church service in the morning, and then lunch at helen’s.

getting wrapped up

merry christmas!

christmas eve dinner was (what else?) hot pot!

preparing the hot pot

hugs

eating…

and eating…

presents, mainly for rebecca. thanks grandma kathy and grandpa sam for my new dolly!

little red riding hood. thanks auntie for my cool poncho!

helen hosted a party. this time, adults only!

food

conversation

shucking oysters

cleaning up

we enjoyed a lovely dinner at shaughnessy restaurant in vandusen gardens; good food with a backdrop of christmas lights from the garden.

hello nutcracker

family pic!

a visit to vancouver always includes a visit to aberdeen… for my haircut! all the christmas decorations were out including pretty lights. i considered having rebecca take a picture with santa claus, but that day he was a young chinese santa, which was a bit too strange. even without a meeting with santa, i think somebody was happy!

first christmas get-together was hosted by karen and colay. it was wonderful catching up with old friends and making new (little) ones.

waiting for our delayed plane

reviewing safety procedures

the term is over and joe has been finishing up with marking exams. luckily he has a little teaching assistant to help out.

i have a bit of a backlog of foodie posts, so i’ll have to catch up. nantucket grill. i stumbled upon this quaint cafe in a quiet corner of one of the strip malls. not much going on outside, but the inside was quite cute and the menu looked promising. tricky part is that it is only open mondays to fridays from 10:30 to 4:00 (!). we made it for lunch on one of joe’s non-teaching days a few weeks ago.

sandwiches were big and good. i especially liked the new england clam chowder.

rebecca eating her lobster quiche. i think she approves.

recipe for steamed lobster:

“Fill a very large pot with 1 inch of sea water and bring to a boil. If you are not near an ocean you can simulate sea water by adding 1Tbsp salt to each Qt of water. Put lobsters head first into the water, cover and steam for about 15 mins. If lobsters are very large, cook an extra 4 additional mins per lb.

When cooked, lobsters should be bright scarlet and the antennae should pull from sockets easily.

Drain and serve while hot with lemon and drawn butter.

Unless your pot is truly enormous, it is best to cook no more than 2 lobsters in one pot.”

it’s always kind of hard to predict how good a restaurant is, even with the reviews. we went to “squids” and were pleasantly surprised. it was nice casual seafood restaurant, joe had a really good clam chowder and my trout was grilled just right.

steamed oysters with all its trimmings.

i think we may be coming back!