Home for Christmas...

...and it's a wee bit chilly!! I flew into Winnipeg last night and was quickly reminded of how lucky I am to live on the west coast (and how much of a wuss i've become!!) Today, it was the wind that was viscious. Temperature wise, it wasn't too bad, but add the wind and it's a whole new story. Pictures from Christmas with the fam will come later, but for now, here's a snowy scene from today that will hopefully cause you to be thankful and warm in your house!!!

tis the season...

...for christmas plays at church!!!
Pammer's niece Maya (age 8) had a solo and 2 dance numbers (she was very excited about it!!) Here's one of the dances, Maya is in the middle

And here she is singing

I don't actually know any of these kids in the nativity scene, but they were all really cute and i thought the cow costume was a nice touch!

And of course, gotta love kids waving at their parents!!!

wrapping fun!

tonight i helped Pammer wrap her christmas presents, because she had a ton to wrap. But first we decided to play with some of the presents! She got some puppets for a few of her nieces and nephews (don't worry, i'm not ruining a surprise, they're ages 4 and under, and therefore not blog readers...lol!). anyway, we had a great time! Here i am enjoying a conversation with the dogs, cow and moose.
Clearly, someone said something funny...
But suddenly, they turned on me and began attacking...

Animals 1, Laura 0

And then it's back to being friends again

and after all the fun and games, some serious wrapping was actually done!

and the snow kept coming...but then it warmed up...

After driving home Saturday night in the CRAZY winter conditions mentioned in the post below, there was no way I was putting my car on the road on Sunday. So Pammer and I decided to get all bundled up and walk to the mall/grocery store, which isn't too far from where each of us live. I brought my backpack so that it was easier to carry our purchases home. We took a little detour to Mill Lake because i figured there'd be some good picture taking scenes, and it was quite pretty.



But what was to happen to all this snow? Was it to stay around and allow me to stay home from work on Monday? Alas, no....the Pineapple Express blew in and brought a whole lotta rain and warm temps...and when i say a whole lotta rain, i mean LOTS. This is the parking lot at work today, just after noon. You can see my cute little car there and it is in the process of becoming an island....it's a bit hard to tell, but in the foreground of this pic, there's quite a bit of water. The parking lot drains were no longer draining, something to do with how high the water in the river right behind our building was (see picture below this one)...so the parking lot was slowly becoming a lake (hard to believe that when i drove onto the lot at 8:30 this morning it was still covered in snow!)

And then as you can see out the back of our building, there's lots of water!! There is normally a walking path that runs through about the middle of this pic (sort of where that row of grass is). And in the foreground, it's usually all dry. All this to say that YAY i got to come home early today!!!!! The water was right up against our building and there was a worry with regard to electrical stuff or something....no matter to me, i got to come home!!

Weekend 'O Fun in Vancouver

On Friday after work, Pammer and I headed into Vancouver to hang out with our friends Mike and Jen. We went out for supper at an ever-so-ethnic restaurant called Sanafir which served a(and i quote from the website) "tapas menu offering exotic flavours showcasing North African, Asian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranian and Indian" cuisine. We concluded our evening with some homemade Americanos and a rousing game of Settlers of Catan. Pammer and I stayed the night, because then we could assist in the condo-Christmas-decorating that was to happen on Saturday!

We all awoke to a light dusting of snow. This is the view from Mike and Jen's window. The snow was not to deter us, however, and us girls fit in some shopping while Mike went to help a friend move. Here's Jen and me striking a pose infront of a fountain

And the ever-so-famous (and ever-so-expensive, thus also ever-so-controversial) Olympic countdown clock..2010 here we come!!!
We stopped for a bite to eat and to warm up at Caffe Artigiano

And then it was back to Mike and Jen's where Mike whipped up a wonderful appetizer-style dinner

Cheers to us putting up the tree!
After dinner we hung out a while longer, and by this time the snow was falling quite steadily. Pammer and I headed back to Abbotsford, driving in some shady shady road conditions. You know I'm a prairie girl and love the snow, but add in hills, ice, other bad drivers and a new car i really didn't want to crash into the ditch and you can understand why I was so tense and scared!! We got home safely, right around midnight, and boy was I happy to go to sleep!!

And thus concludes a wonderful time in Vancouver!!