Trees, Teddies, Tons

Christmas Tree Photo Shoot = brilliant idea.

My mom phoned me up and told me she was starting to take down her trees and I should come take some pictures. Unfortunately a few were already taken down, but I made good use of the ones that were still up!


At Christmastime, my mother's house becomes a winter wonderful and a five-star restaurant all at once. The whole house is decked out with decorations, including nine fully decorated trees, all with different themes. And then she hosts about 20 different gourmet dinner parties. She's pretty amazing.


Anyway, this year I didn't take pictures of my own decorations, but I took some of hers and had a pretty fun time with it, so I thought I would share some of my favourites here.


Included are the red tree, the old world tree, the crazy/mardi gras tree, the classic tree and the owl tree. All absolutely stunning and completely different. Enjoy!


















































There you have it! Hope you all enjoyed the holidays and enjoy getting into a 2011 routine-I know I'm excited for it!

Christmas, Cuddles, Cuties

Last night after I got home, I packed up all my Christmas decorations. May seem a bit premature for some, but I have been enjoying the decorations for 2 months and have just been wanting to clean it up and sit and treasure all these things in my heart.


The wonder of God with us, Emmanuel. In the midst of difficulty and joy, Christ is with us. Amongst us. How incredible.


And He has blessed us, oh how incredibly He has blessed us. With family, friends, warmth, shelters, food, and I could go on and on and on. He makes His presence known every day if I begin to look for it. And I love that Christmas is a focused time to stop and remember. That Christ came to live, so that we could live.


I love driving down the street and seeing everything closed. Time to be at home, with family and loved ones. I know it may be painful for some, but amongst the thorns, there are always roses to be found. Amongst the anguish and grief, there is joy and love.


From cuddling month old babes to enjoying the joy of a one and a half year old to conversing and fellowshiping with those I love.

To see God's work in my family and His faithfulness.

This year in a lot of ways I missed my dad a lot. And my brother. My dad would have been a grandpa to 2 beautiful, perfect little babes. My brother would have been the proudest uncle. We missed them, but I am thankful for old and new memories and how all of them combined make up a messy but beautiful picture of life.

So this Christmas I am incredibly thankful. That amidst the pain of life and the wonderful things, God is with us.

Hope you all had an incredibly wonderful Christmas! Blessings!

Twins, Together, Time

This week is birthday week. Known by some others as the week before Christmas. All very fun and exciting! But a little crazy how fast time flies.

I love having my birthday in December! Well, besides combined gifts and people not really caring it's my birthday, I like all the decorations and all the festivities all at once! It's fun because I happen to have a lot of friends with December birthdays too! In fact one weekend I had invites to 4 birthday get - togethers!


Last week, it was my friend Vanessa's birthday. We affectionately refer to one another as twinsie, as we have some convoluted story about how we are actually twins separated at birth who happened to be born 9 days apart. Only to have our families let us be friends as children and until now. Brilliant story. Touching really. So this is my twin sister Vanessa and we celebrated her birthday in style! She's leaving for Australia next week and I will definitely miss her!



It was fun to meet some of her friends as well! The following day we were able to go for lunch as well which was special to be able to hang out together one on one before she left!


On Saturday my mom and I met in Vancouver where we went to the Canucks game. Apparently she likes laughing at me. But we had a wonderful time and afterwards I took her to the best Japanese restaurant in Vancouver (that I know of). Afterwards I was able to see some friends in Van as well which was wonderful!


This last week has been interesting as I feel like I have been coming out of my season of being a hermit. But it's been delightful to connect with friends and to find a newfound balance of refueling time for me and time with friends!

Tis all for now! Off to enjoy some more festivities of birthday week!

Sorrow, Sending, Sushi

This last week my heart has been heavy for those around me. It seems like a lot of my friends right now are in a lot of pain. From people losing jobs to family members passing away, it seems like there's a lot of sorrow being experienced. In every conversation I have had with different friends over the past two weeks, there have been at least half a dozen times when I am sitting there, my eyes welled up with tears, wanting to sob on their behalf. Suddenly, unique compared to any other time in my life, I want to weep with those around me. My heart breaks for them. I want to take some of their pain for whatever they are facing and weep on their behalf.

When thinking of all these things, it's been easy to get into a weird zone. Of feeling sorrow, of feeling bogged down. While driving today, Matt Redman's song, 'You never let go' came on and I was reminded of the incredible hope we have in Christ and how this season is such a picture of that hope.

In these moments, I think I just want to throw out all the seemingly trivial things in life. In light of such hardship, dare I be excited about a good meal with friends, or not having to run into my house anymore to open the garage because my clicker finally has a new battery? My answer today is yes. Should I be worked up about someone cutting me off (perhaps even by accident) or think the world is going to end because not everything is the way I want it? Probably not. Puts things into perspective.


So today amidst the sadness that I know quite a few close friends are going through, I am choosing to also rejoice in the little things. Like getting a Christmas card from a friend today and seeing the pictures of her two new baby girls. Like sending out Christmas cards and newsletters to those I love and care about that and hopefully it will give them a bit excitement when they get it in the mail {side note: i would love to send any of my blog readers a Christmas card and newsletter if you would email me your mailing address at vanessa.s.maree @ gmail . com}. Like becoming a regular at a restaurant in Vancouver when I don't even live there. Like enjoying fabulous sushi with wonderful friends who bring refreshment to my soul. Like smiling over children playing together. Like cuddling with my month old niece. Like running up and down stairs chasing after my nephew. Like chatting over a cup of tea with my mom. Like reading a good book.


There's joy and hope mixed in there somewhere. And although lately everything points me back towards truly questioning if God is good and what in the world He is doing, I want to believe with every fiber of my being that He is good and that He loves us and wants the best for us and will take care of us and will indeed never let us go. So I will continue clinging to that truth and looking for the little joys of life, trusting Him and allowing Him to let me rest between His shoulders and be safe.

Market, Mom, Merriment

I think my mom is awesome. (yes perhaps I'm a little biased, but seriously, it's true. She's pretty incredible). Anyway, I always love our dates together and she even joins me in my craziness from time to time.

Last week my mom and I went to the Canucks game together. We decided to go into Vancouver early to enjoy the Vancouver Christmas market. It was slightly lame. There was a nice choir singing. It was pouring rain. And the food was wonderful. We ate. And ate. And ate some more.


We had baked apples with fillings covered in vanilla sauce, crepes, apple cider, swiss raclette (soooo good), and bratwurst. A tasty time indeed!



For the swiss raclette, they melt the cheese and then scrape it onto a piece of bread for you, all wonderful and melty like. So tasty. And super healthy too. Always a bonus.

And we even met some friendly gingerbread people. And I got a little bit wet.

And then we cheered fiercely for the Canucks. And we won. In a shootout. Against Anaheim's good shooters. Wonderful.


Last week also held the annual cousin cookie baking. We call them hidden jam cookies, I'm sure they're called something far more sophisticated in German... but we like our nicely adapted name. Before eating it, we say "Where's the jam". We're cool like that.

Everyone is hard at work as these pictures show...

And then we tried making the stupid icing a million times. Actually only five times, but five is still a lot. And it failed. Last year was the only year we got it right.

Mmm. cookies. See, you can't even tell there's any jam inside.

So that is a tiny sneakpeak into my life of late. Full of family, friends and Christmas merriment!