Emerald Lake 2015

Christmas has come and gone in it's regular whirlwind of food, family and friends. 2016 is just around the corner, and Ashley, Andrew, Tom and I thought we'd cram one more short getaway into 2015.

Lodges at Emerald Lake.

Destination-- Emerald Lake, just off of Highway 1, outside of Field, BC. We went to Emerald Lake three years ago at about the same time of year (just after Christmas), and enjoyed it enough to go again.

Emerald Lake is a bit isolated. There's no cell signal, WiFi in the lodge only, and no TV's in the guest room. So if you go, you go to enjoy other people's company, and to enjoy the outdoors. Being winter, it's a bit chilly, but we lucked out in that it was about -4 to -9 degrees. In other words, not too cold, and good weather for winter sports.

It was quite the winter wonderland at the lake. They have received a ton of snow so far, and there was a little more while we were visiting. We rented snowshoes and snowshoed around the lake-- although in retrospect, the path was so packed down, we probably could have walked without the snowshoes.

Me snowshoeing in the trees.

The whole trip around the lake took us about two hours, and there were plenty of other people out and about walking and cross-country skiing on the trails around the lodge.

Ashley and I pause for a photo op.

Tom, myself, Ashley and Andrew.

When we finished our snowshoe, Tom, Ashley and Andrew took a dip in the hot tub. I would have loved to join them, but hot tubs are a no-no for pregnant ladies. They can raise your core temperature which can cause problems with developing cells in your baby. So Squash (the butternut squash sized baby) and I relaxed in the room, and swung by the hot tub clubhouse to take some pictures.

Relaxing in the hot tub.

The hot tub also has a pretty awesome view of the mountains and the lake.

View from the hot tub.

Overall, we only spent two nights at Emerald Lake. But we ate some good food, got a bit of exercise, and watched a movie on Andrew's laptop. We had good company, and plenty of quiet time. It was a good way to recharge after the bustle of Christmas.

To everyone reading, have a safe and happy New Year!

Amanda's Favourite Things 3.0

There's nothing like failing your gestational diabetes screening, and then having to spend what you thought would be two hours, but is actually three hours, in a waiting room for the follow-up glucose tolerance test.

Gestational diabetes screening is a routine test that all expectant mothers take between 26-28 weeks of pregnancy. Failing it doesn't mean you have gestational diabetes (the screening turns back a lot of false positives), but it does mean that you need to take the longer, more accurate, glucose tolerance test. For those of you not familiar with a glucose tolerance test, you fast for 10 hours, get a blood sample, then you drink a thick sugary glucose drink, followed by a second blood sample at the hour marker, and third sample at the two hour marker. The baby, now the size of a big eggplant (14.8 inches long!) has been rolling around in my belly like a mad woman for the last 30 minutes. She's clearly on a sugar high. But yes, it's a long time to wait in a lab waiting room. I'm killing time. I had an 8:30am appointment this morning, but they were running so far behind that my test didn't actually start until 9:15am. Luckily, I came prepared with laptop in tow.

So, it's time for another rendition of Amanda's Favourite Things. It's been a few years since my last one, but there's something about Christmas that makes you revisit what your favourite things of the year have been.

Books-- by far, the Martian by Andy Weir

This book was recently turned into a movie, starring Matt Damon, and the movie didn't quite do the book justice. Being a bit of a science nerd myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the trials and tribulations of the main character, Mark Watney. I also can't remember the last time that a book made me laugh out loud-- and the Martian did, MULTIPLE times. I'd highly recommend this read!

Games -- Candy Crush

I'm not sure if this is a "favourite" as it is an obsession/compulsion. I have been playing Candy Crush for almost two years now. I am on level 1150, and I just can't seem to stop playing. It seems like most people gave up on Candy Crush a few weeks after they started to play. But not me. I must. Keep. Going.

Decor -- 3 Sprouts

Photo Credit

I admit, my mind has been on baby a lot the last few months. We've been slowly getting our nursery into shape, and I felt like I struck gold when I discovered 3 Sprouts. 3 Sprouts is all about cute and practical storage... Maybe this is why it calls to me! I found myself purchasing storage boxes, caddies, a laundry hamper and a stroller organizer. There are so many well designed animals to choose from, and they're at a reasonable price too! My favourite is the hedgehog, featured above.

Food -- Chai Nut Mylk Smoothie (Jugo Juice)

Photo Credit

I love smoothies. Jugo Juice introduced their newest smoothie, Chai Nut Mylk in December. It's a blend of banana, unsweeted almond milk and organic chai tea spices. It is DELICIOUS. I made a rendition of it at home a couple days ago, and I can tell you, I will be making it again.

Random -- Huggable Heartwarmer heating pads!

Beaver, Walrus and T-Rex

I picked up this Walrus last year at the Telus Convention Center Art Market. Aside from being unbearably adorable, his heatable rice pack also keeps you warm in cold weather and soothes aches and pains. Last December I had the flu for the first time in 9 or 10 years, and I had a terrible case of the chills. I heated up Walrus, and it was heavenly. There's a whole variety of Huggable Heartwarmers that are available from a local company... Some of you might even be seeing one of these in your upcoming Christmas present!

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas Bakeathon V6.0

Arguably, one of my favourite days of the year is when my girlfriends and I get together to do our annual Christmas bakeathon. This is our sixth year running, and at this point, we pretty much operate as a well-oiled machine. Recipes that bake at the same temperature are cooked at the same time, there is always a batch of cookies waiting to go in, and at the end of the afternoon, someone is always missing a set of measuring cups, parchment paper, or ends up with a mystery baking sheet.

This year, we all selected two recipes (with the exception of the very ambitious Paige, who baked three), making for a total of eleven recipes. Our haul/swap included:

Rice Krispies with all the toppings!

Peppermint/candy cane sugar cookies with frosting

Lemon shortbread tarts

Peanut butter thumb print cookies

Baklava

My personal favourite-- salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars (the only repeat from last year).

Chocolate dipped macaroons

Classic Shortbread

Chocolate caramel brownie

Santa Hat Party Mix

And last, but not least...Melted snowman sugar cookies. The melted snowmen make me super happy. They just look so sad and demented!

This is probably not the most convenient time for all this sugar to be sitting around the house, because my gestational diabetes test is next week! So I've frozen some of it, and I'll be giving some away to friends and family to enjoy. As I type this, Egg (the eggplant sized baby) is giving me some good kicks in belly. I take this to mean that she doesn't want me to give away any cookies. But we can't eat them all, because I don't want her to be a 10 lb baby!

The Christmas Bakeathon has become the unofficial event that kicks off the Christmas season for me. I'm looking forward to seeing more family and friends in the weeks to come!