Notes from BC

Yesterday we enjoyed our first Christmas in Canada, it was not as emotional as we'd anticipated it could be and we had a really great and relaxing day. The night before, on Christmas Eve, Lou finished work at 11pm so when she got home she phoned her Mum and then I called my parents as we knew they'd have just woken up. It felt a little bit strange that they'd all been to sleep and were then waking up and opening presents whilst we were about to go to sleep but it was kind of cool too!

As soon as I woke up on Christmas morning I jumped in the shower, quickly got dressed and then went online to have a webcam chat with my parents, uncles, sister, brother-in-law and nephew. They'd all just finished their dinner so again the time difference made things feel a little bit surreal. We hadn't even opened a present ourselves by this point but we'd agreed on a time which I was trying to stick to. After saying our goodbyes we then (mainly Lou!) prepared all the food for our turkey dinner, opened our presents and then did another webcam chat with Lou's side of the family. They'd set the laptop up in the living room and we got to see everyone at the same time, it worked out really well. As it was the evening in the UK they were already drinking their tipples, not wanting to be the odd ones out we decided to join in too and I had a beer and Lou a glass of wine just after midday! It was awesome to see both sets of families and it prevented us from feeling like we were really missing them because we'd still actually seen them, albeit not in person. We had some fantastic gifts from our families which had been shipped all the way over here at great expense, thank you so much everyone we're really grateful for them all.

We had our Christmas dinner around 3pm, Lou did a fantastic job and everything turned out really well. Even the roast potatoes which I thought had been destroyed turned out to be good so everything was a success. Believe it or not, despite us being together since February 2003 it was the first time we'd actually cooked our own Christmas dinner! In previous years we'd either been to Lou's Mum's house or my Mum & Dad's so not only were we in a different country this year but we also had to do something ourselves on the big day which we'd usually (I guess) taken for granted a little bit. We had a huge turkey considering it was only the two of us but I did my best to ensure much wasn't wasted! Before the stomach pain of over-eating kicked in we decided to clear up the kitchen straight after finishing our meal. One good thing about it only being the 2 of us was that there was no mountain of pots and pans like usual and we managed to fit everything in the dishwasher and tidy up within 10 minutes! In the late afternoon we sat back played with our new toy (a fantastic camera we brought for each other as a joint present) and then we put our feet up and had a few more drinks. In the evening we watched a film and tried to fight off the "turkey coma" which had started to kick in.

Today we intended to spend our Boxing Day outside taking photos with our new camera but we had some really thick fog which stopped us from doing so (we could literally not see more than 30ft in front of us for the majority of the day). I spoke to my Grandad on the phone in the morning and then in the afternoon we watched Leicester vs Sheffield Utd on TV. Being able to see The Foxes play felt like an extra present and even more so when the final whistle sounded on a 2-1 win. Tonight we're going to nip out briefly to get something for dinner and then we're going to watch the Canucks Vs Edmonton. Boxing Day sport is the best after all and I'm hoping to see a second win of the day!

Below are a just few photos from the day, I'll be uploading more on facebook soon for our family and friends to see.