Monthly Archives: December 2010

The First Noel

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Photo: Sweet*Shot on Flickr

This year is Mini-Boy’s first Christmas and he seems to sense the excitement… he sure does enjoy the lights on the Christmas tree. Maybe I’m the one who is excited about seeing him unwrap gifts for the first time while dressed in a Santa-suit sleeper on Christmas morning or maybe I’m just making it up.

It’s also the first Christmas without Dave.

We have to do things differently this year. Trying to continue with the same traditions we’d been building together over the years would, no doubt, feel forced and lacking. Not just for me, but for the rest of his family as well.

We used to go over to his mom’s house for Christmas breakfast of eggs in tomato sauce, hot capicollo and pan-fried oysters. We’d open our gifts together while Dave and his mom would begin to try to outdo one another in the kitchen in preparation for a multi-course feast. I think I have his grandma to blame for that one… the first time I participated in one of these meals was at his grandma’s apartment. She managed to serve a 7-course meal for around 12 people from her little galley kitchen. A family friend had mentored me through the process. “Just take a bite or two of each course. You need to be able to make it to the end.” Sage advice indeed.

The first Christmas we spent in our home after we were married, Dave decided to outdo even his grandma (sorry Susan). I lost track of how many courses he served to 14 people from our own tiny galley kitchen. The meal ended with flames in the kitchen as he served up Bananas Foster for everyone. It was pretty spectacular. In years following we have had our Christmas dinners at his mom’s place.

This year I wanted to offer his mom a rest.

I know this is hard for her. My life is in such flux right now that I’m really looking ahead to what is to come and this particular Christmas feels like a sort of single, random Christmas stuck between two existences. I had to fight the urge to not even do Christmas at all, but that wouldn’t have been fun or fair for my boys.

So I’m going to “do” Christmas this year… my way.

I’m not sure how good of a job I’m doing – I’ve never been good at sending out cards – but I got a tree and got it decorated. Dave’s mom helped decorate it with Mini-Man and he’s very excited about seeing the gifts arrive under it. He keeps asking each day, “Is tomorrow the day that there will be presents under the tree?” Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that all the gifts I so diligently bought way ahead of time are not going to wrap themselves and, thus, I must stop procrastinating and get it done. I’m excited about singing for the Christmas Eve services at my church and having Dave’s mom bring the boys there to celebrate before she takes them back to my place to tuck them in for the night. I’ll join her for a Christmas Eve beverage of the adult variety when I get home and we’ll get to work preparing the magic for the next morning. Christmas morning will see a quiet gift-opening at my place and then I’ll be getting busy preparing a turkey dinner.

I’ve never cooked a turkey on my own before.

When I went to Mexico in the early weeks after Dave died I recognized that I’d have to learn to do things that I considered “his job”. For instance, I had to learn to transform transformers. I know, this sounds random… and it is, but it’s similar to cooking a turkey for me. At first I kept resisting Mini-Man’s requests to have Bumblebee transformed because I didn’t know how to do it and I was angry that I even had to… that was Dave’s job. But he wasn’t here to do it anymore.

So I learned.

I sat down one night and spent a good hour figuring it out. When I finally got him from a robot back into a car I had an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. I know it probably sounds stupid, but it began a journey towards my feeling like I can manage. Like I can do all the things I need to do to get by without Dave. And so now I will learn to cook and serve a turkey dinner in the same manner. Well, maybe not the SAME manner… there is no way I’m doing a seafood course and a pasta course and all that stuff. But, I will cook a turkey complete with stuffing, veggies, potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy and such.

I know I can do it. And I know it will be empowering but bittersweet.

The only one tradition I do want to keep is one we started just a couple of years ago with Mini-Man. On Christmas eve he’ll bake a birthday cake and for dessert after Christmas dinner we’ll sing happy birthday to Jesus and enjoy a piece of cake together.

After all, Christmas is about Jesus anyway. And birthday cake is WAY better than Christmas cake.

So this Christmas I want to embrace its uniqueness, love my family, sing some songs, learn some new skills and life lessons, bless others and thank God for sending the Savior.

For the love of powder

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Photo: Grouse Mountain on Flickr

Ahhhhh… finally powder.

See, I haven’t been snowboarding since the season before last. Last season I was pregnant until just after Christmas, recovering from childbirth for 2 months after that and then coping with Dave’s death. So I think the last time I was on the hill was early April 2009.

Wow that feels like a million years ago.

So yesterday my boys were invited to spend the night at their Nona’s house and I had the entire evening to myself. I was pleasantly surprised to find easy parking and no lineups for the Skyride at Grouse Mountain when I got there at about 3:30pm on a Saturday afternoon – the first Saturday of the Christmas break. When I got up top my spirits automatically lifted as I found the white fluffy gift from heaven falling plentifully  at my feet. There’s something about the brightness of the snow and how it seems infinitely drier than rain that makes me feel way better about life.

I strapped in to my brand new 2011 Bataleon Violenza 153 board with K2 Charm bindings… I haven’t enjoyed new gear since 2001 if you can believe. Well with enough snow falling that every run offered new freshies and an awesome new board I felt like I never wanted to leave! This new board rides like a dream – I couldn’t be happier. The visibility was sort of sketchy, though; it was dark and a bit foggy, plus of course it was snowing (not like the photo above)… and my goggles have a dark lens so it was kind of like I was riding with my eyes closed but then maybe that made it more fun.

I’ve got Mini-Man registered for 4 private ski lessons through Grouse Mountain’s Adopt An Instructor program since the procrastinator in me waited to long to get him into Ski Wee group lessons before Christmas. I think I’ll put him in Ski Wee for after Christmas if I get around to it. We’re going to spend New Year’s weekend with Big Mack and his family and we’ll spend at least a day at Mount Baldy where the Macks are season passholders.

I can’t bear the thought of not working in this industry anymore once I move to Oliver; I’m sure I’ll find a way to work something out ;)

The end of an era

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Well it feels like an era… 11 1/2 years, that is.

That’s how long I’ve been on the payroll at Grouse Mountain. And come January, I will return to work only part time after my maternity leave to help transition someone new in to my role as Marketing Manager.

It all started as a summer job.

I had been living in Penticton, BC and working at Apex Mountain Resort as a lift operator while I went to school. I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Hotel & Restaurant Management from Okanagan University College (which is now Okanagan College and UBC Okanagan Campus) and I wanted to figure out how to get one of those very coveted year-round jobs in the ski industry in BC’s interior. They are very few and far-between to say the least. So I began working as a Guest Services Representative at Grouse Mountain as a way to get my foot in the door with arguably one of the most successful year-round ski/recreation areas in the country. My plan at the beginning of summer 1999 had been to work there for the summer before going to Nelson, BC where I had been registered for the Selkirk College Ski Resort Operations & Management diploma program. Well due to a personal situation I didn’t end up going to Nelson; I stayed in North Vancouver, met Dave – the man I would later marry, and took on the position of Executive Assistant to the VP Marketing, also one of Grouse Mountain’s owners.

Over a year as her EA gave me a huge overview into the world of resort management. During that time, the owners of Grouse Mountain were heavily involved in the launching of Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden BC, so I also got to play a little part in it, which gave me huge insight into what it takes to build a four-season destination resort from scratch – it afforded me the opportunity to see and hear things I never would have seen or heard otherwise and I feel very blessed to have gained that amount of knowledge in such a short period of time.

During my time as EA, however, I realized I wasn’t on the right career path for me. I remember waking up one morning thinking, “What am I doing!? I want to HAVE an EA… not BE one.” So after an oddly stressful moment and the extension of way more grace than I was deserving of from the VP Marketing, I was handed the position of Marketing Coordinator. That was early in 2001.

Since then my position within the marketing team has shifted and morphed and moved and stretched and shifted again until I found myself in the position of Marketing Manager for Vancouver’s most-visited destination and an organization that I am very proud to be a part of. I have had the opportunity to grow my career within the safety of a company that appreciates me and my efforts and gives me the freedom to try new things. I was able to go out on a limb and lead the company into new marketing channels like social networking on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr before it hit the mainstream and blogging when other companies didn’t have the confidence to get in there and jump in to these then-emerging areas.

It’s strange when I think that I’ll be giving up a position I absolutely love with a company I have grown to adore filled with people I now consider some of my closest friends… but the future is before me and I’m excited to say I have no idea, really, where it will take me in the long run.

What I do know, however, is it will take me to Oliver BC, where I will become a stay-at-home mom to 5 kids when I marry Big Mack in April.

While I’m very excited to have found a partner I couldn’t possibly be more compatible with (thank you God!), I never thought I’d want to be a stay-at-home mom at all… let alone one to five children. But the last 9 months since Dave’s death have taught me just how important the people in our lives are and how we need to cherish and nurture those relationships. It’s more important to me that I raise my kids in a wholesome home environment than it is that I continue to live and work here in North Vancouver where my modest 800 square foot condo bears the same value as a 4-5 bedroom house in Oliver. Besides, I find it terribly ironic that I had always had the intention of moving back to the Okanagan all those years ago and had contemplated revisiting the idea even before I met Big Mack.

Just last year I couldn’t imagine leaving North Vancouver. Now I can’t imagine staying.

The thought of a new start in a new town with new people and a new outlook is very freeing… refreshing even. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for me. In the meantime, I will spend my final months in Vancouver working part time, recording an album of original music, snowboarding as much as I can, planning a wedding and spending time with my kids and the Macks.

I look forward to continuing to share the journey with you.