Drumheller & Airdrie

The town of Drumheller is the dinosaur capital of Canada, with its richest fossils and dinosaur bones in North America. The world-famous Royal Tyrell Museum is one of the many tourist attractions. It's 90-minute drive from Calgary, and about 3.5 hours drive from Edmonton (West Edmonton Mall to be exact).

The World's Largest Dinosaur is actually four times the size of a real Tyrannosaurus rex. She weighs 145,000 lbs and is constructed mainly from steel. She is 86 ft tall and 151 ft in length.

From left (clockwise): Scenic drive to Drumheller, the entrance of Royal Tyrell Museum, dinosaur display at the museum, and the world's largest dinosaur.

On our way back to Calgary, we attended the Festival of Lights in Airdrie, a city situated just north of Calgary. During the festive season (month of December), Christmas lighting runs from 6 p.m. till 9 p.m. This is an annual event open to the public. Different activities were held each evening, such as local band performances. The beautiful and exquisite lighting was particularly charming! I haven't seen such attractive lighting before...

It was a cold evening. The temperature was well below -20 degrees Celsius. We stood around the bonfire with a cup of steaming hot chocolate. I was glad to be there despite the cold :)

White Christmas

I enjoy spending Christmas in Canada, especially a white Christmas. I'm attracted to Christmas trees with elaborate decorations, snowy wreaths, snow covered ground, lovely Christmas carols etc.

Gingerbread house is fun to play with during Christmas. I considered myself a kid at heart;) Gingerbread cookie pieces are stacked together to build a solid ground. Snow patches are drizzled all around the house, and it was then further decorated with colourful candies.

I imagined myself as a gingerbread man living in this pretty home, staying cozy sitting beside the fireplace, taking sips of hot apple cider and listening to the Christmas carols, while watching the peaceful snowfall outside the windows.....

A very Merry Christmas to all!!

Christmas is Near...

It's hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner. Christmas Eve is a week from today, bizarre... Soon enough we're going to bid 2008 goodbye... Oh, let's not go that far, back to Christmas. What do you think about Christmas? Exciting? Joyful? Stressful?

I remembered being a little kid going to bed on Christmas Eve with great anticipation, dozing off when I finally couldn't keep my eyes straight from staring at the Christmas stocking hanging by the bed... Waking up early on Christmas morning with great excitement and contentment, holding my stuffed Christmas stocking, even though I realized that Santa doesn't exist...

Should you tell your kids that Santa is unreal? This remains as a controversial topic. "If you believe there is, then there is," is a nice way to avoid shattering the Santa dreams in the little souls. Truthfully, there's no need to hide the truth from kids. The sooner they find out, the less disappointment for them later on. I remembered little sis came home one day, when she was four, asking "is Santa real? My classmate's parents told her that Santa doesn't exist. Is that true?" Stunned by her unexpected question, I was speechless for a minute. Mom & Dad then explained to her that Santa is indeed, unreal. The older we grow, the more we know; or rather, the older we grow, the more we SHOULD know. That's always the way it is!

I was carried away by the whole idea of Christmas celebration. Mom would prepare a fancy Western meal, with Dad serving us sparkling juice. The best meal of the year, besides the big meal during Chinese New Year. We never had a turkey for Christmas dinner. Why? It's simply because turkey is not commonly found in Malaysia, and it could cost a fortune (exaggerating) to get one!

Thus, I was delighted to have a turkey dinner on my first Christmas in Canada! Since then, I've always been looking forward to a turkey dinner on Christmas. On top of that, white Christmas has always been wonderful in North America. It gets more meaningful when I learned how to cook the bird myself. Secret recipe, shh..... Despite the time and effort putting into preparing a cooked turkey, I enjoyed having fun in the kitchen and everyone's great big smiles when savouring the delicious turkey ;)

Now that I don't get surprise gifts in my Christmas stocking, I'm nice to myself occasionally by getting myself some Christmas gifts.

Wow... mountain high chocolates?? My favourite Ferrero Rocher (esp. the dark chocolates), Nestle Turtles, Lindt dessert chocolates, and Dove milk chocolates. Keeping a box of Ferrero for myself for sure ;)

The Christmas Advent Calendar, supposed to provide you with ideas of daily activities from Dec. 1st to Christmas Eve. It's something that I always wanted to check out. A piece of chocolate a day!

The first Christmas card (in blue) I received this year and a self-made 3D-Christmas card. Isn't that cute? Of course, chocolates are always the highlight. Lindor chocolates in orange (orange flavour), red (milk), black (dark), yellow (white), and brown (hazelnut).

Believe it or not, here's what I got for myself this Christmas. A powerful hand mixer and a set of silicone bakeware. Excellent tools for baking!

Halloween

What does Halloween mean to you? I was never introduced to Halloween celebration until my first year of university in Canada. Halloween is part of the western culture and a good excuse to PARTY!! Not just that, dress-up party is the fun part. And, and, and... Halloween treats! Trick-or-treating is certainly something that kids look forward to. Children will dress up in their Halloween costumes and go door to door in the neighbourhood with siblings or friends asking for Halloween treats.

The brain cup cakes, yumm...

Halloween decorations.

The Pumpkin Sacrifice is an annual event hosted by the Harrison residence at the University of New Brunswick. I was living in Harrison during my first year of university and have always wanting to attend the event again. What is it all about? It's a 500 lbs pumpkin plummeting from the roof of the residence!

It's believed that pumpkin is sacrificed in order to harvest a fruitful academic year. This is the oldest residence tradition in Canada. The tradition started when some Harrison residents decided that it'd be a good idea to throw pumpkin off the roof of the building in 1973.

The ceremony started at 9 p.m. The gigantic pumpkin was carved with the faces of Janus, the two-visaged Roman God of beginnings and endings. It was borne across the quad (in front of the Student Union Building) by ten first-year Harrison students dressed in black, followed by the rest of the first-year residents and ten Harrison alumni in black, with candles held in hands.

Upon reaching the Joy Kidd residence, it was lit with three flares before retracing its steps back to Harrison and hoisted two and a half storey onto the roof of the residence's lounge.

The gigantic, carved 500 lbs pumpkin.

The pumpkin was borne by ten Harrison students.

On their way to the Joy Kidd residence.

Candles in the pumpkin almost caught a fire?!





The 36th annual Pumpkin Sacrifice at its climax. Three wise people said an invocation before the crashing of pumpkin.





The pumpkin was set on fire before meeting its doom.

This event brought back my memory of residence life. It was an unforgettable experience to be part of the Pumpkin Sacrifice. This year, however, I was one of the crazy bunch of spectators ;)

My Birthday

The cookie dough ice-cream cake from DQ (Dairy Queen). What a surprise!

KFC with a candle on blueberry muffin in the middle :) Whose idea was that?

Homemade whoopie pie with Quiddler cards on the side.

What does birthday mean to you? Someone thinks birthday is not a big deal, some tries to avoid it because it makes them feel "old." To me, birthday is a day of celebration with loved one. When I was little, I had birthday cakes on birthdays without fail. The whipped cream and icing used to be my favourite! Not so much now...

Birthday is a moment of joy to be embraced by warm wishes and showered with love. My 23rd birthday was full of surprises. First of all, my Lab Manager had the radio DJ sang me a birthday song which I missed (radio wasn't turned on, argghh...), a yummy whoopie pie to go with the Quiddler game that we play during break time at work, as well as a birthday card. I was touched by her sincerity and efforts in giving me surprises. Thanks, Tracy!

A birthday card from home finally arrived on my birthday! I got it from the mailbox when I reached home in the evening. The moment I entered the apartment, Paul got some candid shots of me using multiple shoots on his camera that accompanied with glaring flashes. Eric, on the other hand, surprised me from behind the door with the wonderful dish of KFC and muffin ;)(haha...didn't I baked that muffin yesterday? Why did I get my own creation as a birthday gift?)

Of course, the best is yet to come. The ice-cream cake was a hit! It was simply flattering! Even though I didn't get the full surprise because I found the cake by accident :P I'm totally spoiled by the surprises I got. It's gonna be hard to beat this. Nevertheless, I'm really grateful for all the birthday wishes and surprises. It's very much appreciated, guys! Lastly, I want to thank Mom for the gorgeous birthday gift. It's one of the most precious gifts I've ever received.

The smart phone!

Birthday

Chocolate cake + chocolate icing with creative decorations ;)

Fried rice with fried egg and sliced cucumber. A splash of tomato ketchup completed the meal ;)

Fried rice, baked potato fries, mashed potato, and Rootbeer float for our "candlelight"dinner.

I don't use a cake mix very often. I decided to give it a try for a surprise birthday cake. A chocolate cake with chololate icing and chocolate wafer sticks. It shall be called the "ultimate triple chocolate" cake. Thanks to Betty Crocker, the cake turned out to be rich and moist. Yumm...

It took me some time to come out with the decorative idea though. It looked plain with just the icing. Hence, I had chocolates (with nuts) around the cake and wafer sticks sheltering the birthday candle, made it look like a camp fire when the candle is lit. Sweet...

It certainly saved some time using the cake mix and the instructions were easy to follow. Besides the cake mix, only milk, eggs, and oil are required. The batter was separated into half for baking. The two cakes were then stacked together and coated with Betty Crocker "instant" frosting.

The fried rice was prepared by Eric with Maggi fried rice seasoning. It came in handy. Together with chicken, chinese sausage, carrots and peas, the fried rice turned out great and colourful! The birthday supper for Paul was so special that we even had Rootbeer float. Of course, he wasn't greeted with birthday wishes until we brought out the birthday cake with lit 24 candles (oops...did I just say that?).

Paul, hope you had an enjoyable birthday celebration. Presented to you by Adeline & Eric :)

Happy Birthday...

Being away from home for the first time on a birthday (Oct. 7th, 2003), this was what I got! A very sweet thought of everyone and thanks again, for the wonderful birthday plan (steamboat dinner)! You've brighten the very special day of mine.

CNY Celebration

How is it possible to have reunion dinner when you're not able to make it home? Well, it turned out to be an awesome meal! Being away from home and missing my first CNY celebration ever, I was tremendously blessed by these authentic Chinese dishes!

Friendship, you need it especially when you've no closed ones to reach out to. Thanks, folks :)