December Vacation - Week 1

Ok ok so I know that some of you are tired of hearing about me being on vacation, but get over it!  I work for Vancity and there is a reason why it is a top place to work ;-)

Vacation Week 1


Hooper-Taylor Christmas Decorating


I started my vacation by spending the evening with Lisa and Bill getting all ready for Christmas!   Bill and Lisa had already setup their beautiful tree, but we made it multicultural by adding Christmas Crackers, chocolate ornaments and orange crush candy canes.

The beautiful Hooper-Taylor Christmas Tree

Bill got to have his first Christmas Cracker ever, and the puzzle from inside kept him quiet and busy for about 20 mins afterwards!

Bill opens his first Christmas Cracker!

Bill then decorated stockings for his little family!  Even baby Taylor got one!

Lisa, Bill and Baby!

The whole while we watched Adam Sandler's 8 Crazy Nights.  I love this movie!  It is super cute and is great for getting you in the holiday spirit whether it be Christmas, Hanukkah or whatever.

U.S.A. Christmas Shopping!
Perhaps one of the most dangerous things I have ever done in my life is shop with Lisa!  Ok, that is not saying that I don't take risks or do exciting things, but...have you seen Lisa and I shop?!  It can be very scary!  We could definitely be professional shoppers with the speed and ease that we find sales ;-).

We set a clear focus for the day - Christmas Shopping and Charlia's Trainers - and we headed down to the Seattle Premium Outlets at 6am.  We crossed the Aldergrove/Lynden border in about 10 mins and talked to a hilarious border guard inside when we stopped to get Lisa's visa then were off on our way. (Lisa don't forget you still have it!!).

We were fairly successful at the outlet - I bought a lot of new work clothes at Banana Republic...oops I thought it was supposed to be Christmas shopping...anyways I did manage to pick up some presents, but you will have to wait to find out what they are.

After our excursion we headed across the highway for some food DJ's Barbecue which had been recommended to us by the US border guard.  The food was huge, but delicious!  They had a lot of different types of sauces and Lisa and I sampled them all!

All of the Different BBQ Sauces at DJ's Barbecue

Liddell Christmas Open House

Sunday saw Ryan and I working/enjoying 8+ hours at the Liddell open house/Renate's birthday.  It was great because we got to see a lot of old friends including Terry and Phil, Jean and Mike, and DOM and Donna.  

Ryan helps prepare some appies

We then cooked a ham for Renate's birthday...or should I say Jean Lewis helped us prepare Lizzie's ham.  The ham was amazing!  We poured a can of gingerale over it and then covered it in aluminium foil and cooked it for 2hrs at 300 degrees as advised by our friendly, neighbourhood butcher ;-).  It was super delicious and we will definitely be repeating it soon!

Whistler - Trip 1

Monday after viewing the Kimpton - a boutique apartment building just off of Lonsdale with Ryan's parents we headed up to Whistler for trip 1.  We headed into the village and picked up Dup's Burritos.  It was Ryan's first experience with Dup's but I still couldn't convince him to have a Phatty ;-).   

The View from the Smiley's Whistler Home

The Lights in Whistler Village

On Tuesday, Ryan had a lot of work to do around the house so I headed into the village for a ski lesson!  I signed up for the adult 4x4 lessons and had a great instructor Ed Jones, originally from Saskatchewan, but lives in Black Tusk where he often does work for our family friends the Ferry's.  The lesson was a great way to get reoriented to the mountain!  There was a guy from Miami and a couple from the UK and me in the lesson and it ran from 9:45 to 3 o'clock with a half an hour break for lunch.  

My Ski Group

View from the Moutainside

We had dinner at the Garibaldi Lift co. Bar & Grill. The food was great and I love the atmosphere there!