Boxing Day Deals: Hallmark Christmas Ornaments

Hallmark makes excellent Christmas ornaments and their prices are not cheap.  They are typically 20 to 35 Canadian dollars and are not usually on sale.  As a collector of ornaments (I collect useless things I might say), I decided to line up for their boxing day sale for 40% off.  Their ornaments are so well made that the prices don't go much lower.  I got a few for my collection this year, and it was definitely worth lining up at 8am along with 20 other ornament fans.

They have many many series of ornaments every year.  Barbie series, Disney Princess series, Mickey series, Hero series, Snoopy Series, Winne the Pooh series....etc, you name it, they have it.

Here are two barbies I got for this year.
To collect all of them every year will require a few thousand dollars in the budget, which is not possible for average citizens.

I also got these funny super heroes ornament.  The Mickey Mouse and Snoopy ornaments were also really detailed crafted.  (way more details than the super heroes above.)

I would definitely consider  buying them next year.

Christmas Gift: Tassimo Coffee Machine

Recently, Tassimo machines has been popular and I bought one for my wife for Christmas present.
I have wondered about what it does and my wife is a coffee drinker, so I thought we should try it.
It operates from a product called, "T-Disc".  It does not require beans or filters and makes one cup from one disc.

It has several models and we bought the one in the upper pictures.
I am not a "pro" coffee drinker, so I don't know the difference in taste, but I do notice that the coffee tastes more refined.  The downside is the cost of buying the T-disc because one disc only makes one cup and one pack of t-disc gives you 8 or 16 cups, depending on the package.  Nabob packages cost around 6 dollars and Starbucks cost around 9 to 12 dollars.

There are also several European brands, which are not imported to Canada (too bad because we only have Nabob or Starbucks to choose from).

There are Swiss, German, Italian and French coffee makers which are not sold...not sure if we can order them online but I sure want to try them out.

Baby Gift: Diaper Cake

One nice co-worker and her husband visited us and brought us a few nice and thoughtful baby gifts.  One of the things I really appreciated is the diaper cake they made.
My wife has heard of the diaper cake but never thought that someone would make it for us.

I really appreciate every little thing we receive because it is the thought that counts.

Wii Mario All-Star 25 Year Anniversary Edition

This game is for people around 25 to 40 who are parents born in the first generation of the video game era. 
I find the original Mario games nostalgic, and I love the character designed, so I decided that I had to get this game.

It turns out that he did not like the older versions.  I guess the new one has better graphics, more tricks, multiplayer options, etc, which were not in the older versions.

Restaurant: Joey Restaurant

We had a chance to go to a restaurant called, "Joey Restaurant".  It is a chain restaurant similar to Earls or Cactus Club, and we have never been there before.  It is before my second baby's 1 month celebration, so we decided to order some dishes that we don't usually order.

First, we actually ordered two cocktails:  Bellini and Mojito.  I loved the Bellini.

Then, we order 3 mini burgers with fries.  For some reason, the food seemed lukewarm.

Then, we ordered a 9 ounce sirloin steak.  It was delicious, but again, the plate wasn't warm and the steak, too.  I kind of miss the Asian style of fresh steak on the steak plate.  Those are really "freshly made".

Next, we ordered Kobe Beef Meatball Spaghetti.  The food was great, but the meatballs were hard.

After waiting for more than 25 minutes, the dessert, chocolate cake with warm chocolate filling had arrived.
It has cranberry sauce on the side and ice cream.  This one was delicious.
The service was very friendly in this place but the food need to be warmer.

Vancouver Christmas Market

We went to the Vancouver Christmas Market this week.  It is in its first year with local and European (mostly German) vendors importing Christmas decoration, food and souvenirs.

They have unique European stands selling German beers and lager, sausage hotdogs, pork, decorations, toys...etc.  The second picture shows a stand that sells cooked apple with different flavors.  I have never seen that before.  The decorations were expensive because they are handcrafted and imported.  The price ranged from 20 dollars for a small wooden ornaments to 40 dollars for a big egg shaped ornaments.

The themed toys or handcrafted decorations are 50 to 300 dollars.  Pricey because they are imports from Czech, Poland and Germany.  Some are from vendors of US and are overpriced.

The German sausage hotdog was sooooooo good and better than the ones I tried before.
We also tried the pretzels.  Yummy...I want to eat it again.

Too bad they don't offer German dinners there...

Coach's New Poppy Bag

Recently, Coach released a new line of cute, stylish handbags, and we decided to check it out last weekend.  In the Metropolis in Metrotown store, they do not have much things for men, but do have plenty of selections for women.  A newly designed, cute black bag immediately caught our attention and we decided to bring it home.

Staff in the regular store are friendly and gave good service.  They took their time wrapping and had done an amazing job.  Each item was boxed and wrapped in gold ribbons.

Even the shopping bag was quite stylish.

Restaurant: Nandos

I have heard good things about Nandos from the East Indian community, so I decided to try it in Metrotown's food court.  I have tried their curry fries and their famous Portuguese Grilled Chicken, and we liked it very much.  However, the price is high for food court food and the volume is small.

So cold today...A cold November.

Record cold temperature in Vancouver area.  It is cold that I find it difficult to bear when I walk my son to daycare.  I can't imagine living in a colder place. (minus 9 degrees Celsius)

Christmas Decorations: Hello Kitty and Thomas the Tank Engine

Every year, we buy new decorations for our big 7 feet tree.  It is sort of like our couple's collections. 
We are interested in special character and limited edition decorations from cartoons and corporations.
(For example, M&M, Starbucks, coke and other cute snowman and santas.) 

We found Hello Kitty and Thomas the engine on sale, and I immediately wanted them because all my family would love these cute things on our tree!!  My sons would like Thomas as well.  We also found several cute cupcakes and strawberry decorations from Walmart (they actually have cute decorations).

My Second Son Is Born

On November 15th, 2010, my second son is born in Burnaby Hospital at 3:45 pm local time. 
We were so happy and will undergo the same experience as having my first son.  (lots of joy and lots of work)
However, it reminds me of the cuteness of new born.  Yes, they are lacking hair and facial expressions, but they are soooooo cute!!

Halloween Night: Banana man

On the way back from the birthday dinner on Halloween, when we got off the Sky Train on Broadway, we saw a crowd of 40 people dressing as Bananas.  Everyone was rather surprised to see them.  I guessed that they were from the same workplace. 

Every passerby including us were taking pictures of them by cameras or cellphones.  Each Banana man or women will have a boom box, and when they got on the train, they start to hit the music and danced on the train.  It was hilarious.  The police officer watched in awe and radioed the downtown officers, saying "There are 50 men dressed in bananas in the skytrain heading downtown."  I just laughed.

Restaurant: Cafe Pacifica (Italian Buffet)

Recently, I wanted to celebrate my wife's birthday and decided to treat her to a good meal. 
I have heard that Cafe Pacifica in Canada Place (Pan Pacific Hotel) has really good Italian Buffet, so I decided to reserve a spot there for dinner.  We went there in the Holloween weekend, so we saw many people with funny costumes. 
The moment we got to the restaurant floor, I thought the floor was kind of dark.
In front of the restaurant reception, there was a large pond with various pumpkin carvings decorations.

First, I thought the food selection was limited, but it wasn't.
They have 3 sections of buffet to choose from:  Seafood, salad and cheese, cooked food and desserts.

They have a large selection of desert: chocolate cake, fruit cake, tiramisu, mousse, pudding, cheese cake....etc.
I was amazed and wanted to try everything.

They also have live order section of spaghetti, tortellini (or other Italian noodles) where you can order and customize your own noodle.  The chef will cook it right in front of you.  You will get to choose from 20 kinds of ingredients and 4 kinds of sauces.
The Halibut fish, chicken and Lasagna were also delicious (yes, we don't eat good stuff much, so I was easily impressed...haha)

The piano music and opera were provided by professional musicans and were absolutely wonderful.
The Opera songs scares my son because the powerful voices were loud for kids.
However, when the audiences clapped, my son clapped, too.  It was very funny.

We had a very good time....ate too much...too full.......

Mid October's Misty Days

Right in the middle of October, there were couple of misty days around Vancouver. 
From our building, we can see a sea of mist covering the lower ground.
It is beautiful.  It was sunny but the mist was just clearing up in the morning.

Free P&G Sample

We got a box of sample from the P&G sample website and were amazed at the samples included.

It has a Frebreze scent refill, shampoo, liner, mouth wash, deodorant and detergent.
All are very useful and helpful samples that we can use while travelling.

Snail As Our Pet for a Week

Snails and slugs are often found in June and early fall in BC.  Snail are more rare than slugs here.
Interestingly, my wife found one big snail and brought it back home to show my son.

The total length is more than 5 cm including the yellow patterned shell and body and tail. 
We gave it different kind of vegetable snacks and released him in a week to go back to nature.

Indian Butter Chicken

Last year, my co-worker gave me a recipe of authentic Indian Butter Chicken that he uses.
My wife tried to follow the recipe and made the following dish:

It was delicious and not the taste found in normal food courts and restaurants.

Haagen, Giant Pajamas in Target and Cute Wonder Sandwich Box

Continuing with my shopping notes, we went to Haagen in Washington State, and it feels like IGA Plus in BC. 
It has higher grade products and organic foods with higher prices.  Because of the similarity, I would not shop there too much.

We went to Target that day, too, and we saw giant pajamas again.
It is amazing because these are for adult females.  Do people actually wear these?

We saw many cute sandwich boxes in the summer, but we missed the chance to buy them. 
This time, we finally found 1 of Wonder Bread Sandwich Box, the last one in the stores...