Happy New Years!

On New Year's Eve we'd intended on going to Grouse Mountain. But all week we've been hearing about the line ups and parking nightmares. We would have had to leave at 8 am, and stay until the fireworks at ten, then battle our way back down the mountain...it just didn't sound fun.

So we had a party at our house instead.

With delicious food, and riotous games of Apples to Apples.

And then at midnight, we lit our sparklers.

Happy New Years!

Bright Lights at Stanley Park

The last of the Christmassing was a trip to Stanley Park. We had attempted to go sooner, but the tickets sell out so quickly! We finally managed to secure tickets for the 30th. Ii think it was for the best, as the weather was SO much nicer (albeit colder) than the previous week.

It's been years since we last came down for the lights. But they were just as beautiful as always.

While Elisabeth watched the Nutcracker (the one with McCauley Culkin), we wandered down to Santa's Workshop.

Surprisingly, we've never spent more than an hour looking at everything. I'm sure you could spend ages wandering around and taking it all in.

We did spend some time colouring.

And finally it was time to line up for our the train.

I took a few quick snaps of us passengers.

And then settled in to enjoy the ride. What a way to end the festivities!

A Heritage Christmas at Fort Langley

We were so blessed with the weather the second week of Christmas break. Quite a change from the deluges of the previous week.

As the kids and I still had days off, we decided to spend Wednesday at Fort Langley. We have an annual pass and they always have something seasonal on.

We took our traditional picture by the front sign.

And then we went into the cooperidge to make some crafts and try the heritage hot chocolate.

And then the children proceeded to play on the walls for a good ninety minutes. They chased each other, played at battles, and built walls and quite ignored the exhibits.

However, first the cooperidge. There was a tree and a sack full of Santa's gifts.

David was disappointed with the quality of the blade on this thing. Said it was not up to Swiss standards.

So they moved on to making Christmas decorations.

There was also some heritage hot chocolate going.

David and his ornament.

Our friends arrived and the battle began. So Denis and I sat on a bench near the fire and enjoyed the sunshine.

Finally the children came by the fire. We left the boys poking around.

And took the girls into the big house, where lo and behold, there was dress up and play!

Griff got in on that for about two minutes before going back out to join the boys.

And the girls set about cooking dinner.

I think they make lovely pioneer girls.

And finally, it was time to go. So we took another picture by the sign.