing we stopped by Taco Bell. I love Taco Bell for some reason. I think it’s mostly because I only get to have it every six months. I had a crunch wrap and that satisfied my craving for another long while.

Then we started talking about bubble tea and decided we might as well stop by My Sweet Tea again because it was “on the way”. Rose and I both got the same yogurt-y bubble tea, mmmm. Rose was not really a bubble tea fan before, but she loved this one!! Hooked!! Now we just have to find it in Vancouver.

Shortly after I got home I got picked up by Helenka and her bf Chris and they brought me out to their place for New Years Eve. We ate a nice dinner, drank wine, talked, watched Youtube videos, watched Midnight in Paris, and then counted down to 2012. They drove me home and I felt really wide awake so I stayed up and chatted with Scott for a while. :)

Quite a decent New Years Eve, actually!

I’m having a nice lazy morning after two action packed days in a row.

On Friday I was really really tired. I had a third bad insomnia night in a row. Anyway we were having people over so I spent the day tidying up a bit, and preparing food for 11 people. I made butter chicken, and saag aloo (potatoes with spinach), and Rosemarie made cheesecake, and Kate made an enormous salad. I think everyone enjoyed the meal.

After dinner we started our gingerbread houses. My family and the Monnon’s family have a big tradition of decorating gingerbread houses together. We must have been doing it for maybe 8 years? This year we had Rose and I, Natasha and her bf Richard, Sam (Eric’s gf), and Callum (Kate’s son).

We also set up the computer so we could Skype with Bill and Suzanne who are down in Florida. They saved their gingerbread house to decorate at the same time with us and we left the cameras on for an hour! It was really neat that they could almost be there with us.

This years gingerbread houses were pretty epic. Jane brought over all of her extra candy and we just had so much it was ridiculous. I covered every surface of my gingerbread house and so did everyone else, and we still had bags and bags of candy left on the table. We ate so much candy we all felt sick, and people even got hiccups. It was like we were drunk on candy. It’s three days later and I still haven’t touched my gingerbread house because I STILL feel like I never want to eat candy again! AND I REALLY LIKE CANDY!

The finished products were so good. We were all very creative this year!!

I made a board games house. Can you recognize it?? I hope so!

I tried to make the other side like Carcassonne, but it’s a little more abstract.

Rose also made an epic nerdy gingerbread house. She made a rock climbing wall!!! She says those are the real knots and everything. She also marked out a couple different routes. I love it!!

Nerdy sisters.

January:

February:

March:

April:

  • I interviewed for BCIT (in Vancouver), SAIT (in Calgary), Michener (in Toronto) and NAIT (in Edmonton).
  • There was a fire in the kitchen.
  • Scott’s aunt came to visit.

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:

December: