Tinkerblue

The 2nd cake - raspberry dacquoise

I saw this recipe on Chocolate and Zucchini.  I emailed it to my mother in law, cause she's more likely to make it than I am.

And I was right.  She made it for my welcome to Canada party.  It was awesome.  Absolutely delicious. You should try it.  Thanks Barb.

Welcome to Canada Party

Hubby and Steph threw me a party to officially welcome me to Canada.  

There was a lot of food, Canadian flags, friends (old and new) and one Australian flag.  

Hubby and I were thrilled to see so many of our new friends.

A big thank you to everyone who drove out to our neck of the woods to help celebrate. 

Jacqui and Sean, Melissa and Jonny, Laura and Dan, Ulrich, Jeanette, Maria and Julia, Steph and Scott, Manfred and Ulrich, Alecia, Kyla, Sophia and Clara, Chris, Andrea and Alex, Kim, Joanna and Deka, Michelle, John, Mark and Julie, Tom and Donna, Barb and Stew and of course Hubby. 

I apologise if I missed anyone.  

I almost forgot.  There was cake.  Two cakes.  Steph provided the first cake.....

Now I am Austranadian

Last Tuesday, January 20th I officially became a Canadian Citizen.  

J'affirme solennellement que je serai fidèle et porterai sincère allégeance à Sa Majesté la Reine Elizabeth Deux, Reine du Canada, à ses héritiers et successeurs, que j’observerai fidèlement les lois du Canada et que je remplirai loyalement mes obligations de citoyen canadien

I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her MajestyQueen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfill my duties as a Canadian citizen.

Yep, we had to say the oath in French and English, because Canada is officially a bilingual country.

It was a long morning.  Hubby, my in-laws, my sister-in-law (Jen), my niece (Taylor), my friend (Steph) and I all arrived at the Surrey Immigration office at 8am.  

About 20 mins later they let everyone in.  I had to stand in a long line up to sign in.  

There were 91 people from 24 countries taking their oath of citizenship.  It took over 1/2 an hour to sign everyone in. 

 

Finally around 9:15am the Judge entered the room and the ceremony began.  The Judge thanked everyone for choosing Canada over everywhere else and then proceeded to almost insult every other country in the world.  I'm sure that wasn't how he meant to come across, at least I hope not.  

We had cookies and coffee afterwards.  Then Steph and I headed to work, and everyone else went out for breakfast!

Steph thought I needed moose ears.  

And a Happy New Year to You

We are not nightclubbers anymore, and $100.00 a head for a dinner is now in our budget, so how do we spend New Years Eve?  With friends.

Paul, Erin, Mackenzie and Ailis invited us all to ring in the new year at their home.  It was an evening filled with friends, food, drinks, party poppers, noise makers, fun and Mamma Mia the sing along edition!

Vancouver Aquarium and a Sunset Flight

On the day of New Years Eve we decided to go to the Vancouver Aquarium.  Again it is a very long time since I've been there.  The Aquarium has undergone some extensive renovations since I last visited.  

In June of 2008 a baby beluga was born - Tiqa.  We were able to see Tiqa, her mum Qila and her grandmother Aurora.

Other highlights of the day were the sloth, sea otters, pacific white sided dolphins, moon jelly fish and strawberry coral.  

Finally late this afternoon the weather cleared enough that we could take Morag flying.  We had been worried that it wasn't going to happen.  Morag and I hurried home from the aquarium to meet hubby at the airport. We flew up over the mountains, and down over the city.  Morag, who can't drive a car, flew the plane back to the airport, and then hubby took over to land.

 Grouse Mountain from the air.

Morag flying the plane.

 

Bright Nights at Stanley Park

After Grouse Mountain we stopped in Stanley Park to see Bright Nights. Bright Nights at Stanley Park has been put on every Christmas for the last 20+ years by the BC Professional Fire Fighters' Burn Fund.  There are over a million lights, and you can ride the train through the forest to see the displays.

Grouse Mountain

We came back from the Island on the 27th to find my car buried in our drive way.  Our first task was to dig it out. Then we had to clean up the spare bedroom/office so Morag would actually have a bed to sleep in, because previously it was used for storing all the office paperwork.  We have a perfectly good filing cabinet, but the bed works better!

I drove to Seattle on Monday to pick Morag up from the Amtrak station. It was good to see her again. This was the first time she had been to Canada since our wedding - 9 years ago.  We spent the next 5 days seeing some of the sights of Vancouver.  It was fun to be a tourist in the city where I live, something hubby and I don't normally do.

Morag wanted to see scenic views of Vancouver and not museums and art gallerys.  So we headed up Grouse Mountain.

We spent a lot of the day in queues.  In the queue to buy tickets, then in the queue for the lift, the queue for the sleigh ride, the queue for lunch, the queue for the gondola back down, the queue for starbucks... but it was all worth it.  I don't remember when I last went up Grouse Mountain, it was back before hubby and I were married, I think.

The gondola was opened in 1966 and holds 100 people per cabin.  It takes 4 mins to ride from the parking lot to the lodge, including "crossing"  2 towers that make the cabin swing quite a bit.

At the top we went for a sleigh ride, watched Born to Fly and Animal Tracks in the Theatre in the Sky, had grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, and bumped into a friend from work and her family.

 

Before we headed back down the mountain, we had to try ice skating on the pond.  Neither of us are particulary good, but it was a lot of fun.  My legs ached so much afterwards, we should go more often, it's good exercise.

The wind had started to pick up and we were both beginning to get a little chilly so it was time to take the gondola back down.  It was still snowing but the sky had cleared and we were able to see the city.

To warm us up, Morag treated us to hot chocolates at Starbucks.  It was fun, hubby and I will have to go sometime.  

Christmas Day

Taylor woke us all up bright and early to open our stockings.  

And gifts from Santa.

Breakfast with champagne and then it was back to the tree to open our Christmas presents. Have you ever seen anyone so excited to open a huge can of olives?

The afternoon was spent with our new gifts, phoning friends and family around the world, and watching it snow again.  My mum phoned to gloat that it was 26c at home, meanwhile we were covered in snow.

Then it was time for dinner with all the trimmings - turkey, stuffing, cranberrys sauce, gravy, brussel sprouts, cheese sauce, marshmallow topped sweet potatos, peas, followed by cranberry pudding with butter sauce.

Don't forget the placecards made by Barb, the crackers made by me, and the hats made by Dave and I.

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve and the Baby Jesus

This is the first of many catch up posts.

Christmas Eve it snowed again.  

No worries, we spent the day reading, playing in the snow, hot tubbing, baking, wrapping gifts, finishing christmas hats and crackers, tracking santa and enjoying Christmas.

In Taylor's advent calendar on Christmas Eve morning there was a baby Jesus.  Taylor wasn't really sure who the Baby Jesus was.  Barb read her Christmas in the Barn by Margaret Wise Brown and Diane Goode. The illustrations are beautiful, and I love the story - Margaret Wise Brown uses lines from carols to tell the story, mainly Away in a Manger and What Child is This.  It is however a little generic, the man,woman and baby are un-named, so it could be any family.  Christmas in the Barn is still a good book and Taylor enjoyed it.  Then Barb showed her where the baby Jesus would go in the Nativity set that night.

 

In past years we have gone to the midnight carol service at St Peter's Church in Duncan.  This year we decided to go the family service at 500pm.  But first we had to explain Church to Taylor and the task was designated to me.  We talked about Church being a place to go with family to pray, listen, learn and sing. She wanted to know what we would sing.  Christmas Carols?  Yes, but not Jingle Bells or Rudolph or We Wish You a Merry Christmas.  Maybe Away in a Manger or Silent Night or The First Noel or We Three Kings.  She wanted to learn them, so we practised Away in a Manger and Silent Night.  Because they are my favourite carols.

The first thing Taylor noticed as we walked into Church was the Nativity set, and that the Baby Jesus wasn't there yet.  During the service the Minister called all the children to the front.  She talked to them about Christmas, Santa, gifts, family and God and Jesus.  Then she started to read them a story about the Nativity.  Taylor interrupted to say that Grandma had a set like that at home, but the baby Jesus wasn't in it yet, because he would go in it tomorrow morning.  Woo hoo, at least we knew she actually taking it in!

Taylor was very excited when we sang both Away in the Manger and Silent Night at Church, and she kept asking us to sing them again and again on the drive home.

The story that the Minister read was The Nativity by Julie Vivas.  I had forgotten this book.  I used to own it, I have no idea where my copy is.  Julie Vivas is an aussie illustrator.  She did the illustrations for Possum Magic by Mem Fox, which is one of my all time favourite kid's books.  The text for The Nativity is from King James Bible, the illustrations are all Julie Vivas.  I have found that people either hate or love The Nativity.  The Angel Gabriel wears unlaced work boots and talks to Mary over a cup of coffee, Mary is heavily pregnant and has to be heaved onto the donkey by Joseph, and the Baby Jesus is anatomically correct.  I love it and our minister read it in Church, so it can't be all bad. You can see some if it here and judge for yourself.

 

After Church we had chocolate fondue,

 

 

hang all the stockings,

 

 

hang the santa key on the front door, and put out milk and reindeer brownies for Santa and the reindeer.

 

 

Taylor and Dave retired to sleep on the floor in front Grandma's bedroom window, so they could watch for Santa and the reindeer.  Dave eventually moved to his own bed, but Taylor slept there all night.  At one point there was a red light travelling across the night sky, and Taylor came running down stairs to tell us she saw Rudolph and they were getting close and we should all go to bed, so Santa could come to our house. 

 

I'm dreaming of a white christmas

Not so much dreaming going on.  We will definately be having a white christmas.  It snowed again today, and there is still more in the forecast.  It's not going away by tomorrow.  So a white christmas it is.

Today is more of the same - shoveling snow, building snowman, snowball fights, sledding, hot tubs (and snowball fights in the hot tub) and baking.

 

5 minute chocolate mug cakes:

Reindeer brownies: