The White Stuff is Coming...

Yesterday I swept the snow off the walk. Yes, I said "swept" not "shoveled". Yes, with a broom, not a shovel. Yes, we who live in lotusland are wimps. I had a snowball fight with the kids for about 10 minutes and then all the usaeble snow was gone, so we went inside. I did manage to get a snowball down Brook's shirt so she went in crying anyway. Bad Apa!

More snow forecast for tonight...about 10 cm...turning to rain tomorrow and for the rest of the week. That's what they said last year before we got blasted with 3 feet of snow in December!!!

At least we got the house ready for Christmas. Lights are up, tree is up, Christmas train is chugging through the living room, and the liquor cabinet is stocked!

The Fog

We've had several days of intense fog, another unusual weather pattern for Vancouver. Sitting in my family room in the evenings, I feel like I'm in a low budget movie set in a harbour town, with fog horns sounding every couple of minutes. In fact it is so foggy, the Cosco Tianjin was unable to berth at our Vanterm facility today at work.

The photo of downtown Vancouver was taken from the top of Cypress Mountain yesterday.

Sledding at Almond Park

OK, so maybe the snow can be fun after all. Tiny Almond Park offers a surprisingly wide range of sledding options from kid friendly to knee weakening drops of terror. The run Justin calls "Super Bump" almost broke my spine...we must have caught 10 feet of air over the bump midway down the hill. There were only a few injuries along the way, such as the one in the pictures. We had one major wipe out with Justin, Brooklyn and I all on one sled, and Justin has slope rash on his forehead to prove it. It was all fun until some dopey kid took out Brooklyn with his sled while she was walking back up the hill. More snow tonight.

Enough Snow Already!

I had to prove that we actually have a full foot of snow here in Vancouver...after a constant drizzle of flakes over 24 hours...and more to come this week. A foot of snow might not be a big deal in other parts of Canada where they have luxuries like...snow plows...salt...sand...I've actually seen ONE city truck plow so I guess they do exist, but it's hard to believe that busy streets like Granville and Broadway are left unplowed. Driving is a nightmare and my beamer is basically buried in snow on the street. My back is breaking from repeatedly shovelling and I think I speak for most when I say we've had enough! Where's the rain?

Christmas is Coming!

Only 5 shopping days left (including today) to buy Brian's Christmas gift. If you can't think of the perfect gift for the guy who has everything, don't fret, cash or giftcards are always welcome!

Imagine the picture of our decorated front porch (pre-snow) is your virtual welcome to our home for the holidays. Come on in! The kids are ready to roll for Christmas!

Snow Snorkeling!

Well, it turns out I was wrong about the snow being gone in 48 hours. Apparently our temperatures are the lowest they've been since 1964...the high tomorrow is supposed to be -5 C !!! And not only did we have a second dump of snow, there's a third dump coming on the weekend! Yikes!

All this holiday merry-making doesn't mix well with the snow, especially when snow is such a novelty in Vancouver. The story behind this photo is private, but yes, there may have been some alcohol involved...

Snow!

OK, big deal for most of you, I know. But snow is rare and wonderful here in lotus land. Everyone is now in a real Christmassy mood.

Stella did an admirable job driving us home from the office Christmas party last night in the middle of the "storm" (i.e. 5 cm of snow). Arbutus proved just steep enough to make things exciting for those without snow tires (i.e. 99% of the cars in Vancouver).

The party was quite fun, but shovelling snow with a hangover was not so fun.

Justin and Brooks pounded me with snowballs for about an hour until they tired themselves out. Snow should melt away within 48 hours...