Christmas festivities have begun...

As soon as December 1st rolled around I was ready for Christmas action! I wanted to be involved in everything that was going on! When I heard about Vancouver's amazing German Christmas market I was super excited! 

So we headed there, actually even before December 1st, on the last weekend in November! and I was ready to have some festive fun.  I figured we'd be there for at least a couple of hours so we got there early.  I'm not sure if I was expecting Winter Wonderland proportions, but we ended up seeing the whole thing in around 15 minutes! 

It was pretty disappointing I thought...

but I did get a tasty bratwurst,

By got a schnitzel

and we got some hot apple cider in this Vancouver painted mug that we got to keep! 

Plus we got to see this giant horn so not all was lost! 

In my mind it didn't matter too much because later that night we were heading to 'Candytown'.  A Christmas festival in one of the neighbourhoods downtown known as Yaletown.  It had been advertised as something major...that the trendy neighbourhood would be turned into a winter wonderland with twinkling lights and giant candy canes, plus an awesome Christmas market for all your holiday gift shopping! 

Unfortunately, these ice sculptures were as good as it got! 

Unless I wanted to join up for a Costco membership or buy a piece of fudge from the handful of stalls that made up the 'All I want for Christmas Street Market', then that was kind of a letdown! They had free horse drawn carriage rides too but the queue was around the block and over 100 people long! 

So with no giant candy canes in sight, we looked at the ice sculptures, took a picture by this sign and headed home! (Why they would choose Torquay out of all the places in England is beyond me! random!)

I was beginning to think I just needed to lower my expectations for Christmas fun here in Vancouver! but fortunately the Christmas tree farm pulled through! We headed out to H&M tree farm last Saturday after hiring out this pick up truck! 

I had heard you could cut down your own tree, which sounded amazing! 

So we got there and found fields and fields full of Christmas trees, varying types and varying sizes! It was tough to choose because there were just SO many! 

We got right down to business by grabbing a saw on the way in!

By was designated lumberjack for the day...since he's the forester after all!

I had my eye on these 10 foot beauties! but I'm thinking we would have been there a while sawing through those fat trunks!

In the end we settled on this little guy and By got to work,

it was easier than I thought it would be and in no time at all we were in the 'line up', as they say here in Canada! ready to pay for our tree!

but the excitement didn't end there...oh no!

because we got free hot dogs, and free hot apple cider! They sure do love to give free stuff away here :) I was especially in love with these giant ketchup tins they kept the skewers in!

The coolest part about the free hot dogs was getting to roast them yourself around the campfire!

If only I'd brought a stash of graham crackers and marshmallows in my pocket! It was also a nice way to warm up after we'd spent quite a while browsing for the perfect tree and had got pretty chilly!

Once the frankies were sufficiently toasted, we loaded them up into their buns and chowed down.  

Those of you who know me well will know just how important a real Christmas tree is to me each year,  if you don't know I spoke about it last year here.  I've always loved Christmas tree farms the best, but the fact we actually got to pick and chop the tree down too will certainly be a tree picking experience I won't forget in a hurry!

Now if only the rest of the Christmas fun would live up to the hype, I'd be a very happy girl indeed!

Deep Fried Cheesecake, DE-FENCE & 1st Trip to Walmart!

Be prepared for another monster post - I just can't stop taking photos of this place! The friday before last we headed to Richmond Night Market, something I had read about on a blog ages ago and bookmarked for when we were actually here!

It was a lovely evening, with an awesome sunset - which we have been seeing a lot of around here!

It was a feast not just for our eyes but also for our tastebuds! 

There were over 200 different food stalls - now that's my kind of market!

I went for a hot dog piled with shredded pork and cheese, By got some crazy teriyaki chicken burger with yam fries inside the bun!

but all night I had my eye on this shaved ice stand so I got a mango shaved ice with coconut jelly mixed in! it was amazing!

When I saw the 'Cupcakes' stand, I knew I had to try my first Vancouver cupcake! Of course it had to be coconut! 

and we finished off the night here at this truck...

You know in North America they don't just deep fry hot dogs, they like to deep fry tons of stuff, and so we tried out a deep fried slice of Reese's peanut butter cheesecake! It was super tasty and the perfect way to end our fun night!

On Saturday I woke up SO excited because it was going to be our first time attending an American football game! I knew from when my sister, Mel, studied in Georgia that game days are crazy and you must show your support by turning up in the school colours!

Luckily, that wasn't a problem as a few days before we had joined up to become members of the blue crew, where we paid a small fee to get into every sporting match year round at UBC and we got this cool free t-shirt! which you can't really see here but you can see it on Byron later on!

We turned up early because they were having a free BBQ, seriously there are so many freebies here, it's awesome! so we stocked up on hot dogs and drinks and I got my school colours painted on for free and we were ready to head inside the Thunderbird stadium!

At this point I should probably mention that I know nothing about American football and really had no clue what was going on most of the game, but I just clapped when everyone else clapped and cheered along.  The only thing I really do know is that when you kick the ball, as the guy is doing in the photo below, and it goes through the posts it's a goal!

Their mascot was keeping everyone in check and was pretty good at drumming up support and enthusiasm from the crowd!

My favourite part of the day was chanting 'De-fence, De-fence' just like I've seen people do in movies before! We also chanted 'T-Birds, T-Bird's' which took me back to my Grease days so that was fun too!

We were playing a team called The Huskies who had come all the way from Saskatchewan University.  I asked the lady sitting next to me how far they would have driven to get here, she said it's 2 provinces over so they would have flown! how crazy is that!



This is the scoreboard to show we were actually winning for quite a while, but in the end The Huskies pipped us by just two points and won the game!

It would have been sad times, except we had been given a free code app for attending and guess what they were giving away that day - cupcakes! So we hot footed it down to the Cupcakes location in Kitsilano and had a brownie pop and a cupcake!



By would like to point out that he didn't choose that pink frosted one, it was the one that came with the deal!



Later that evening we hopped on the sea ferry which was rather exciting and took a trip across the water to 'North Van' as the locals say! There's a bakery that doesn't keep it's baked goods for more than a day so at the end of the day they donate everything to local charities and churches within the community.  We went with a few people from our church and stocked up on tons of yummy baked goods! Did we luck out or what?



As usual, there was a rather nice setting sun so we were able to snap these pictures looking back towards Van City's skyline!



That funny shaped building on the left hand side is actually a revolving restaurant which is meant to have spectacular views of the city...we may even make it there one day!

The other most exciting part of my week was going to Wal Mart for the first time!



I promised a few people I would document it thoroughly, much to By's embarrassment! so hear are all the details...

Ice cream aisle heaven...yes that's Oreo ice cream and Reese's peanut butter cup ice cream!

Not only can you buy 12 packs of A&W for super cheap...but you can also buy it in these huuuuge bottles for when you really need your root beer fix!

The baking aisle was especially exciting! apart from it was waaay too big to fit it all in just one little Instagram picture so this is just a snapshot of sprinkles, peanut butter chips and shredded coconut fun!

Pop Tarts in any crazy flavour you can think of....we got the strawberry milkshake flavour! plus they were only $1.88 a box - bonus!

Having graham crackers at my fingertips makes me more than happy! I cannot wait for camping trips in the spring with s'mores around the campfire...I just hope bears don't like marshmallows too!

Goldfish crackers are one of the first foods I tried in America...they remind me of all the fun bus tripping coast to coast me and my sister did! 

Unfortunately my phone died mid shop, sad times! but probably good for all the people trying to reach the bottom of this post! so I'll leave you with this one final pic...if you ever need to stop in and pick up some milk and eggs...and a hockey stick?!

yeah...only in Canada!