We spent all of Wednesday in our apartment and then on Thursday evening, we flew back to Vancouver to spend the holidays at home with the family. Our first day back happened to be my brother’s birthday so we had some decadent chocolate cake, rested up, and took care of some mundane, but necessary tasks. It was cold and grey, as it is most of the year in Vancouver, so we stayed in as much as we could and enjoyed the fireplace at my parents’ place.
On Christmas eve, we joined my cousin, Amenda, and my friend, Cailey, for a delightful hot pot lunch as hot pot is not easy to come by in Mexico. Afterwards, we joined another cousin, Alisha, to go to the Vancouver Christmas Market. The market is German-themed and is put up in Vancouver every year; however, it was the first time that Phil and I went. The market was nice, but small and took less than an hour to go through. We had some mulled wine to warm up before returning home where my brother had prepared a turkey dinner with all the trimmings.
Christmas day was spent indoors, watching Christmas movies, and feasting on leftovers. It doesn’t sound exciting, but I consider it a good Christmas 🙂
Vancouver Christmas Market
Christmas Eve Dinner
Mandatory Christmas Day Shot
Alisha had corralled a group of people and made arrangements for us to go snowshoeing on Mount Seymour on Boxing Day. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to get to the top of the mountain and the view from the top is absolutely breath-taking (despite the fact that I was freezing to death). We were lucky that we had a real photographer with us in the form of our family friend, Jeremy Thomas. All the beautiful photos below were taken by him (hence the absence of our trusty watermark), so enjoy and then go check out his incredible work at jeremythomasphotography.com.
Pre-snowshoeing
The Noobs
The Veterans
Snowy Trees
Path to the Top
Snowshoer in the Snow
View from the Top
Victory Shot
Late evening on the 27th, we left Vancouver and returned to Playa del Carmen in the late morning of the 28th. After some much needed shut-eye, we joined our friend Jeannie and her supper club buddies for dinner at Romeo, an Italian restaurant where I ate one of the best pasta dishes I’ve ever had. Douse me with truffle oil.
