Snow!

To get to work I walk to the UBahn (subway), take the UBahn for about half an hour. Then I take a bus and finally walk through a small forest to school. In total it takes about 70 minutes. Here was the forest walk one day mid January:

The snow didn't last that day, but this week we had another batch. It snowed enough on Thursday that the kids made a snowman at break. At lunch I was outside on duty, and the kids made me a "softball" for us to toss around. It was pretty cute :)

Home for the Holidays

I spent just over two weeks in Vancouver for Christmas. I did so many things while I was home with family and friends. A lot of relaxing too, which was nice. It was even better when I had a cat or two curled up with me :) Some how, I do not seem to have any pictures of this...

Sandbags at the beach

We went for many walks to the beach. I don't how many times we went down there, maybe even as many times as I went out for sushi! They had a wall of sandbags up, due to a couple days with possibilities of flooding. The picture above was my first walk down. It was not as clear the rest of my time at home.

Christmas Dinner

For Christmas, my dad's grad student and his girlfriend joined us. It was fun sharing with them what our Canadian Christmas is like. One of my mum's students gave her Christmas crackers, so we also got to try those out! Other than this dinner, we had a pretty quiet Christmas. We had our traditional breakfast of eggs benedict with smoked salmon, and some of us walked down to the beach. 

One of two short bike rides I managed. This one to the beach, and another to get cinnamon buns from the place on Alma.

Keeping two little ones entertained while eating

One evening we invited the twins and their mum over for dinner. That was an interesting experience. Lots of fun having them, but the four of us were pretty tired after that! Dinner time was a bit like a game of musical chairs, with the twins changing places what seemed like every few minutes.

Managed to see all my high school friends! We had a nice brunch out together.

Sandra and I got together and went downtown to go skating at the Robson Square rink. We also went out for lunch (sushi of course!)

Happy New Year!

I went out with my parents to a New Year's Eve performance at Jericho. We saw a play with Sherlock Holmes, Oscar Wilde and Lillie Langtry. It was a lot of fun, especially because we just happened to have watched The Importance of Being Ernest the night before. The play is set while Wilde is writing this, and is full of him quoting it, or Holmes supplying him with quotes to use. After they had some food out, a mediocre jazz band and then champagne at midnight. I introduced my dad to 2015 by showing him how to take a selfie :)

My mum's birthday. I made the best chocolate cake!

Melissa and I at Van Dusen

Melissa and I spent a rainy evening at Van Dusen for their light show. I have been before, but was still amazed by all the lights. We then went out for sushi! I think I had sushi three days in a row before I left Vancouver.

Still smiling, despite the rain!

The last weekend I was home was dismal. It poured with rain, so much it almost kept us cooped up inside. However, being true Vancouverites we ventured out despite the weather. Mum and I (and Christie who didn't come) had just bought new rain jackets at Costco, so we had to try them out.

The last couple days everyone else was at school/work, so I spent a day at UBC and a day at work with my mum. I also spent quite a lot of time sewing. I definitely miss my sewing machine when I'm in Germany. Plus the time to sew!