For the first time in a long, LONG time… Allan and I did absolutely nothing for our vacation. It was absolutely fantastic. In the 25 years I have been alive, I can’t remember a time that I have done absolutely nothing. So… it was a nice change, and a welcome one after a very hectic year. And so, I don’t have very many posts from over the holidays… which were spent playing video games, baking, and cooking. We didn’t even get up the mountain to go snowboarding once! *gasp* ‘Twas quite shocking if I do say so myself. However, I do have a few posts with some recipes coming up though, so check back for those!

Christmas is my favourite holiday, and what I look forward to most every year is Christmas morning breakfast.

My mom and dad get in the kitchen together and make delicious homemade waffles. Ice cream, maple syrup, strawberry sauce made from our summer strawberries, blueberry sauce, and fresh fruit like papaya become our fuel for a busy day of family and celebrations. Mmmm… so good!

Of course, Christmas earrings are a must!

One thing I miss about living at home is missing out on putting up the Christmas tree decorations…

Christmas tree and presents…

Allan and I trade off on the Santa Hat wearing on Christmas Day. We were trying to take some photos for my Twitter profile photo, but unfortunately I never got around to using it… I don’t look very happy here for some reason, so maybe it’s for the best

My mom and dad always make Christmas dinner, so it’s nice to relax and not have to worry about any cooking. I took care of the place settings this year.

No such thing as being too gaudy on Christmas!

My mom made stuffed mushrooms and a soup/souffle for appetizers.

My mom’s panettone bread is so famous in our circle of family and friends, that no matter where she travels… she always has to bring a luggage full of panettone wrapped to satisfy the requests. It’s always  a treat.

Christmas dinner is always traditional. My dad brines the turkey overnight, and then roasts it all day before finishing it off by smoking it in the BBQ. So. Good. There’s also a beef roast, vegetables, potatoes, gravy, and stuffing.

Dessert this year was some bread pudding (made with my mom’s homemade brioche!) and my favourite… leche flan… a Filipino version of creme caramel.

After dinner it was time to open presents with my mom, dad, Allan, my brother Byron, our grandmother, and several of our cousins and relatives. There was definitely spoiling all around! I was happy to get a very useful step ladder (pictured in the background!), a martini kit, socks (so needed), and some memory cards.

Allan was shocked and happy to open his brand new Burton CO2 EST Bindings from all of us His bindings are several years old, and are not only broken… but don’t work as well with the new Burton EST Supermodel board he bought this year. I think it’s safe to say he’s stoked to ride them.

So, Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year! I hope you all have a fantastic 2010! What did you do for the holidays?

We celebrated Thanksgiving here in Canada this past weekend. I hope everyone had a good one!

My long weekend was filled with Canucks hockey, a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and time with the family, and of course… more furniture sanding, painting, and refinishing.

Thanks to the awesome people at Canucks Hockey Blog (Hi JJ and Mozy!), Allan and I won tickets to the Canucks Open Practice this past Saturday. Now, tickets were free anyway, but they scored us awesome seats in Row 1 right beside the players’ bench!

It was great to see all the fans come out to support the team… and also great to see all the families and kids there. It’s a great event that everyone can afford to go to, and the team put on an exciting performance.

The practice was filled with various drills and scrimmages, and lots of goofing around from the players. I especially enjoyed the showboating during the shootout at the end of the practice. We had an awesome time and it got us all pumped for the game on Sunday night (which the Canucks won in an awesome shootout of course… must have been all that shootout practice … right?).

The rest of Saturday and Sunday was spent mostly hunting for furniture, and sanding and painting. It’s amazing how much time it takes. We’ve spent dozens of hours already on just our dressers.

I spent Sunday afternoon cooking in the kitchen with my mom… and I think we put together a pretty nice spread! My dad did the turkey, which is (in my opinion) the best… he makes an amazing overnight brine for the turkey with fresh herbs from the garden… and of course it is cooked all day in the oven until it is fall apart tender.

We also had Kansas City ribs (no pre-made sauces, only fresh herbs and tomato sauce made from tomatoes from the garden, and oranges), avocado and beet salad, home made Ciabatta bread, roasted potatoes with carrots and blue potatoes from the garden, a vegetable tian with parmesan and bread crumbs, sparkling grape juice punch made from homegrown grapes, and some homemade chocolate crème brûlée from dessert.

Judging from the amount of food on Allan’s plate I think it turned out pretty good!

Monday was spent hunting for furniture, and finally completing the last coats of lacquer finish on the dresser. Here’s a shot of our setup in my parent’s garage. I will have before and after photos for you when all the bedroom furniture is done. We still have the bed to do!

Although I try to remember what I am thankful for every day at some point during yoga or prayer, Thanksgiving is always a good time to formalize it. So, here is what I am thankful for…

- Allan… my wonderful partner who means everything to me in this world! Thank you for always making me laugh and that we never get bored of spending time with each other.
- My amazing parents and my little brother… my whole family who I’m so grateful to be so close to.
- Our beautiful city and province where we can do all the activities we love to do
- Friends, for always being there for me
- My job and my coworkers
- A healthy body and mind!

What are you thankful for? What did you do this past weekend?

Happy Canada Day everyone! I hope you all had a good one.

Sadly, I have had to return back from Tofino early. Yes, I had a crazy surfboard incident. 11 stitches on my forehead. If you’d like to see the stitches, click here. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! So it’s back to work for me.

Pictures from Tofino coming up soon.

So yesterday, instead of surfing and being on the beach, I spent the day with Allan and my Dad in the garden and in the kitchen for Canada Day. We made hamburgers, garden vegetables, spring salmon, and potatoes. Yum!

My Dad has been meticulously taking care of a garden for as long as I can remember. When we lived in Australia for several years, I remember eating oranges right out of our garden. It’s been a long struggle for our family to make ends meet, but somehow my Dad has always found time to take care of the garden in the morning before work and after working 12 hours a day. I remember helping out in the garden when I was growing up, and eating fresh vegetables and fruits throughout the year.

Here’s just a sampling of pictures from our garden from yesterday, and the meal that we cooked up:

Freshly picked veggies and fruits from the garden: HUGE raspberries (my favourite), boysenberries (they are basically large and juicy blackberries), new potatoes, peas, basil, mint, and cilantro.

A view from one side of our garden, click to see where everything is located. Click All Sizes to see the large size.

The view from the other side of our garden, again, click to zoom in.

I used to have a rooftop patio in the west end but had to move all my planters to my family’s house when I moved into Allan’s apartment with no patio for a couple years. Fortunately, our new place has a patio so I’m planning on moving my planters over soon so I can start gardening again.

Lilies…

The blueberries starting to come out…

The plum tree, still green… but they will be ripe and juicy soon!

Fuji apples starting to ripen…

Tomatoes starting to get ready!

Garden-grown garlic drying out (shame I didn’t get that bug in focus!)

Green grapes starting to form on the vine…

Dill! I love eating herbs straight from the garden.

Flowers in the garden…

Our family’s secret recipe for hamburgers! Lots of fresh herbs and onions from the garden, and lean organic beef.

Hamburgers all cooked up from the charcoal BBQ with hickory smoked chips.

New potatoes and fresh garden vegetables (all except the broccoli)..

Grilled spring salmon (just caught last week) on the BBQ and grilled zucchini from the garden! Yum!

Yes, we definitely enjoyed some home grown and home cooked food yesterday!

How did you spend your Canada Day?

Okay, so I’m a little late on the Christmas posts. I really enjoyed something about this year’s Christmas. I don’t know whether it was the food, or the company, or the fact that I decided to spend the least amount on presents that I could, or that it was a White Christmas. Everything just seemed to be just right.

Normally we do Christmas morning, with waffles followed by tea and/or coffee, and present opening, and eventually Christmas dinner. This year we decided to do Christmas Eve so we could celebrate it with my cousins and their newborn baby. Of course, life always throws a twist at you and they had to stay at the hospital with the baby, but we were still able to pull together the family and have a good one.

Getting caught putting presents under the tree

This was also the first year I was told (by my parents) to save money and not buy any presents. I decided on a compromise; I would spend as little as possible on presents but still buy everybody something. I can’t tell you what a joy it was to just focus on something small but meaningful for everyone, and not worry about the credit cards this year. It was nice to just be with my family, enjoy their company, and have a great time instead of stressing out about the material aspects.

The dinner spread my mom and dad made this year was incredible.

The place settings were tasteful and very very pretty.

The turkey (thanks to my cousin) was tender, flavourful, and had the most amazing gravy.

The side dishes were great… broccoli and cauliflower gratin with different kinds of cheeses, stuffed mushrooms, asparagus and others.

My mom made a decadent chocolate lava cake for dessert from scratch with Callebaut chocolate…

… with about 12 different kinds of home made from scratch cookies.

The tree looked the same every year. A fake tree with fun colours and lots of different ornaments. It’s not that classy but it’s always fun to put up and we don’t worry too much about it

It was great to have Allan there, part of the family now. We all love him dearly.

And my little brother, who decided not to buy anyone presents this year.

And my parents who are so kind, loving, generous, and full of life. I can’t be thankful enough to have them in my lives.

I truly love my family. My parents, brother, Allan, grandmother, cousins, and aunt… I feel so lucky to be surrounded by such amazing, supportive people. And I’m glad to be close with them every day of the year, not just on Christmas. Thank you thank you thank you for being in my life!

Allan and I both got SIGG thermoses for Christmas. Yay! Just what we wanted, and perfect for snowboarding and backcountry. I got my little brother a Luke Skywalker toy from Japan when I went there.

What a heartwarming Christmas Eve.

Allan and I have both been pretty much freakishly sick over the past week. It got worse after the Avalanche Training course and has been steadily sticking with us. I made some chicken noodle soup from scratch… which I love doing when I’m sick. It takes a long time but it is definitely worth it. It’s all about the fresh herbs, and using organic, free-range chicken.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you had a good one… a White Christmas… and time with your loved ones. I’ll be off from now until January 5th so it’s going to be lots and lots of snowboarding as soon as I get better!

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate my birthday than with my family and friends. I try to go for dinner at my parent’s house every couple weeks since I’m really close with my family… but it’s always nice when they put something special together! Like a birthday dinner

I’ll keep this one short since I have to get up early tomorrow for a morning open skate at Burnaby 8 Rinks. (I’m learning to play hockey… well, learning to skate first )

My mom is a great hostess, and even growing up when we were trying to make ends meet, she’d still always put together a great meal on special occasions.

This year, my mom and dad put together a nice roast turkey dinner with gravy, with salad, butternut squash, beets, stuffing, home baked bread (she grinds the flour herself…), pan fried potatoes and other vegetables.

My favourite dessert in the whole world that my mom makes is her tiramisu. It’s not really tiramisu, it’s more like cheesecake, but we grew up calling it that. She also made a chocolate cake to satisfy everyone else who doesn’t like cream cheese, but really I was there for the tiramisu

There’s nothing that makes you feel more grounded than spending time with your mom and dad, brother, and close loved ones. I’m so thankful to have them in my lives!

Well, it’s off to bed and up early for some skating. I can’t wait!