Part 2 - Xmas: Finnish Swedes, walking down the aisle & 2 kilos of meat
I hope you are enjoying the backwardsness of my emails. Much like the flurry of snow we’re getting here, you’re going to be getting a flurry of emails from me!
One of my New Years resolutions is to write emails more promptly and in chronological order. I'm not doing very well so far.
Anyway, the last 2 weeks were yet again a completely and utterly jam-packed with action...would you expect any less from Jenny & Tee - they who attempted to see half the world in less than a month ;)
So how was the Canadian Xmas and NYs holiday? I spent the lead up to Xmas in Vancouver, a city I've completely fallen in love with (more on this later). Xmas eve was spent at Jono's landlords' upstairs (he lives in a gourmet basement suite). We walked straight into a setting right out of a "Home and Garden" magazine and had a delightful Finnish meal eaten off fine silver dinnerware.
Highlights of the night were...
- Eating Finnish Xmas delicacies: pickled herring, mashed swedes and other root vegetables (apparently it gets cold in Finland during winter and there isn't much food to cook with) – despite how it sounds it was very delish!
- Talking to old Finnish people: I only had to explain to Finnish grandma about 10 (dozen) times that I was from NZ and was studying in Canada for a year, Finnish grandad also told us interesting stories including about how in the old days when you liked a young lass you had to ask her father for permission to take her on a date...and the date would be at her house (I'm glad it's not like that now!)
- Being asked what the Japanese community in NZ was like. I had to avoid looking at Jenny or Jono for fear of bursting into laughter. I think I replied something like "well there are a lot of Asians in NZ nowadays...err mmmm..."
- Watching 7 year old Gabriel delight himself with the results of the consumer binge high season. I have never in my life seen a child get soooo many presents, it was unbelieveable! I've learnt it's not unusual for 7 year olds to get excited about computer software and that Ninja turtles are making a major comeback. Cowabunga dude! I made a mental note that all my children are ever getting for xmas are wooden blocks and lego.
After the Finnish dinner we drove to a lovely nearby church for a Christmas service. My first one ever. It was a very enjoyable experience, reminded me of what the season actually meant to me, got to sing (very badly) to nice carols and walked down the aisle with Jono (for communion, hehe).
We returned home after midnight and after many protests that in the Lee family we are allowed to open Xmas presents as soon as it turns midnight, I reluctantly conceded that as long as I was part of the Ryan clan, I'd sleep first and open presents the next morning (boo). It was worth the wait. We had a gourmet pancake breakfast (thanks to freestylin' cook Jono) and had fun opening our presents that were lying under our homemade Christmas tree (see photos). I now have some awesome reading
material - Culture Jam (by Adbusters founder) and How to be Canadian (I'll be sure to share some excerpts with you in following emails!). I particularly enjoyed watching Jenny open my present. I didn’t quite finish making it – a scarf - so wrapped up the lot of it, including knitting needles, and spent the rest of the holidays finishing it off. Aren’t I great!
The rest of the day was spent making a pavlova (thanks to mum's special recipe) and a spanikopita (for those less culinary-inclined, a greek spinach and cheese pie). Sounds easy enough right? But no - the previous day we’d been on a daytrip up to Whistler (famous ski village) and arrived home at 6:05pm to be told that all supermarkets in Vancouver shut at 6pm...oh no! Thankfully enough to the ever open Asian produce store across the road supplied us with some ingredients to improvise us with. Who needs filo pastry anyway! The potluck dinner with some of Jono's classmates was great fun – we were told we had a kilo of meat to each eat – and since Jenny is a vego I got to have her share. We also got to eat pumpkin which was exciting. Canadians only use pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns.
Enough reading for now. So that was Christmas Canadian style.
Part 3: The aftermath - what happens after you eat 2 kilos of meat (and pumpkin, and pavlova, and mince pies, and fruit cake, and chocolate cake, and....)
One of my New Years resolutions is to write emails more promptly and in chronological order. I'm not doing very well so far.
Anyway, the last 2 weeks were yet again a completely and utterly jam-packed with action...would you expect any less from Jenny & Tee - they who attempted to see half the world in less than a month ;)
So how was the Canadian Xmas and NYs holiday? I spent the lead up to Xmas in Vancouver, a city I've completely fallen in love with (more on this later). Xmas eve was spent at Jono's landlords' upstairs (he lives in a gourmet basement suite). We walked straight into a setting right out of a "Home and Garden" magazine and had a delightful Finnish meal eaten off fine silver dinnerware.
Highlights of the night were...
- Eating Finnish Xmas delicacies: pickled herring, mashed swedes and other root vegetables (apparently it gets cold in Finland during winter and there isn't much food to cook with) – despite how it sounds it was very delish!
- Talking to old Finnish people: I only had to explain to Finnish grandma about 10 (dozen) times that I was from NZ and was studying in Canada for a year, Finnish grandad also told us interesting stories including about how in the old days when you liked a young lass you had to ask her father for permission to take her on a date...and the date would be at her house (I'm glad it's not like that now!)
- Being asked what the Japanese community in NZ was like. I had to avoid looking at Jenny or Jono for fear of bursting into laughter. I think I replied something like "well there are a lot of Asians in NZ nowadays...err mmmm..."
- Watching 7 year old Gabriel delight himself with the results of the consumer binge high season. I have never in my life seen a child get soooo many presents, it was unbelieveable! I've learnt it's not unusual for 7 year olds to get excited about computer software and that Ninja turtles are making a major comeback. Cowabunga dude! I made a mental note that all my children are ever getting for xmas are wooden blocks and lego.
After the Finnish dinner we drove to a lovely nearby church for a Christmas service. My first one ever. It was a very enjoyable experience, reminded me of what the season actually meant to me, got to sing (very badly) to nice carols and walked down the aisle with Jono (for communion, hehe).
We returned home after midnight and after many protests that in the Lee family we are allowed to open Xmas presents as soon as it turns midnight, I reluctantly conceded that as long as I was part of the Ryan clan, I'd sleep first and open presents the next morning (boo). It was worth the wait. We had a gourmet pancake breakfast (thanks to freestylin' cook Jono) and had fun opening our presents that were lying under our homemade Christmas tree (see photos). I now have some awesome reading
material - Culture Jam (by Adbusters founder) and How to be Canadian (I'll be sure to share some excerpts with you in following emails!). I particularly enjoyed watching Jenny open my present. I didn’t quite finish making it – a scarf - so wrapped up the lot of it, including knitting needles, and spent the rest of the holidays finishing it off. Aren’t I great!
The rest of the day was spent making a pavlova (thanks to mum's special recipe) and a spanikopita (for those less culinary-inclined, a greek spinach and cheese pie). Sounds easy enough right? But no - the previous day we’d been on a daytrip up to Whistler (famous ski village) and arrived home at 6:05pm to be told that all supermarkets in Vancouver shut at 6pm...oh no! Thankfully enough to the ever open Asian produce store across the road supplied us with some ingredients to improvise us with. Who needs filo pastry anyway! The potluck dinner with some of Jono's classmates was great fun – we were told we had a kilo of meat to each eat – and since Jenny is a vego I got to have her share. We also got to eat pumpkin which was exciting. Canadians only use pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns.
Enough reading for now. So that was Christmas Canadian style.
Part 3: The aftermath - what happens after you eat 2 kilos of meat (and pumpkin, and pavlova, and mince pies, and fruit cake, and chocolate cake, and....)
posted by Tee at 2:28 AM
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