Ten New Things – 2023

Time marches on and another year is over. It was a good one looking back, but it certainly wasn’t restful. Dave and I moved this year, so we did little traveling to save money, but between work, looking for a new home, and moving, it has been quite tiring.

1. Build a Cocktail Collection (And Try Lots of Cocktails)

Dave has always been curious to start a cocktail collection and so we decided that each month we would buy a couple new ingredients and try out some new drinks on the newly nicknamed “Wet Bar Wednesdays”. What a perfect middle of the week activity. We have made everything from the Brandy Alexander to the Boulevardier to the Paper Plane. A couple of my favourite discoveries were the Pisco Sour and the Corpse Reviver #2. We followed the Anders Erickson YouTube channel all year and have found so many fun cocktails to make from his sips, tips and recipes. To the bar!

2. Travel to Mexico City

I have still been working on my Spanish, every day for over 550 days and we wanted to hit up another Spanish speaking country this year. People may know that I’m not a real beach person, so to get Dave some sun and heat and to keep me entertained we decided to go to Mexico City. We had a great time taking a taco tour, exploring the neighbourhoods, eating at many good restaurants and feasting on guava danishes. One thing I didn’t love were the fried crickets.

3. High Tea at the Empress

Mom, Bre and Megs came to visit Vancouver in March (for the first time in 10 years!) and we splashed out for mom’s birthday by going to the Empress for High Tea in Victoria. It was delicious and a beautiful setting and I was so happy to have family coming to visit us as we always go to Ontario. This was the first time any of my family had come visit us since our wedding 10 years ago. I’m hoping they come back more often. (wink wink)

4. Magnesium

For years I have had bad multi-day headaches every month and I’ve tried some different things to try to quell them, but this year was the first time I tried magnesium and oh man, it was a life changer. I started in June and have been taking them everyday and I have only had minor headaches or short lived bad ones and no multi-day ones. It has been glorious! If you are wondering what type of magnesium it is the glycinate kind.

5. Hired Movers and Painters

Dave and I moved in September after thinking for many years that we would stay in our old condo forever, but we outgrew it during Covid with me working from home most days and Dave’s music gear collection growing to new heights. Below is a picture of us toasting our new purchase and a pic of our new building, we are half way up on the corner. For our move, we promised not to bother our friends and to save ourselves (and our bodies) a lot of work by hiring movers. It was very worth it. They had us loaded and unloaded in 5hrs and we were unpacked in two days. We also hired a painter, who spent 3.5 days painting over the lavender/grayish walls with our new blues and greens. We also wallpapered one wall with the help of a professional. Again, very worth it. For two people with busy full time jobs and many after work commitments I’m glad we spent the money and let the professionals do their work.

6. Became Landlords

This is something I didn’t think I ever wanted to be, and also the most stressful part of preparing to move. Figuring out the legal rules, rent price (in a wild Vancouver market), and preparing/repairing things in our old condo really was a learning curve for me and I’m glad we started early in August to post, tour possible tenants, do checks and sign a final tenancy agreement. Our current tenants are awesome and I hope they stay forever. (Fingers crossed)

7. Interviewed for One of My Favourite Podcasts

Just before we moved I submitted an application (for the second time) to be on one of my favourite podcasts, What Should I Read Next. This podcast has been around a long time and has listeners worldwide with a large following. About a month after we moved in I got an email that they wanted to interview me. I was SO excited and nervous and spent a lot of time prepping. The premise of this podcast is that the host, Anne Bogel, asks what your three favourite books are and a book you don’t like, then she gives recommendations. She has everyday people (like me) on and also famous authors (Louise Penny, Peter Heller, Shauna Niequist). They asked me to come on to talk about an upcoming adventure Dave and I are going on in March and April of next year and recommend books to help prepare for our journey. It was really fun and I got a ton of recommendations that are now on my TBR (to be read) list.

8. Recorded for Coldplay

Dave and I got tickets for the Coldplay show in September the day BEFORE we moved. Talk about packing in a weekend. I got a free floor ticket and Dave snagged another one at the the ticket booth as the opener was on. We had an incredible time and were about 50 feet from the stages. A month after the show I got an email that Coldplay was recording a new song and wanted anyone around the world to contribute by singing a C note through an online recording app and sending it to them. I haven’t heard the song yet, but Dave and I both recorded our C’s and sent it in.

9. Consulting

This was the first year that I have done consulting. I’m doing it as part of my current job, helping other communities find solutions to youth homelessness. As part of a feasibility study that a small city in another province is doing, I am working with them to look at the need for youth shelters or longer term housing in their community and possible supports. I traveled to the city in November with a colleague and interviewed youth, talked to other shelters in neighbouring cities or towns, and met with people in the schools, food bank, and local LGBTQIA+ community to hear about the needs and dreams they have for the youth in their area. It was a good and challenging trip, and ultimately I think it is going to lead to some positive change for that town. One quirky thing we did was go to this eccentric bar. It was the only thing people in town said we had to see, and see it we did. The place was painted ceiling to floor (tables, chairs, and everything in between as well).

10. F*ke Christmas Tree

Ugh, I hardly want to talk about this but it is a first. Our new building, though amazing in so many ways, does not allow real trees. Perhaps in a less terrible market I would have not bought this place because of that, but it ticked pretty much every other box, so that couldn’t be the hold up. So….we bought a f*ke tree. I called home and told my mom, so that I could get family approval before moving forward. I had to be sure they would ever want me to visit again. It was approved. I can’t say anymore, it hurts too much.

Top Fiction Reads of 2023 (in no particular order)

1. The Postcard – Anne Berest
2. The Eight Life – Nino Hara
3. Pineapple Street – Jenny Jackson
4. No Two Persons – Erica Bauermeister
5. The Brothers K – David James Duncan
6. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin
7. True Biz – Sara Novic
8. And Then She Fell – Alicia Elliott

Top Non Fiction Reads of 2023 (in no particular order)

1. Congratulations, the Best is Over – Eric Thomas
2. More Than A Glitch – Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias In Tech – Meredith Broussard
3. Counting the Cost – Jill Duggar
4. Walkable City – Jeff Speck
5. Surrender: 40 Songs 1 Story – Bono (listen to in audio!)
6. Between Two Kingdoms – Suleika Jaouad
7. White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better – Regina Jackson and Saira Rao
8. Spare – Prince Harry
9. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Lie – Matthew Perry

A couple other new things to mention include driving through Northern Washington (really pretty), seeing the Teskey Brothers live, bought and ate a panettone for Christmas, and being named one of the Top 50 Female Leaders in Vancouver by Women We Admire. One last recent fun thing we did was see the Canada Women’s Soccer team play Australia in a friendly match in December. It was our first time seeing them play live and also Christine Sinclair’s final game. She is the top goal scorer (male or female) in international play and she is Canadian!

Ten New Things 2022

Something about this year feels a little more low-key. As I get older, it feels like a lot of my energy goes into my work and there isn’t as much left over. I do love my job though. Perhaps it is more of coming out of a pandemic. My brain and body feel spent from balancing cultural and political divides, discrimination, and climate change which has been very evident in BC the last two years. We bought an air conditioner for the first time after living in Vancouver for 13 years and as I’m writing this as there is a a bunch of snow and ice outside. But even with the challenges I managed to get up to some fun things, including international travel (it’s back, Baby!) and reading a lot of books again. Here are some of my ten new things of 2022.

1. Switched to decaf

I’m sure there are people that are thinking, ‘Why would you ever do that?’ Well after sleeping terribly for months last year I decided in 2022 I would go decaf and it was an instant game changer for me. I now get another hour of sleep a night and fall asleep so quickly. The odd day that I do have caffeinated coffee I know I’ll be up late. Sometimes I feel sluggish during the day but it is better than laying awake at night. And you know what? There is a lot of great decaf coffee out there, so I’m sticking with it.

2. Cooked on a large flattop grill

We went on a friends trip to Vancouver Island in the winter. The house we rented used to be a pole dancing studio pre-Covid. How could we tell? Well, the living room was large, had lots of mirrors and there were interestingly spaced round spots on the floor. The house did have an amazing kitchen though including a flattop grill, which I had never used before and was really happy to play with. Frying up breakfast for 11 was like working in a restaurant.

3. Traveled on the Seabus

Yeah this one seems silly for a Vancouverite, but I had never been on the Seabus in all the years I’ve lived here, but I was visiting a friend in North Vancouver and took the Seabus back across the Georgia Straight into downtown. It was fun if you do it once; I’m sure it gets pretty mundane if you do it everyday for work.

4. Finished/opened a building

This is a continuation of what I was working on last year. I took over the coordination of a building project for Covenant House Vancouver and we opened in June with youth moving in in July. It was a very busy 4 months around the opening but it went really smoothly. I had a great team that helped and the youth are loving the new amenities which include a gym, computer lab, art studio, and gaming area. It is so great to go in that building and know that we have created a home for so many youth. I’m currently working on a renovation of our last building in Gastown and that has been a new process for me as well. I didn’t get to go through the design and permit phase on our 10 story building, but I’m in that process now with the renovation. Always lots of learning happening.

5. Went to a dance competition

Oh, this was SO much fun. We stumbled upon this on Main St (where we live) as we were out wondering with friends. We watched the competition all afternoon as it narrowed down to the final two. They continued to up their moves as the competition went on. Sadly, we went to get dinner and they changed the time of the final so we missed it, but it was so fun and the music kept you moving all afternoon. They even did a little teaching session where I totally bombed but the kids we were with loved it. This competition went on to the all Canada finals before going on to the world final in South Africa. The guy who won this one, Humuzza, ended up in the final four in Johannesburg. Whoot whoot!

6. Learning Spanish

For our international trip we decided to go to Spain. As soon as we decided I wanted to get some basic phrases under my belt. I started using Duolingo and got hooked. I took French all through school, German in university, but there hasn’t been anything that felt as easy as learning Spanish. It is easy to pronounce and the sentence structures aren’t as complicated. I’ve been working on my Spanish everyday for 200 days and was encouraged in Spain when I got to use it. It certainly came in handy and locals really warmed when you tried. Once we got back I got a tutor and really enjoy those sessions online. We hope next year to get to Mexico City and perhaps South America in the fall. More reason to keep going. It really excites me to know how much better I could be in a year’s time. Who knows, maybe I will finally become bilingual in my forties!

7. Travelled to Southern Spain

This was such a great trip. Dave and I went in and out of Madrid (which we loved!) and met up with friends in Valencia then drove through the south for 10 days visiting Granada, Cadiz, Cordoba and Seville amongst other places. We also did a morning in Gibraltar which is part of the UK. Other than getting a stamp in the passport and walking across a landing strip to get into the city, it was extremely touristy and we didn’t stick around long. We sat down at a pub, looked at the prices, and decided to walk back to Spain for lunch. Spain was extremely affordable, the cities were beautiful and the food was awesome. We never had a bad dish. One of my favourite things we did was go to a local place to see flamenco dancing. It was amazing, so crowded, the dancing was lightening fast and the signing so engaging. I highly recommend it and we hope to get back and check out the North in the coming years.

8. Journaled every book I read

Of course there have to be something about books in the list. I did a couple new book challenges, including journaling every book I read. I read about 85 books this year. The online book club that I’m in put out a reading journal so I thought I would try it. I’m mixed about it. I like the record of what I read, but it does take work to keep up when you read as much as I do. I don’t think I’ll do it next year, but I will keep track on Goodreads. If you use Goodreads, look me up!

9. Cooked an entire cookbook

This is something I’ve thought about in the past but finally pulled the trigger on this year. I was deciding between a French book and a more North American one and chose the NA one. It was the Beekman 1802 Cookbook. I’ve had this book since I got married in 2013 and had cooked maybe 15 recipes of the 128. The recipes are all pretty straight forward, there aren’t a lot of out-there ingredients and it is divided into seasons which was perfect for keeping me on track. I found some recipes that I hadn’t done that were great, but over all I found a lot of the recipes needed more flavour, more spice, more seasoning…which I did. But it was a fun challenge, I never got frustrated with it, but I will be happy to going back to my other cookbooks more often and some more international variety in my cooking, especially more heat!

10. Travelled to New York at Christmas

This has been on our bucket list for a while and as we get back into travel we thought, why not? We booked early and got a great deal on a price on a hotel in Soho and booked some restaurants we wanted to go to and some activities including seeing Mike Birbiglia live and going to a jazz/blues show at Terra Blues. The weather was perfect for the four days we had to walk around. Staying in the Soho, Chelsea area was fun and easy to walk around. We also went to the 9/11 Museum which was just fantastic. The museum is underground and you get to see the original foundations of the buildings and parts of the buildings where the planes went through. It was emotional but very well done. We had 2hrs to get through but needed way more time and didn’t get to see everything. If you plan to go, give yourself 3hrs minimum. The city was decked out for the holidays. It was almost like a competition to see who could decorate their lobby, restaurant, or store better. Very fun to walk around.

Others: Bought a gravel bike to keep up with Dave, got a record player, became an Associate Director, went to a cocktail festival, and got my hair balayage (special kind of highlights), saw Leon Bridges live and got Covid and now have a puffer for the first time.

Best books of the year in no particular order:

Fiction:

1. A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara – Best book of the year
2. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
3. Station Eleven (and the follow ups: The Glass House and Sea of Tranquility) – Emily St John Mendel
4. A Psalm for the Wild-Build and follow up A Prayer for the Crown-Shy – Becky Chambers
5. The River – Peter Heller
6. Scarborough – Catherine Hernandez
7. Five Little Indians – Michelle Good

Non Fiction:

1. Stories I Only Tell My Friends – Rob Low
2. Finding Me – Viola Davis
3. Happy-Go-Lucky – David Sedaris
4. The Storyteller – Dave Grohl
5. The Book of Delights – Ross Gay
6. In The Weeds: Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain – Tom Vitale
7. As You Wish (Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride) – Cary Elwes
8. I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet – Shauna Niequist – Read this twice!
9. Four Seasons In Rome – Anthony Doerr
10. Talking to Canadians – Rick Mercer

I hope you tried some new things this past year and have a couple in the hopper for 2023!

Ten New Things 2021

Is it still 2020? Some days I feel like the two years have blended together and I can’t tell them apart. It is nice to reflect and try to pull 2021 out of 2020. While we didn’t get in the international travel we hoped for this year, we still did some special things and got out and explored. I would say this year heavily relied on reading. I decided to take up some new book challenges and engage with books in new ways and I’m really glad I did as it helped me get through the year. And it all began on January 1, 2021…

1. Joined an online book club and participated in a digital book club

I joined the Modern Mrs Darcy book club online to try to broaden my reading experience this year. I wrote out my reading challenge for the year, including reading a Russian classic author, reading 6 books from countries I’ve never read a book set in, read a horror novel and read a book Dave recommended among other things. I read the most books I’ve ever read in a year (85!) and learned that I like plot driven novels better than character driven ones. I also met with a group of people from all over for a book club discussion around the book Jayber Crow and watched several authors talks for books I read for the monthly book club selection. I’m definitely keeping this up for next year and will set some new challenges including more new countries.

Top books from this year in no particular order:

1. It’s What I Do – Lynsey Addario
2. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone – Lori Gottlieb
3. From the Ashes – Jesse Thistle
4. Finding Freedom – Erin French
5. Permission to Screw Up – Kristen Hadeed
6. The Push – Ashley Audrain
7. Born a Crime – Trevor Noah (do the audiobook!)
8. The Midnight Library – Matt Haig
9. A Carnival of Snackery – David Sedaris
10. Greenlights – Matthew McConaughey

2. Took over a construction project

In January I added a new responsibility to my job, by taking over the responsibilities for a new ten story building Covenant House Vancouver is building to add 75 new beds for youth in the city. We are working to complete for this coming spring. I’ve never worked on anything so large, but it is right up my alley of planning and organizing and uses my skills so well. I rarely feel stressed about the work and have a great team of people to work with in making this project a reality. I’ve learned so much about construction and will continue to carry my learning into a renovation on another site that we are also currently planning to start next summer. Serving vulnerable youth in this way has been amazing, I really feel God has placed me exactly where He wants me.

My trusty employee Adel and I touring the site.

3. Bought my first oven and it was a double oven

Our oven went in the spring. It was the one that came with our place and it meant that for the first time I got to go oven shopping. I like to cook and felt like this was a treat to pick out what I really wanted. Meaning it was time for a double oven. It has been awesome. Because the top oven is so small it heats up fast and keeps an even temp and is used most often for any sheet pan or casserole style meal. And I can finally cook two things that require different temperatures. Due to supply chain issues I got my third choice oven, but overall really happy with this one.

My kitchen workhorse.

4. Took an Indigenous Canada course

I learned this summer that I have been an ignorant Canadian when it comes to our Indigenous population and history. And I have a Masters in Public History! I took this course soley focused on Canada’s Indigenous history and current reality and it was so eye opening. Growing up in the 80s/90s I learned very little about this history in school and that is really shameful. I didn’t know what a residential school or the Sixties Scoop was until the last few years. I grew up 5kms from a reserve and didn’t even know the name of the people who lived there (Delaware Nation by the way). I took the University of Alberta’s Indigenous Canada course last summer and knowing what I know now, I have so much empathy for First Nations, Inuit, and Metis people in Canada and what they have suffered over the past, and it helps inform me of where the trauma that the youth that are supported through my work are coming from. I highly encourage any Canadian who thinks that this doesn’t apply to them to rethink that thought and take this course or do any learning about the people that lived here first.

5. Spent a full week in the Okanagan

For a local getaway this summer we went to the Okanagan for a full week. We’ve never gone up for this long and we had a great time not being rushed and staying in different sections of the Okanagan Valley with friends. We did some nights in Vernon, Peachland, and Lake Country. The only disparaging part was the the horrible forest fires were literally all around us. Helicopters few over head constantly taking water from the lakes to the surrounding hills. You couldn’t look any where without seeing smoke. We even saw flames in the distance. For the first few days we mostly stayed indoors and the sky was full of smoke and ash, but it did slowly clear up mostly by the end of our week there and we got to have some fun outside.

6. Living in climate change

Folks, if you are still on the fence about climate change, come to BC. We had a Heat Dome in June (picture 40+ degrees and no air conditioning) where over 500 people died from the heat, July – Oct the worst forest fires on record where the whole province seemed to be fire. Then in November an extremely rare tornado by the Vancouver airport, followed the next week by the biggest natural disaster in Canadian history as the lower half of the province fought unimaginable flooding and damage to it’s road and infrastructure which closed Vancouver off from the rest of the country, cutting off supplies routes and gas lines, and trapping people in places and evacuating whole towns. And that all happened in less than 5 months. At this point Covid feels like a small nuisance and like the Big One’s just around the corner. It has been a hard year out here and I have cried from knowing people who have lost their homes, the fact that we have climate refugees in our Province and that this is just the start of what is to come in the next couple decades. I can’t imagine what our world will be like for my nieces and nephews and that is heartbreaking. It won’t be as comfortable as I had it growing up. Life has changed as we know it and we aren’t doing enough to bring this precious planet back to stability.

June is usually extremely wet like January and we call it June-uary. Not so this year. Below are shots from the forest fires while we were on vacation.

7. Camping on Mayne Island

I’ve never been to Mayne Island and haven’t been camping in over a decade, but was up to give it another go when invited by some good friends. We had a beautiful camp site on the ocean pass between two islands and had great coverage even though it rained. There may have been a brewery visit and a pizza order in there too.

8. Visited the American Midwest

There were lots of new things on this trip. We went to Chicago (Dave’s first time) and went to the Field Museum and Second City Comedy Club and did a lot of walking and bad food eating, then drove through Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas where we stayed a couple more days to visit family living on the Fort Leavenworth base just outside of Kansas City. We’ve never been to “middle America” and you can bet we listened to Omaha by the Counting Crows as we drove into the city. And ate stupid sized portions including a massive pork chop at the Iowa Machine Shed restaurant. I’ve also never stayed or been on a military base, let alone an American one. It was an interesting experience being in such a large one (3 primary schools on this base!) and seeing all the memorials and going through the check point to get in each time. We got to eat Kansas City BBQ (delicious!) and went to Chick-fil-A and Shake Shack for the first time as well.

9. Experienced a jazz show

I have wanted to go to a jazz show for ages and it seemed like something you had to do when you were in Chicago. What better city to see jazz? I LOVED it! The Connie Han Trio was amazing. She is an incredible pianist and they had a surprise saxophone player come and join her and the bassist and drummer for a couple songs. I was in heaven with a smile on my face the whole show.

10. Competed in a stein holding contest at Oktoberfest

Kind of a funny one to end on. There was a low-key dinner only Octoberest at the German club in town and Dave and I both participated for our table in the stein holding contest. I flaked out halfway through (I’ll blame it on my rigorous workout in the morning), but Dave won (I credit it to the rigorous workout he did with me in the morning).

Extras

Niagara wine touring, blind whisky tasking, getting a Sweet Reads box subscription for three months where you get a surprise book with some fun themed items mailed to you each month.

2022!

Here is to what I hope is a year that might include an international trip in the summer, a brand new completed 10 story shelter for youth in need in Vancouver, and plans to cook through an entire cookbook. Don’t let me down 2022, I’ve got high hopes for you!

Ten New Things 2020

Hello Friends and Family,

What a year it has been. We have been hunkered down in British Columbia all year and repeatedly our travel plans got cancelled, even the simplest of ones. But I can’t complain too much as we live in a beautiful place that has been less effected by COVID than others and there are lots of things to do in this province that we still want to do or redo. It was a bit of a struggle to come up with a list this year, but I managed to do it. Here goes…

1. Face Improvements – I’m going to start with the lamest one. Being stuck in the house a lot and working from home I definitely had more time on my hands, so I figured out my make up game and my face cleaning routine. Who knew you could still learn so much, especially when you never really cared a whole lot for the past several decades.
2. Worked from Home – My previous job required me to be onsite all the time and I would work from home about once a year to get employee reviews sorted out. This year everything flipped on its head and I now mostly work from home. This has been a bit of a challenge for me as I like working in an office, talking to people and engaging in person. It took a long time to finally get into a good rhythm where I didn’t go half crazy every day, but now I’m looking forward to saving the trek back and forth to work every week day and being more efficient from home. I get more sleep, can go for walks, and even take a nap in the middle of the day. Can’t complain about that!

1. Joining a COVID Response Team – When the lockdowns started happening, the organization I work for, Covenant House, created a taskforce for responding and creating processes around COVID. I was asked to be involved because I manage all the IT for the organization. I’ve never done anything like this before and it has been a lot of work, but good work and I learned a ton about our organization and how we do things and put the youth first. I imagine I’ll be staying on this team well into next year and continuing to handle all the challenges that come up weekly with our team.
2. Making Portuguese Egg Tarts – These are a labour of love my friends. When we travel I look out for these. You don’t see them a lot in Canada but they are so delicious, especially when they are still warm from the oven. YUM! The rough puff pastry was the most time consuming, but the egg filling was easy and made up for it. They turned out pretty good, but I’m not making them again any time soon.

1. Turning 40! – So many of my friends turned 40 this year and had very modest or non-existent celebrations. Thankfully, mine fell in the summer and we were allowed to meet as a group of 6 people. So we did what we did last year for my birthday and went to Backyard Winery and had a wine tasting and a picnic in their grassy area. Though it might not have been as exciting or included as many friends as I would have liked, it was still a fun, special outing with my tight 6 bubble. Thanks Liz, Lars, Meaghan, Tim, and Dave for spending the day with me. I’m hoping my next 40 years doubles my travels and special memories.

1. New Food Related Things – For my birthday my friends got me a MasterClass subscription, so I can watch a bunch of chefs I like give cooking lessons. So far I’ve found effective ways to save my veggie scraps and turn them into broth, and tricks for cooking duck breast better, and mastering poached eggs (which I’m still working on). I love learning so this was a great gift. Along with that I cooked some new things, including my first full roast duck, cassoulet, ravioli from scratch, duck fat roast potatoes (my roast potato game just keeps getting better!) and yogurt in my Instant Pot (which I have also been trying lots of new things in). I’ve picked cherries and rhubarb for the first time and we also joined a wine club from one of our favourite BC wineries Spearhead. Send me wine in the mail? Yes, please!

1. Travel ‘Around’ the Province – Though our trip to Hawaii was cancelled in March, as well as plans to go to Vietnam and Thailand, then another trip to the Island and home for Christmas, Dave and I did get out to do one decent trip this year. In September we drove around a small part of this big province and went to several places we have never been before, like Pemberton, Kamloops, Revelstoke, and Nelson. What a beautiful province whose scenery changed every hour or two. Wonderful hiking in Pemberton, delicious wine in Lake Country (and friends!), peace and quiet in Revelstoke, and a foodie haven in Nelson. It was the break we needed. Especially the Scandinave Spa day in Whistler. Another first, and something we might take up annually. Thank you Beautiful British Columbia!

8. Read About 45-50 Books – With no volunteering at the nursing home, our church group cancelled or on Zoom, and no music practice for Dave we have had a lot of time at home. We try not to watch too much TV in the evening, so we do a lot of reading which we both love. I have read more books this year than I believe any previous year. Some highlights include:

• When Breath Becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi (best dying autobiography)
• Dirt – Bill Buford (best foodie read)
• The Beauty in Breaking – Michele Harper (best autobiography about working in a hospital – I read two, the other is the Paul Kalanithi book above!)
• All Jane Harper books (best mysteries)
• The Interestings – Meg Wolitzer (best characters that drove me nuts, but I liked the story of friendship over decades)
• Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert (best classic)
• Ohio – Stephan Markley (best writing)
• Women Talking – Miriam Toews (best Canadian)
• Mudlark – Lara Maiklem (best historical book about hunting for historical items on the foreshore of the Thames in London, England)
• Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman (best fun fiction and enduring character)
• Educated – Tara Westover (best autobiography)
• Decisive – Chip Heath (best business book on making decisions)

9. Discovering British Game Shows – Almost very night Dave and I sit down and watch some TV while we eat dinner, the last several months I haven’t been in the mood for heavy dramas. We had some great recommendations from friends that have spiraled into a web of all things British and funny. Travel Man hosted by one of our favourites Richard Ayoade from IT Crowd got us started and then we moved on to Taskmaster that makes me laugh so hard, well, my body has a hard time keeping it all in. We also watch Mock the Week, Pointless Celebrities, The Russel Howard Show, 8 Out of 10 Cats, pretty much anything You Tube will feed to us. It has been a great relief and something to take our mind off things in the evening. This year would have been a lot harder without some humour. Thank you comedians!

10. Not Going Home For Christmas – This was one of the hardest (then easiest) decisions of a very frustrating year. I have never missed a Christmas with my family, so it hit hard as we finally decided in early December that we would follow the new guidelines and stay in BC. It was the right thing to do and thought I miss my family, we are trying to make it special in BC by buying a really nice Christmas tree (usually I’m kind of cheap), having presents under the tree, buying every kind of Christmas chocolate there is to snack on all month, and making a nice Christmas dinner with some of our family favourites. This year we are also going to venture out for a few nights downtown to get a change of scenery. Even though I work downtown, I am just in and out of the office. This will let us go to areas we haven’t walked around in a while and eat at some different restaurants. We are genuinely looking forward to it.

Extras: Doing a 3000 piece puzzle, Zooming a lot with friends far and near, garage hangouts, first attempted insurance claim (don’t get me started!), first time changing our car battery (no squabbling!), Ride for Refuge and I almost forgot…COVID, the worst first of them all!

And for the friends who helped Dave and I get through this year with all the meals indoors and out, THANK YOU. We love you lots!

I really hope you are all doing well and finding your own special ways to make the end of the year special whether you celebrate Christmas or not. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone next year at some point but until then, in the words of the great Dr. Bonnie Henry, be kind, be calm, and be safe.