An Actual White Christmas

I hope everybody enjoyed the holidays and that Santa was good to everyone as well! (We got Czech cookie cutters and truffles- beat that!!)

We were fortunate enough to be gifted a few nights’ stay at our friend’s family cottage up at Shawnigan Lake last week, so our Christmas was spent in 3 to 4 feet of honest-to-god snow. Huzzah!!

When we first pulled up to the cabin (a split-level cedar cottage- dreamy!!), the entire driveway was covered in a wall of plowed snow, so Marty spent our first half-hour at the lake digging out a place for us to park our van.

At this point, our van was still perilously parked on an icy bend of the main Shawnigan Lake Road. Shovel, Marty, shovel!

Meanwhile,  I diligently snowshoed (!!) us a trail to the back door and carefully unloaded our boxes into the cottage. Already, this was a HEAVENLY experience!! Cottage + snowshoeing = heaven on earth.

The cabin itself, as our friend puts it, is decorated in “typical log cabin shit”. None of the furniture or dishes match, and dog art, crocheted afghans, and M.C. Hammer puzzles (for real!) abound. Nonetheless, it’s a cabin and we were thrilled to be there! We quickly set to work building a (real!) fire in the fireplace and putting some sheets on our bed. (Incidentally, our room overlooked the lake. I wish I lived there.) I started preparing our Christmas Eve dinner.

Chilling at the cottage. PS: LOVE the granny square afghans. LOVE THEM!!

We got to enjoy the next two days drinking wine (which we rarely do– huzzah for holiday celebrations!), eating chocolate (which we always do! Huzzah for more chocolate!), attempting the M.C. Hammer puzzle (it defeated me… too many early 90s patterns to contend with), and best of all– snow shoeing! On our last day before coming home, we trekked 6 km through very fresh, very deep snow. Heaven. On. Earth.

Marty's retro RCMP pose- such courage and determination!

The private dock just behind our friend's cabin

The cabin!!

Sadly, we had to return to Victoria after a mere 2.5 days at the cabin. We debated phoning our friend and telling her that we had been snowed in, but we figured it wouldn’t bode well for our holiday karma if we lied outright to her. (It didn’t stop us from praying for walls of snow on the morning we were supposed to pack up, though!)

Anyway, we’re back home now, and it seems the rain will finally melt all of the snow here. Happy holidays to everyone and best wishes for the new year!

Snowed In on Solstice

Ah, Solstice! We had grand plans to make our way back to the yurt for a reprise of last year’s magical solstice celebration, à la white candles and medicine wheels. Alas, Mother Nature had other plans in store for us, and she decided to dump more snow onto the roads than Victoria has seen in a very long time, if ever. Delightful!

All I have to say is THANK GOD we didn't get rid of our down jackets when we moved to Victoria!

Instead of the yurt, then, we partook in our annual Court Christmas party for the first time, making new friends and connecting with the seniors who populate our wonderful building. Marty, bless his caretaker heart, started up a buddy system so people who are not able to get outside in this weather (there are many of them) can still get groceries or have their recycling taken outside. (I love that man!!) We ended up venturing outside to get our buddy, Maxine, the best grocery list ever: dates, organic plain yogurt, and hummus. A woman after my own calcium-craving heart!!

Despite not making it out to the yurt, we had a great solstice and, based on the runes and cards we read last night, we have an auspicious (in a good way) six months ahead of us. Onward, ho!

My Latest Obsession: Killer Salsa

My obsessions in the culinary realm come and go like waves in the ocean. One week I’ll crave all things naughty and cappuccino-inspired, and the next week I’ll eat nothing but lentils. Even though I tend to go a bit overboard with particular ingredients each time a new craving captures my fancy (GARLIC!!!), I figure as long as I’m not pregnant or eating Borax, I’m good to go. After all, I’m still *technically* consuming in moderation, even though ‘moderation’ in this sense means eating something until I’m literally sick of it and then ignoring that something for the rest of the month (or the rest of the year– it depends).

Anywho, we had a Mexican-themed potluck a while ago at work, and one of my favourite coworkers (He Who Also Brags When He Brings In Homemade Soups, But Usually Only To Me) brought in an abundant supply of homemade salsa. Now, I’m not normally one to eat uncooked tomatoes unless there are no discernible ‘tomato’ parts (it’s a texture thing), but I have to say, I have been eating NOTHING BUT that salsa (which is filled with uncooked tomatoes!) for a good week or so. I love it!! (I blame it on the corn, my latest guilty pleasure ingredient.)

(An aside: is it just my family, or is everybody mildly amused by and/or disdainful of corn? I think we must have watched too many comedians joking crudely about corn to take it seriously as an ingredient in my household… We still cooked it occasionally but never really utlized it to its full potential, methinks. And now that I’m obsessed with corn, I’m realizing just how secretive I am about it when talking to my family members. It’s like I feel guilty having to confess my love of corn! Am I the only one who classifies my appreciation for corn as a guilty pleasure?… Yes?… Nevermind, then.)

You might have surmised by now that yes, this salsa has corn in it! And black beans! And lime juice and all things delicious! Use it as a chunky salsa dip or (if you become obsessed with it like I did), eat it straight out of the bowl, uncooked tomatoes and all! (This salsa is definitely more bruschetta- textured than it is saucy, just so you know.)

B.’s Killer Salsa

You Will Need:

- 3 large or 4 medium tomatoes, diced (save juice)

- 1/2 to 1 medium red onion, diced finely

- 1 can of kernal corn (YUM!!), drained and rinsed

- 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

- 6 tbsp lime juice (or to taste)

- fresh jalapeño pepper to taste, chopped finely

- 2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (or parsley- whatever suits your taste)

- salt and pepper to taste

- (optional) One small package of dry vegetable soup mix (one that has little bits of onions and peppers in it)

Directions:

- Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Chill overnight and stir well before serving with chips, wraps, or enchiladas/tacos/burritos.

- Possibly become obsessed with it as I did and eat nothing but salsa for weeks on end.

- Makes a medium to large-sized mixing bowl’s worth of salsa.

Christmas At The Court

It’s the holiday season in Victoria, and this year, we even have snow!

There’s something about a White Christmas that makes it seem that much more special (and cliché!), but in case the white stuff didn’t put us into the holiday spirit, we have just the thing: It’s officially Christmas at the Court!!

We live in an apartment building (aka the Court) where Christmas is more than just Christmas- it’s !!!!CHRISTMAS!!!!! There’s a Christmas tree in our foyer, garland, tinsel, giant bows, very large fake presents affixed to the walls, and oh yeah– THE HEADQUARTERS OF CHRISTMAS CHEER (AND DOOM)!!!

(For some odd reason, our camera severely sucks at taking photos in the dark… and I am not about to go taking photos of this apartment balcony with a tripod outside… though it might be funny.) (PS: Notice exhibits A through E:

A. Strings upon strings of Christmas lights

B. Giant lit up candles

C. Lit up Santa face

D. Bells and whistles (literally)

E. Glow in the dark deer! And candy canes!

What you can’t see in this photo is the giant Christmas tree in their living room, the 9 glowing menorah lining their bedroom windowsill, or the fact that their living room ceiling is wrapped up with a GIANT PRESENT BOW!! How do I know about the bow, you ask? Well, I think they purposely leave all the lights on and the blinds open in their house when it starts getting dark outside. You can see everything. We all must bear witness to the Crazy Christmas Train.)

Anyway, this apartment in particular has been decking it out TO THE MAXX every Christmas since we moved in. In previous years, the apartment directly above them used to try to outdo them with holiday fanfare (e.g. ‘you have 2 lit up giant candles on your balcony? Oh yeah?!! WE HAVE THREE!!!’), but since this is the only decorated apartment balcony in our complex this time around, we can only assume that the people from the other balcony either moved out or gave up trying. Or both. Resistance is futile, right? And NOBODY CAN FLAG DOWN THIS HOLIDAY TRAIN!!!

All of the visitors to our Court immediately comment on the eyesore that is the Xmas HQ. Really, to them (and occasionally us) it looks more like this:

AAH!! My eyes!! (Can you see Dasher AND Dancer AND Prancer AND Vixen??)

I’m strangely enamoured with this balcony, though, and I secretly love to see how other people react to it. I’m frankly quite surprised that there haven’t been any car accidents on the street in front of us, because if I were personally at the wheel (god help us all), I would be drawn to those lights like a moth to the flame. And then CRASH! MOWED DOWN BY THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN!!