It’s been a crazy month! My birthday party, going to New York, traveling to LA for work… I haven’t been home all that much lately! I finally got a chance to go through my photos from my birthday party, which we threw on Saturday, November 6th. My actual birthday was on the 13th, but we were away for New York so we moved the party one week earlier. Hard to believe I’m already 26! It was a blast!

This year’s party was quite different than last year’s party. The theme this year was “Champagne and Tequila”… so we didn’t have to spend too much time mixing drinks. It was a delicious and dangerous combination

I made a triple batch of my favourite chocolate chip cookies recipe for the party.

This year, I decided to have the party catered by Smoke and Bones BBQ Catering. They are based here in Vancouver and do AMAZING BBQ catering. They bring this super cool smoker truck along to their events! All smoking and cooking is done at the event.

I ordered their amazing award-winning BBQ baby back ribs, smoked chicken wings and drums, and award-winning baked beans (with secret ingredients!), cornbread, and coleslaw. It was a delicious spread.

I can’t recommend them enough. They are very professional, prompt, reasonably priced and the flavours of their food is incredible. I will definitely be booking again with them next year.

We also had a keg of GIB Gastown Amber Ale!

The rest of the party was a lot of fun. I drank a little more than I normally do at my own parties, so I probably look quite silly in these photos. Apologies

Quite a few people attended — we had about 150 people over the course of the night.

Oh yes, the snake wine that a friend brought. This was horrible… pretty much the worst thing I have ever had to drink. Never again!

There was a lot more space this year since we had both the outside, inside, bedroom, and sports room open. The tent on the patio really helped keep everything warm, dry, and toasty!

I wore a floor-length dress from BCBG Max Azaria and coral pink Ferragamo shoes. Needless to say I tripped over myself a couple times

We had a great time!

The cookies were all consumed.

And so was a lot of champagne and tequila! All in all, a very fun night. Thanks to all my friends who came out — it was the best birthday present ever to see you!

Every year one of our groups of friends organizes a Christmas Party… I’m sure some of you remember pics from last year. The party is technically called the “Erection Party”, to celebrate the erection/raising of the Christmas tree. The premise — everyone wears an ugly Christmas sweater or Christmas getup!

It’s always a lot of fun…

Amy and Kim did an amazing job of decorating their place…

I always enjoy the festive slippers and socks the most!

Christmas isn’t complete without a little tequila and a gift for the gift exchange game!

The gift exchange is always hilarious… as you can “steal” from each other a limited number of times and there is a definite strategy!

Allan wasn’t too happy since he always ends up with the most ridiculous gift every year… this year was no different… you can tell from the smile on his face that he loved his Jonas Brothers make-up gift pack.

I ended up pretty stoked about my red Olympic knit mittens! I actually wanted a pair. Yeah, I ended up wearing them the rest of the night.

The party wouldn’t be complete without several group photos, of course!

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In other news, I am flying out tonight to the Calgary airport where Allan and I will rent a car and drive to Golden, BC. We’ll be snowboarding and sightseeing two days at Kicking Horse Ski Resort for their opening weekend… and possibly even doing some backcountry hiking and boarding with Canadian Powder Adventures! We’ll be staying at the Canyon Ridge Lodge for two nights and the Copper Horse Lodge for a night. Then it’s a mad dash in the morning to drive back through Banff and snowboard at Sunshine Village, and then fly back to Vancouver!

Yeaaaaah… I ended up packing way too much stuff. All you really need is your board, boots, and jacket right?

Phew! It’s going to be a busy weekend. We’ll have lots of photo and videos. Wohooo! Enjoy the weekend everyone!