24 December 2011   What a wonderful thing to wake up to new snow! I had been trying hard to hide my disappointment at the amount of snow here since we arrived. White tho it was, the magical trees heavy with snow, gentle flakes falling and general winter wonderland was missing. Not anymore. A good bit fell over night and continued most of the day. So beautiful! My sister made the most delicious crèpes for breakfast before we headed back to the Nelson Nordic Club for day two of skiing. Everything I learned two days ago seems to have stuck and I felt far more confident today. The site was even more incredibly breathtaking with all the new snow. We travelled about 6k and I learned how to snow plow. After returning home and a lot of stretching we headed to some friends of sis of a fantastic dinner. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures, but it was delicious. And a delightful family with two gorgeous children. The 2-year-old kept us laughing all evening. Midnight mass for old times sake and off to bed to wait for Santa!

Began the morning in style with delicious crèpes.

Snow was not going to stop the people of Nelson from last minute Holiday shopping!

Quite a different scene at the Nelson Nordic Ski Club this morning with all the new snow. It was quite a bit warmer today and we had a very pleasant ski!

Here I am doing my new favourite thing. I guess it's confirmed that we need to move to a more snowy climate!

On the right of this photo you can see the tracks of an animal left sometime in the night. Sis thought maybe coyote.

My genius sister packed us some grilling cheese sandwiches wrapped in foil which we just popped onto the wood stove in the hut at the end of our ski. They were delicious accompanied by hot apple cider.

22 December 2011   Awesome day! I cross country skied for the first time ever! A beautiful day, crisp and mostly clear. My amazing sister and I hit the beginner run at the Nelson Nordic Ski Club and she gave me excellent instruction. We only did two laps of a very easy track, but I’m sure sore today. We’ll go again tomorrow and then we’ll head to the Castlegar Nordic Ski Club for an 8km ski on Boxing Day. Oh boy! Other wonderful things from yesterday were delicious breakfast at The Bent Fork, met some fantastic friends of our family, picked up the turkey at Ellison’s Mercantile which was having customer appreciation night and then absolutely unreal Indian food at Baba’s.

http://www.ellisonsmarket.com/

http://www.nnsc.kics.bc.ca/

Christmas tree at my sis's house in Nelson BC.

Tree close-up: little glass owl.

The setting of my first ski ever: The Nelson Nordic Sk Club.

Cute and kitschy with such good food: The Bent Fork, Nelson BC.

21 December 2011   Off we go to Nelson BC for Christmas with my sister! We had a very flight on Pacific Coastal Airline Victoria-Vancouver-Trail. A dear friend who lives in Salmo picked us up at the airport and we spent the day with him and his lovely family. Arriving at my sister’s house in Nelson in the evening, there was just time to trim the tree before falling into a deep and peaceful sleep. Here are a few pics from day one:

Lovely cats...

adorable dogs...

and wonderful horses!

These Robin's nests were apparently all made by the same bird.

A beautiful table set for an amazing meal!

Homemade baguette, we were so spoiled! (Spoiling didn't stop until we had polished off the chocolate crème brulée.)

Just before they went into the oven: individual lasagnas.

The sweet tree at our friends' house in Salmo. The cut it themselves on their acreage and most of the decorations were made by their two beautiful boys.