I'm already listening to Christmas music.
Christmas is coming up, everybody. Aren't you excited?
I get into the Christmas spirit just after Halloween. Thanksgiving just slips by like some obscure holiday - like Saxophone Day or Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day (both of which happened yesterday, can you beleive it?).
It doesn't really feel like Thanksgiving without going home. It's just "the holiday you're about to have" and you eat a lot and play board games with your cousins and sleep in piles of sleeping bags in the living room. It's fun, but it doesn't feel like Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is packing everyone up in the car and trying not to forget all the birth certificates and mittens, then driving through customs to the ferry dock. We eat chicken sandwiches and fries with honey mustard on the ferry and stand outside in the dark doing that thing where you pretend to shove someone over the edge of the boat but then yank them back - you know the joke that hasn't been funny ever. Then we land and drive off the ferry to our wickedawesomesweet hotel with a giant glass-ceiling pool room and fresh breakfast buffet. There are giant chandeliers dangling everywhere and deep red and green carpet running up and down the halls. The soap you get in the shower smells like designer perfume and the hotel robes are thick and white. You can see the whole bay from the hotel window. It smells like ocean and there are always seagulls.
We always walk to the Spaghetti Factory one night and I always get the tortellini. We visit the museum and I flip out every time John Lennon's car is there. I walk down the old-fashioned Victorian street at least once and look in on the Victorian-style rooms they have on display. I always mean to write a story about it, but I always forget. I like looking at all the old things, no matter how many times I've seen them before. There is one room that has been set up like an old Victorian kitchen with a cast-iron stove and it really smells like apple pie.
Heidi and I pretend to be pirates or star trek officers on the big ship there. We talk in funny accents and pretend we're running away from the cops as we duck into a pretend train station. There are recordings of train sounds in the background, but the train never comes. It is always very silly.
Sometimes we go shopping. We go to Roger's chocolates and each buy one 2-dollar candy. I just buy the little truffles now, because I'm trying to cut back. I always get raspberry. It is sad to leave because the smell is so rich and sugary.
There are carriages going up and down the street. We used to take them, but now we always say, "maybe next time" - I remember when we would all pile into one and pull the big blanket over the top. Sometimes one or more of us would fall asleep. It was nice to see all the old houses left over from old Victoria. Everything looks cute and European. I want to stay at a Bed and Breakfast someday.
We don't do the same thing every time, but it's always enough to make it familiar. We usually take the Clipper now and get there much quicker. We also haven't gone to Victoria during Thanksgiving for a few years. We've gone after Christmas. It has an even better feel during Christmas. The Capital building is lit up with red and green lights. There are wreaths and red ribbons draped on all the street lamps and signs. The horses that pull the carriages are all wearing little jingle bells and santa hats. We go to see the beautiful Christmas light display at Buschart Gardens and listen to the same brass quartet that comes there every year. We drink hot chocolate that burns your tongue and keeps your hands warm.
We are going to Victoria again after Christmas this year. I'm excited. We are changing it up a little - we will first go on a train to Vancouver and spend a day there, then we will take the ferry on up to Victoria and spend three days there. I haven't been to Vancouver for the longest time. I'm very excited.
Only 37 more sleeps till I'm home.
That's not so long.
I get into the Christmas spirit just after Halloween. Thanksgiving just slips by like some obscure holiday - like Saxophone Day or Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day (both of which happened yesterday, can you beleive it?).
It doesn't really feel like Thanksgiving without going home. It's just "the holiday you're about to have" and you eat a lot and play board games with your cousins and sleep in piles of sleeping bags in the living room. It's fun, but it doesn't feel like Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is packing everyone up in the car and trying not to forget all the birth certificates and mittens, then driving through customs to the ferry dock. We eat chicken sandwiches and fries with honey mustard on the ferry and stand outside in the dark doing that thing where you pretend to shove someone over the edge of the boat but then yank them back - you know the joke that hasn't been funny ever. Then we land and drive off the ferry to our wickedawesomesweet hotel with a giant glass-ceiling pool room and fresh breakfast buffet. There are giant chandeliers dangling everywhere and deep red and green carpet running up and down the halls. The soap you get in the shower smells like designer perfume and the hotel robes are thick and white. You can see the whole bay from the hotel window. It smells like ocean and there are always seagulls.
We always walk to the Spaghetti Factory one night and I always get the tortellini. We visit the museum and I flip out every time John Lennon's car is there. I walk down the old-fashioned Victorian street at least once and look in on the Victorian-style rooms they have on display. I always mean to write a story about it, but I always forget. I like looking at all the old things, no matter how many times I've seen them before. There is one room that has been set up like an old Victorian kitchen with a cast-iron stove and it really smells like apple pie.
Heidi and I pretend to be pirates or star trek officers on the big ship there. We talk in funny accents and pretend we're running away from the cops as we duck into a pretend train station. There are recordings of train sounds in the background, but the train never comes. It is always very silly.
Sometimes we go shopping. We go to Roger's chocolates and each buy one 2-dollar candy. I just buy the little truffles now, because I'm trying to cut back. I always get raspberry. It is sad to leave because the smell is so rich and sugary.
There are carriages going up and down the street. We used to take them, but now we always say, "maybe next time" - I remember when we would all pile into one and pull the big blanket over the top. Sometimes one or more of us would fall asleep. It was nice to see all the old houses left over from old Victoria. Everything looks cute and European. I want to stay at a Bed and Breakfast someday.
We don't do the same thing every time, but it's always enough to make it familiar. We usually take the Clipper now and get there much quicker. We also haven't gone to Victoria during Thanksgiving for a few years. We've gone after Christmas. It has an even better feel during Christmas. The Capital building is lit up with red and green lights. There are wreaths and red ribbons draped on all the street lamps and signs. The horses that pull the carriages are all wearing little jingle bells and santa hats. We go to see the beautiful Christmas light display at Buschart Gardens and listen to the same brass quartet that comes there every year. We drink hot chocolate that burns your tongue and keeps your hands warm.
We are going to Victoria again after Christmas this year. I'm excited. We are changing it up a little - we will first go on a train to Vancouver and spend a day there, then we will take the ferry on up to Victoria and spend three days there. I haven't been to Vancouver for the longest time. I'm very excited.
Only 37 more sleeps till I'm home.
That's not so long.