As I’ve written before, Christmas Eve is our big night, a tradition with both the Finns and the Germans, with a lovely meal, carols around the piano, and then Santa’s visit. This year at our eldest daughter’s place, we missed having some bright-eyed and excited little children to add to the excitement. Richard, with a nod to the Finnish tradition, made a delicious meal of ham and vegetables.

Another family tradition of ours is to go out afterwards to see a local park’s Christmas lights while awaiting Santa. This time it was the BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops for its Wildlights and a jolly miniature train ride. It was too dark to see the wild animals that are rehabilitated there but we enjoyed the light displays, glad for the mild dry evening (while Vancouver was having a terrific rainstorm).

Back at the house, we enjoyed Christmas songs by Anita and Erika to the accompaniment of the guitar by Erika. We exchanged and opened gifts then enjoyed my contribution of a trifle for dessert, made with my own green tomato mincemeat.

How do you usually celebrate Christmas Eve? I remember one Eve years ago before we had a family which we had spent with friends then living in Fort Nelson in northeast BC. We joined them for a beautiful midnight Mass at their church on a very crisp and cold night with the stars bright in the sky.

We have been away for a few days, spending Christmas with our eldest daughter Anita and partner Richard at their home in the countryside east of Kamloops. We had a wonderful time, thanks to their generous hospitality, lovely holiday decorations and fantastic food by chef Richard!

We’ve taken over a hundred photos which I’ve just been downloading. For now I’ll just show a few from the 4 to 5 hour journey up there along the magestic Coquihalla Highway over the mountains, with the highest summit at about 1250 metres (4100 feet). While Vancouver and the Fraser Valley stayed green and wet, as we climbed higher and higher we reached heavy snow levels and falling snow – so beautiful! It was hard to take good photos from a moving car and with no places to stop with the high snowbanks.

Driving at times was quite treacherous with too many drivers going too fast for the conditions. The last photo shows the amazing panorama on the north side heading down to the Merritt Valley with less snow on the road but more black ice. We saw many cars and even semi-trailer trucks off the road. Anyway, we made it safely there and back again.

The Thompson River valley and Kamloops area did not have a lot of snow left from earlier snowfalls, though it was enough to call it a White Christmas compared to Vancouver. However it was a good thing we left the cross country skis and toboggan at home and I never did get to try out Anita’s snowshoes.

I’ll try to post more photos over the next few days. I hope you have all had a great Christmas and that you are enjoying these last days of the year.

It’s Canada Day today. Our Queen is in Ottawa this year to celebrate our country’s 143rd birthday and give us the gift of a special rock.

Below are a couple of other articles Canadians and non-Canadians might enjoy. We Canadians are rather noted for being modest while being quietly proud of our country, so I don’t really like this bragging tone nor a “branding” of Canada, even if said a little tongue-in-cheek. What do you think?

– A new national angst: Getting used to bragging rights* (link expired and removed)
– What is Canada’s brand?