Tag: holidays Posts

Back in grade twelve, the graduating class of my high school, Sardis Senior Secondary School, performed a pretty cool version of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas for the entire school. I was kind of in the choir, even though we didn’t really sing. My friend Landy was actually the grinch, and he looked pretty hilarious wearing those green tights. The title of this post is a reference to something the grinch says near the end when he ponders the real significant of Christmas. Without a doubt, Christmas is a hard season for a lot of people. The commercialization of the season puts a lot of pressure on families to buy gifts, often well outside their budgets. Back when I was a kid, people would compare their gifts at school and see who got the better load. Obviously as an adult, you come to realize that Christmas is really about spending […]

Well, today was a bit of a disappointment. I was hoping to be camping right about now, but apparently it’s next to impossible to get a campsite nowadays. Strangely enough, getting a campsite when I was in high school was trivial — you’d simply go up to the lake whenever you wanted a spot, and you’d probably get one. Worse case you’d head down to Chilliwack Lake (40kms), and find a nice spot there for even less money. Things started to change years ago when Discover Camping (the web service behind BC campgrounds) started allowing reservations. That means about half of the sites now typically go ahead of time, making it that much less likely that you can get a spot when you drive up. What’s also unfortunately started to happen is that people have started reserving campgrounds on Wednesdays and Thursdays such that they can book them through the […]

This weekend I’m going to do something I haven’t done in a long time — I’m going to head home. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve been back to Chilliwack since easter, which is a very long time for me. I’m not entirely sure what my plans are for the whole weekend, but I’m heading back to Chilliwack at least for a few days. I might end up in Osoyoos visiting a few friends, but I’m going to hold off making any plans until after I get caught up on sleep Saturday. I’m also hoping to spend a bit of time with my grandma, since I haven’t seen her in quite a while and she hasn’t been feeling very well lately. I’ll probably take my car to work on Friday and head back late in the evening after the traffic dies down. To be honest, I’m looking forward to […]

Perogy fest beginning soon. Here’s a shot I took of the valley on the way over. You can see little streaks of rain and a few flares caused by drops on my lens, but I like them.

Ahh, relaxation. Definitely enjoying it. I’ve been sleeping lots, eating lots, and watching a pile of movies. For the most part, my ass has been firmly planted on the living room couch, but I’ve managed to get outside a bit and see some relatives. Today is Christmas over at my sister’s house. Since my parents are split, today is Christmas with my mom’s side of the family. I have two gifts each for my niece and nephew, so I’ll bring one set over today and leave the other here at my dad’s for tomorrow’s round. Us adults don’t really buy for each other, but we’ve always sort of enjoyed getting the kids a few things. My grandma (or Baba as we all call her), is a cute Ukrainian lady that has been a huge influence on my life. I spent a lot of my childhood over at her place watching […]

Well, I made it. I am currently sitting on the couch back in Chilliwack, debating going to sleep, even though I just demolished a two liter of diet pepsi. I spent most of tonight just watching TV and the odd movie. Everyone around here went to bed hours ago, but I kept myself entertained with Saw and Wrath of Khan on TV. I brought all my camera gear out here, but somehow left my cable at home. So for now, I won’t really be able to post any photos.. I’ll head out tomorrow when I wake up and try to grab a new one and snap a few photos from around Chilliwack. I have to do some shopping in the local mall as well, which should be fairly clusterfuck-like given that it’s the last Saturday before Christmas. Since this is a fairly small town and I knew most of the […]

I had a few people over sort of on a whim last night, and we all sat around listening to music and enjoying Christmas nachos. I’m not sure if this is officially year two or year three for the nachos, but I’ve been trying to up the ante each year to see if I can outdo myself. They Almost Don’t Fit I had a few Christmas decorations sitting around in boxes, so we all took turns throwing a few up on the tree. Keira helped herself to R2-D2, and I think I got stuck with Yoda. Good times. Only five more days of work and then I’m off for a while. I’m getting excited about heading back home for a few days and spending time relaxing with the family. My friend Jan will be visiting from Chicago during the break, so I’ll finally get to see him again (we haven’t […]

Last night I got together with some of my old high school friends for an evening of games and Christmas cheer. It was great seeing that old group again — we don’t nearly get together enough. We played “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader”, which was actually harder than we thought. That being said, I demolished the competition and walked away with the “you totally fucking rule” badge. The final winning question, answered by yours truly in a display worthy of it’s own Rocky film, was “What Year Was Toronto’s CN Tower Completed?” 1976 Bitches. 1976. Tonight I’m having a few people over on a whim to sit around and eat food, have a few drinks, and of course Keira’s amazing guacamole. I’m totally not prepared for this, so I’m scrambling around trying to clean up a bit and find enough bowls for munchies. Santa Raymi and Reindeer Phil […]

Chad’s party last weekend was the first of the Christmas bashes, but they are coming hard and fast starting tomorrow. I just picked up a new pair of dress pants and my altered jacket from the tailor, and tomorrow I’m spiffing it all out down on Granville Island. There should be a small little pre-party at my pad near False Creek, and then a small little ferry ride over to Bridges, which is a fairly nice seafood restaurant right on the edge of the marina. Kasia won’t be coming to my place beforehand because she apparently needs a gazillion hours to get ready before hand, so we’ll just have to manage without her. Should be about 100 people or so, taking over the entire upper floor, so it’s bound to be a pretty fun time. This year they up’ed the ante a bit and set up a dance floor along […]

For some reason, I seem to get a lot of flack for getting ready for Christmas this early. There are those who can’t possibly believe that someone would put their decorations up in November, instead waiting until the last minute to put theirs up. For me, I love Christmas. I love coming home and flipping on the strand alongside my main window. I love being curled up on the couch with my duvet and a good movie, having no lights on except for the dim glow of my tree. My Christmas setup last year I guess part of the reason is that while in university, Christmas always went too fast. By that time, you were also extremely homesick, and putting up a few lights and some decorations somehow seemed to make studying in late December that much more bearable. Unfortunately for me, I always had exams on the last possible […]