The Taelemans´ Blog

Like I’ve told you before, my parents made it for Christmas.

They were stuck in Toronto for 24 hours, but luckily they were able to catch the first flight, on Tuesday morning, to Vancouver.

As you can expect, they were very tired, but they had to keep going until the evening because otherwise they would give in to their jet lag. I decided to take them out to visit some furniture shops because if we wanted to enjoy our Christmas dinner, we needed some dinning chairs.

On the 24th we prepared our Christmas dinner and of course ate it. After dinner we went for an evening/Christmas Eve walk. Kris wanted to take some pictures of the huge Christmas tree in Port Moody.

On Christmas day we went to Whistler. Our first stop was Brackendale: Winter home of the bald eagle. I think we’ve seen enough bald eagles for the rest of the year (but we’re going back with some friends in January, on the day they count the bald eagles). We did quite a long hike to the perfect viewing spot near the river. Because there was a lot of snow it took us a while to get there, but it was definitely worth it!!

After the hike we proceeded our trip to Whistler. We had to be there in time for our Nicklause North Sleigh ride and Fondue Dinner.

A beautiful 30-35 minute ride through wooded trails beside Green Lake before returning to the Den Restaurant at Nicklause North Golf Course for a four course gourmet fondue dinner (including an appetizer, cheese fondue, Chinois fondue and finishing with their chocolate fondue for dessert.)

It was a wonderful white Christmas day with an amazing dinner. We all ate waaaaay too much, but we really enjoyed it!

Normally we were going to Grouse Mountain today, but it was snowing again, so we decided that it wasn’t worth going up, because the mist would block the view.

So instead of going up the mountain we went downtown. We’ve visited Gastown (it is a tourist attraction, but they have a few nice souvenir shops though…). We had lunch in the Old Spaghetti Factory. The restaurant is special because it is decorated in a nostalgic theme using genuine antiques, stained glass, Tiffany type lights, and an authentic trolley car (in which we were seated). Which was rather nice!

Still on our agenda:
- Tomorrow we go snowshoeing (on Cypress, Grouse or Seymour, not sure which one to choose). Doing some exercises will be good to get rid of the extra weight we gained because of the dinners we had the last few days.
- On Sunday we will probably take the ferry and go to Victoria and the Royal British Columbia Museum.
- Visit Canyon lights
- Bright night at Stanley Park and the Vancouver Aquarium
- Downtown
- Metrotown
- …

I think we could say we have a very busy agenda. I hope the weather allows us to do all these things, because it keeps on snowing, which makes it hard to visit everything:)

Below some pictures of the last few days.

Some kids building an igloo in front of our apartment

And last but not least, our sleigh ride in Whistler.

Sorry guys, but we have been extremely busy lately.

I have been preparing the Christmas event last week so I really didn’t have the time to write something.

On Thursday it was the night of the event. I have to say that we did a wonderful job and that we received some nice compliments. We offered people a glass of wine and some appetizers. Unbelievable to see how people respond on the word “free”. People become animals (well maybe that’s just a little bit exaggerated, but still…).

Like I said, we offered people one glass of wine (because we were working with a really low budget, and this was mentioned on the invitation). A few people came back to ask if they could have another one, so I explained them why not, and most of them understood. But there were a few that asked me for something else to drink, and when I turned my back to get them what they wanted, they just ran of with a glass of wine… They actually stole it… How rude is that…

But well, we had 200 people coming in, so I think we can be happy that most of them enjoyed it:)

The German Christmas Museum is located in Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber. It houses a permanent collection of ornaments, decorations, toys and artifacts depicting the evolution of German Christmas traditions and practices from the Middle Ages through about 1950.

Attached to the museum, there is a huge Christmas store which sells traditional German decorations such as Räuchermännchen, Nussknacker, Christmas balls,…

We spent our Christmas evening in Kitzbühel and decided to take a nightly stroll around the town after the wonderful Christmas buffet in our hotel. A bit uphill from our hotel, I saw the full moon rising from behind the hills showing the mountain’s contour. In the picture it looks like the star which guided the three wise men to the barn where Jesus was born

Haven’t had a lot of time to post this week and I haven’t been feeling well lately, I guess the flu which is circulating at work finally caught up with me… So just a quick post before the weekend starts.

This picture shows the traditional wooden stalls on the Christmas market in Cologne, selling delicacies like various kinds of jam.

Have a nice weekend!

I just got back from Stubai . I was there on a business trip, and there was really a lot of snow (pictures will follow later). It always reminds me of Christmas time. We always go snowboarding during the Christmas holidays and this year we decided to go to Kitzbühel, Austria. I hope there will be some snow, because I want to have a white Christmas.

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. And actually I have to admit I already bought a christmas tree… I know, waaaaaaaaaay too early, but well, it’s kinda cosy… (and even my cat likes it, well maybe he just likes the decoration of the tree).

But well this is what it looks like…