Hey Whistler ~ Merry Christmas ?

C.. ‘A’ N…’A’ D… ‘A’

Allegedly that’s how Canada got it’s name as they say A after everything !

Not sure where to start to tell you what an awesome 10 days we have had here….. I’m sitting at the dining room table blogging and it’s really really snowing !!!!!! No I mean really snowing! Big snow flakes that stay on my nose and eye lashes….. now one of my ‘favorite things’ for real – not just in the sound of music song. All those Christmas carols are so much more real now…. “sleigh bells ring~ are you listening”….. ah the memories so much love and happiness on this trip❤️??

Anyway let’s go back – Jared was already here when we arrived (not that we saw him for the first couple of days)…. he was too busy having fun with about 15 mates from Sydney……

The house we have rented (Craig has been a legend in finding this place) is well equipped with everything you could want and of course we have had a ball together. The house has a big open plan area, an amazing fire place and we have spent time reading, social media (except for Steve)  and we watched a ? Cool Runnings about the Jamaican bob sled team. We have been out for amazing dinners and had lots of fun both at home and in the village.

At our family fun night in the village I saw these kids with a contraption that clearly made snow balls. So I asked where they bought them and found out that the Whistler Hardware had them, so off I went to get the snow ball makers. Seriously the shop was out of any American movie/ show where you could buy florist wire (someone asked while I was there that’s how I know), Santa suits, snow ball makers AND any nail or screw you can imagine by the pound or just a few ! I love this…..

We return home to make snow balls with the kids as we sit in the spa….of course we are all a bit silly trying to throw them as far as we can, or catch them and of course they disintegrate as soon as you catch them covering you in snow ❄️ Brrrrr.

Marcus and Kelsey arrived from a cold New York City to a snowy Whistler, and by this stage we had been here for a few days, got our bearings, found Jared, and had a few more laughs at other people who have fallen off the lift, drop bear style (Steve) or wait – my legs are stuck style (Lisa).

We have slipped over in the shops, crossing the road, that sneaky black ice has been a tad tricky in the car too ! Luckily no one was hurt during the making of these incidents and after a quick are you ok ? Most of us have then started laughing! It’s fair to say no one drives too fast and even crossing the road everyone is polite and stops in plenty of time for you. The walk to the village is probably a steady 15 minute easy walk through pretty pine trees and gorgeous houses. It’s so much fun being in pretty soft snow, a real winter wonderland ❄️⛄️⛷?❤️

Our ski days are varied but all amazing  – some have been blue bird days with lots of sun, however on the clear blue sky days, they are very cold days. We have skied in snowy white out days with poor visibility and high winds where we could only ski to mid station, but seriously why would you want to ski into freezing cold wind…… you actually get pushed backwards. Some days the winds are over 100k’s an hour….. Everyday we have had a little more fresh snow and we couldn’t have asked for a better week.

This one time at band camp- Steve thought he was taking Jess, Lana and I to 7th heaven ski run and we ended up on a black/blue glacier bowl run that to start with we had to take our skis off, and climb…… yep climb a very steep hill probably only 50 metres, but you are climbing with the skis, stocks and plenty of layers to keep warm, your goggles are fogging up from the heavy breathing and you are trying to get your ski boots to slot into someone else’s boot print, so you don’t fall backwards….. on reflection it was a bit like rock wall climbing in ski boots. We thought we would come around the edge and see these lovely blue/green runs…..

This is all before we get to the ledge….. yes ledge and basically have to traverse the steepest Mount Everest I have ever seen. Fair to say I was concerned especially for the girls. There was some colorful language – just for a change it wasn’t me, I was of the attitude ~ I’m not doing this and then Steve just talked us all off the edge….. Lana went first, I figured she is the one with the least experience and if she can do it, then so can I, eventually Jess started her decent on her bottom and then accepted the fact like Lana and I that you can’t sit there all day and you just gotta go for it!

It’s fair to say we all had a couple of stacks into soft cushy powder Lana and I laughed and Steve encouraged and finally, we were just on a wide blue run that was so amazing and I can honestly say it’s was a feel the fear and do it anyway moment! The photos are limited as it was a sunny clear COLD day which meant phones and camera batteries were on strike, so it will be a mind memory for the future when I think I can’t do something else and I’ll remember this! Which may actually happen tomorrow when we go zip lining off a 30 story high line ……..

Our activities apart from skiing have been varied.

The shops are great and we have done a little retail therapy…. Bri our friend from work recommended Wild Wood restaurant for french toast Banana Bread for breaki and seriously if I can sneak back in for a second serve tomorrow morning I’ll be there…… the garbage bins are hilarious! They have a bear lock and it took Lisa to explain how to open the bin to me to understand! Bear lock bins in the village !!!!!

The Mennie family went dog sledding and had a great ride with the husky dogs that Lisa later tells us were all rescue dogs.
The Watton’s and co went snow mobiling and what an afternoon we had doing that …. Christmas Eve late in the afternoon to watch the sun set. We had an awesome (quite good looking) guy from Melbourne take us up the mountain where they do this activity. The sign on the way up the mountain said Bears for the next 10k’s -do not feed the bears ?…… umm wasn’t planning on it anyway!

We all had our own beast (snow mobile) some slightly bigger than others and after some basic instructions we are off and the rule is we follow the line in front…. Glenn our guide had us only going as fast as the slowest person….. so I’m sure Steve and Marcus wish it was a little quicker, but I loved it ! I was behind Marcus eating his snow as he has a ball getting into fresh powder and shredding ! I had a silly grin on my face the whole afternoon and once Kelsey, Jess and Lana got comfy we had a blast for nearly 3 hours.

Stopping for some epic photo opportunities that Glenn said would blow my mind! Of course we were snow mobiling not on a photography shoot! But he didn’t let me down and I’m sure we got a shot or 2 that will go straight to the pool room!

Christmas Day dawned and Santa had made an appearance…… the stockings were plentiful with us all enjoying Hunter, Fletcher and Darcy’s excitement before we had a secret ? Santa that Lisa has cleverly organised. The carols were playing, we had ham on toast and an amazing feast of mushrooms and bacon on the BBQ before yep you guessed it we went skiing on Christmas Day !!! It was an amazing blue bird sunny day that was a -10 degrees! We skied till 3pm and then we went to the tube park….. by this stage it’s -14 but we are here to spin and spin we did ! It’s fast, a little scary, we were freezing and after a fun turn most of us were so cold  and couldn’t feel our feet, we went and sat in the car with the air blasting to thaw out our feet……

Home we came to re group, warm up, layer up and head into the Village for the most amazing Christmas buffet I have ever seen ! The seafood was displayed on ice towers, the desert buffet was a delight for the kids and the anti pasta display of veggies and cheese ? wow!
Of course there was the usual turkey, 2 sorts of beef, smoked salmons that were exquisite, veggies, mac and cheese you name it they had it !
We were pleasantly stuffed and ready for our stroll home via all the pretty trees all lit up !
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night ?

There is soooo much snow here all the locals are telling us how  blessed we are…. we walked home from dinner tonight it was on for young and old getting pushed into soft fluffy stuff…… what was funnier as we attempted to cross highway 99 to the village and a snow ploughing truck honks his horn so we all run back from the edge of the road so we didn’t get sprayed!

Happy reading xx