Beer Can Chicken

Mark got Beer Can Chicken spice in his stocking and Shawn, Mark and I decided to try it out. It took about 2 hours (longer than the recipe had promised) but a few rounds of Office Clue and Ticket to Ride got us through the time.

It was quite juicy and the spices were amazing! So it was worth it, even though we ate it at 9:00pm!

Here are some pictures :

Mark struggling to drink his beer with juicy, chicken fingers.

All that was left!!!

Our First Chirstmas

I had such a lovely first Christmas with my new husband. We came up with some new traditions to add to the ones we both brought from our own families. I loved decorating our place in the many Christmas decorations I have collected over the years. Mark was quite shocked at how much Christmas decor I had acquired, but also pleased at the fact we didn't need to purchase anything.

We completed almost everything on my Christmas to-do list that I created at the beginning of the season (except for making a wreath) and added a few to the list! I am particularly proud that I bartered with Chung's Trees to get our tree price down $10. My father, Captain Barter, was also proud .

I am so excited to celebrate many more Christmas holidays with Mark and carry on the fun. Merry Christmas Mark! I love you very much! There is no one I would rather have spent Christmas with.

Here are some pictures from our house all decorated along with some pictures from Christmas morning:

Santa ate the cookies, drank his milk and fed the carrots to Rudolph!

Me with one of my favourite gifts on Christmas morning!

I will post more pictures of our Christmas celebrations with the Guptells and Janzens soon!

Gingerbread Making Contest

Last night, a bunch of us were hanging out and wondered what we should do for the remainder of the evening. We had already spent the day playing games, watching the Canucks game and stuffing ourselves with 20 cent wings. We decided that we should have a duel... a gingerbread making duel!

We split up into teams of 2, but somehow the teams developed into an all BOYS team versus us GIRLS. How fair is 4 guys vs 2 girls? Anyways, we went to Save-On and set our timers to 5 minutes. We madly raced around the bulk food and baking isle collecting as many ingredients for our houses. The boys kept snooping and looking in our grocery basket, but we kept our cool and tried not to punch them in the face. At one point, a woman asked Nicola and I what we were all doing. She ended up giving us tips about what to buy!

May I just point out that the team of 4 spent $50 on theirs! We, however, spent $26. We really should have set a budget!

Here are the pictures of our masterpieces:

Not your traditional looking gingerbread house. Shawn's mom thought it resembled a Native Sweat Lodge. Creative though!

Yes, those are candles! They lit candles which was a great idea at first, but then their straws (used for holding up the roof) started to melt and smell awful. Not the sharpest bunch.

Not only did they buy candles, but they also bought balloons. They thought they could make it like the UP house... not sure where they thought they could find HELIUM!!!! (FAIL) Ah well, all was not lost. Instead they just blew up the balloons and irritatingly popped them throughout the building process.

Ah yes, the ever familiar boy band shot...sexy!

Ours was more traditional. Nicola did a great job of the structure of our house...

while I worked on the hockey rink in the backyard.

And what is a gingerbread house without a dead, bleeding Santa Clause who fell of the roof after being stabbed? Too much Dexter I think, Nicola!

Everyone had a great time, but left feeling quite sick.

I'm not sure why?!?!?

A dream come true for some.

FEEL FREE TO CAST YOUR VOTE!!!!!

LOST

A couple weekends ago, a few of my friends and I wrapped up the LOST series with a LOST party. We started the series last spring time and watched every episode together (with the exception of maybe 2 due to me being in Japan). We don't really talk about the hours spent indoors addicted to this show--especially the summer nights we spent glued to the TV...that would be slightly depressing.

Although 4 out of 5 agreed that we were disappointed with the way the series wrapped up, we still had a really great time dressing up, eating Cluck's Chicken, drinking Dharma beer and reminiscing about the good ol' LOST days.

Here are some pictures from our party:

Hurley was here in spirit.

So was John Locke.

Mark was Charlie. He was so dedicated in his role that he even wrote "NOT PENNY'S BOAT" on his hand in sharpie marker, which did not come off for days! I am sad I forgot to take a picture of that. But I did catch the famous Drive Shaft band member singing!

We didn't have the Virgin Mary Cocaine stashers like the show... so we improvised.

Shawn's Uncle drew all of Jack's tattoos on him! Nerdy or dedicated???...Dedicated!

I spent the night saying "I'm coming with you!" as Kate always does.

Josh and Jaime were very convincing as Sawyer and Juliet. Josh even had Sawyer's book and reading glasses and Jaime had to put up with an itchy wig all night.