A New Year, A New Start
The last 2 to 3 weeks have been so hectic that one day sort of merged into another. I guess the festivities really started around December 10 when the hospital had its annual Christmas party. It was held at one of the tech’s houses and there were lots to eat and drink. We had a gift exchange, you know, the kind where you take turn opening gifts and people after you can take your gift away if they like it. Wel, I had a couple of pretty nice gifts that eventually all got taken away and I ended up getting this mini calendar with kittens and puppies. Despite my bad luck in the gift exchange department, we all got a nice gift from the hospital: a water resistant jacket with fleece lining. In fact, I was thinking of getting a jacket like that; good thing I didn’t buy any!The night of the work party was also the night one of Dan’s co-workers gave their party. So after the work do, we went to Paula and Rowen’s place. By then, I was quite tired and the 6th glass of wine of the evening (I think I also had 2 glasses of champagne as well… but not too sure) made me super sleepy. And since I had to work the next day, we didn’t stay there for too long. I drank a lot of water before going to bed and was pleasantly surprised the next morning when I did not wake up with a major hangover.
The week following these parties was spent either working or planning or cooking our own open-house winter party. This time we invited a few more people than in 2004 and I also decided to made a couple more things myself. It was a bit stressful, but it all paid off because we had such a good time having our friends over. This is the second year we have hosted a open-house and I am pretty sure that we will make it an annual affair. But we will try to have it on a Saturday next year so that people can stay for longer and help to finish more of the food. Most of the food we served was frozen stuff that just needed heating up; right now, we still have lots of left over that we will be working on for the next little while!
Originally, Nick, Vicki and Dimitri were planning to come to the party and stay for the weekend. Nick and I both had the Monday following the party off, so Vicki and Dan took the day off as well so that we could just hang out and go shopping. Unfortunately, they had to change their plans at the last minute, so Dan and I ended up having a lounging day to ourselves. We took Gander to Cougar Mountain for a walk in the trail and it was great because there was no body there at all on a Monday morning. After that, we just spent the rest of the day lounging. Can’t really beat that!
I had great expectations for the Christmas and New Years even though I was scheduled to work briefly on Christmas day: we were going to Bellingham to see Leonard and his family and to go sledding at Mount Baker; Mum and Grandma were coming down for the weekend so that we could spend Christmas day together and then attend Aunt Katherine’s annual Christmas bash; snowboarding trip to Big White for New Year… But almost everything went south on December 23.
My wallet was stolen while I was having lunch at the food court just down the road from work. I did not notice my wallet gone until I got home from work at almost 10 p.m. that night. We went back to the hospital to see if left it there and also to the mall to check lost and found… nothing. So when we eventually got home at almost 11 p.m., I called the police to report the loss and cancelled all my credit cards. At that time, there were no unusual activities on my accounts, so I still had hope. The worse part of it all was that my Green Card, Social Security Card and Social Insurance Card were all there…
We headed back to the hospital first thing on the morning of Christmas Eve just to check that no one else at work had found or seen it. By the time we got home, I checked my account online again and there it was: a purchase from Best Buy that I did not make. Within minutes of me finding that online, VISA Fraud Protection called twice to question unusual spending of about $3000 on my credit and debit cards. My bank was open for a few hours on Saturdays, so I managed to get that all sorted out that afternoon. I also put a fraud alert at the credit bureaus, got a new bank account number…
We still ended up going to Bellingham that afternoon, but it has been raining at Mount Baker, so sledding was out of the question. We just spent the afternoon in Leonard’s house and opening some of the children’s gifts.
Our main concern at that time was really my Green Card. Without it, I might have trouble getting back into the U.S. after a short stay in Canada. Our whole plan to go to Big White was in jeopardy. But because of a stamp in my passport, our immigration lawyer thought that I would be OK. So I sent in an application to get a new Green Card and we decided to chance it and go ahead with out ski trip.
By the time Mum and Grandma arrived on Christmas day (the cats came too, but they boarded at the hospital), my nerves had calmed and we had a very pleasant and relaxing afternoon and evening. We had a nice dinner where I successfully made my first Yorkshire pudding. The next day, when I was at work, Mum and Grandma spent the day at Aunt Katherine’s to help with preparations for the party that night. That party was a blast as usual and I even agreed to sing a verse of O Holy Night during the ‘performance’. Dan made our usual contribution to the party, Leche Asada, and it was a hit as usual.
A bit of good news we got that weekend was that there were many dogs in Big White and that we could bring Gander with us on our trip. Whoever wrote to me from Big White Ski Resort who said that none of the Big White accommodations were pet friendly obviously did not know what she was talking about.
The rest of the week leading up to our snowboarding trip was not too eventful. In order to break the trip up a bit, we drove up to Langley on Thursday night after work and then on to Big White on Friday morning. The drive was good overall except for about 10 minutes where the visibility was poor and the road was icy. We even stopped at the Canadian Tire in Kelowna to pick up a wooden sled that Dan said was just like the one he had when he was little.
We are staying at one of Hock Lai’s apartments at the resort and it is the most luxurious apartments I have been in! We got to see all the children and it was a wonderful reunion. We had a great time on the mountain – the visibility was poor pretty much the whole time but the snow has been great. My biggest achievement would be to have gone down a baby half pipe and managed a few decent turns. I also sledded for the first time and it was so much fun! I had Gander in the sled with me once and it lasted on a few seconds because he jumped out and I lost the balance. Gander had a great time playing in the snow, but we found out that going in and out of the gondola is a big challenge for him.
There were 2 firework displays on New Year’s Eve. We had a great view from one of the apartments before dinner and saw the midnight display partly from our room and partly just outside the building. The dinner we had that evening was excellent with great company.
I have been a Whistler junkie for the past 6 years, but I am happy to have become a Big White fan. Whistler will always be Whistler, but the snow condition, availability of night skiing and cost of vacation will always be a bit better in Big White. Even though there are not as many restaurants or bars, there is a lot more people can do in the evening here besides night skiing – outdoor skating, tubing and mini skidooing to name a few. Now that we no longer just make day trips to Whistler, I think I will be more than happy to take a longer drive for a weekend stay in Big White.
I am not one for new year resolution, but Dan and I have decided that we will eat healthier and work out more. Hopefully, if we help each other out, we will be able to stay on course!
posted by Anne-Gigi @ 10:46 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home