Rain rain go away...

We took a long walk to check out Sav's school on foot.  Thought we'd take the ferry back but pas de ferry on boxing day.  Good for the ferries - resting up.  So it was go go legs!

A family of seals came with us along the planetarium pathway.

At least we could stop for a rest at Granville Island before hoofing it back home.

Been pretty grey since we arrived.  Hoping for some sun on the sunshine coast tomorrow.

She has a special name for every kind of "dive"

Twas the night before Christmas...

This is what the living room looked like after Santa had been and before the kids arrived.

Merry Christmas 2012!

Santa came and there was plenty of morning fun.  We are all feeling very lucky and spoiled.

Coffee fix was achieved at the Evil Empire.  We can confirm we were not the only ones.  Bucks was heaving!

 

Mixing Martinis for the gang.

Lynn was in charge of the starters.  Nana cooked up the yummy roast.

 A few photos by the fire using MegaDob's fancy new camera

Great to have Maria with us for the night 

Lovely feast. No pics of the Christmas log with chocolate mushroom meringues by Nana and Savvy 

Boys finish off the night with some Postman Pat play.  We won't have any trouble receiving UK post with our very own Pat on Canadian soil!

Lovely to skype with Team Kendal, Team Japan and Shark and Ty.  More of that to come!

Vancouver Snow

This was our welcome weather. Not quite the powder of the Alpes, but fun for Mac at the park.

This is what real people do

Says Savvy, "This is what really people do":

At a restaurant, real people take this thing [a napkin], they open it up, and they put it on their knees like this!

In the morning, real people cut their toast in half, put their cereal bowl on a plate, and put 1/2 of their toast on each side like this!

For a dinner, real people paint their nails, put lip gloss on like this, and wear their pretty clothes.

(I have a feeling the non real parents are going to be a massive disappointment as the years roll on!)

Blurry. But you get the idea...

Amazingly, we were under the weight allowance!

The Boy Burglar About to Rob a Toy Shop

Having fun at the London airport.  Eva's old socks on hands, Griffin's camo trousers, Sav's old binnie, and ridiculous soother grin.  Perfect for cleaning out Hamleys!

Les Deux Alps 2012 (The Movie)

LDA Cont

 Cosy chalet.  Lovely bum, Sav, thank you very much.

 Ah, thank you Garderie!

 The boy and I did some sledging today.

Not to worry about pics of the blog master.  Mega's dobbo-cam is soon to come to life in the form of LDA- The Video!  Here are some stills taken from his filming on the move.

Here is a man...

 ...who has just woken up (grumpy)

 ...who has just pushed Sav up a hill through powder (grumpier)

 ....who is about to make fresh tracks down a beautiful hill (I imagine he is starting to smile a bit now)

....who ordered two crepes with sugar for pudding.  And a beer.  Happy

lad at last! 

Which makes for a happy Mom (nothing to do with the nutella on my plate)

Blue Skies

 On top of the world

 First chair ride.  Bye bye button lifts. Bye bye free lifts:(

 Dad looks pretty in Sav's scarf

Heading for Pizza lunch in the village

"This little piggy" in the bunk bed

Chris Hoy, the Medal, the Candy and the Gun

If you know Savvy, you know she keeps us on her toes with her "imagination".  Every Monday at BofA Primary, her teacher would ask her to share some weekend "News".  Mrs Metcaffe would write out the news, and then Sav copied beneath.  It must have been hard for Mrs Metcaffe to discern from fact or fiction. Sometimes Sav helped me at swimming competitions with the medals.  She spent the day with the top swimming athletes making a video.  Elaine did let Sav belay Harvey at Ratho (Mrs M asked me about that one!) etc.

Here are two Mondays from Sav's workbook.
The page on the left is all true, if not a little dramatic at the end.  (I think that is a wolf pictured, as well as Nana's building.)

As for the right page, the only part that is true is that Auntie A, Glen and I took Sav and the kids to Thunderdrome where Olympic Gold Champ Sir Hoy raced.

When we were reading out her work, Sav blushed as she heard the words from the Hoy page. She started to explain away the creative take on events but happily soon realised we were well on board with the story and then went wild with even more lovely details.

(France/Snow blogging to resume shortly!)

Notre Petit Flocon (Snowflake)

Whoop.  Little Sav secures her Flocon badge.  Great teaching by Jocelyn.

Mac and I rip it up on the sledge as Sav heads up for her big test.

Heading out in the morning.  More snow.  Les pauvres voitures!

 Apres-ski. The below cafe has pain-au-chocolat that are to die for.  (Yes, I plan on pretentiously dropping in french words throughout this holiday blog series!)

Sav reveals her outfit for le Noel. Sometimes she hops out of her snow suit and this is what she has on underneath.  Accessories purchased with early Xmas money from Nonno.  Mac on the death steps in the background.

LDA - More....and More...

What we're trying to say, is there's a lot of snow. And it's still snowing.  

Savvy is in love with her skiing. And Mac's at least putting his on now when we play in and about the chalet.

Glen had the best day of boarding he's ever had. And that includes a 6 month ski bum season in Chamonix.  He boarded right up to the Garderie's front door to pick up Mac and then met Sav and I for hot chocolate at our favourtie spot.  Sav and I had just been swimming in an outdoor pool and we're still trying to warm up.

Back to the snow.  The locals keep chatting about how exceptional it is.  We don't know anything different and poor Sav when she hits ice. So far she only knows powder.  She was gutted to see her Monitrice de Ski "cigaretting".  But then, many of the locals seem to be cigaretters and many even do cigaretting while they ski.

Sav's going for her first ski medal tomorrow so you're not wrong Nonno!  It involves her tight little snowplough turns, parallel skis for crossing the mountain, standing on the downhill ski with the other foot up, and two feet jumping on the straight.  She's ready.