Stuff done during holidays

So after moving and all that, it was time to enjoy the christmas break. Did a number of things which include:

Christmas Lan @ the Singh's

As always, Christmas lan (or pretty much, wc3 and dota day) was hosted by the gracious ryan singh. However, this time, the numbers doubled since Kevin's friends were in as well. It was quite the task to fit all us guys (about 10 of us i think?) and one girl (Gaelyn) in the usual 'lan area'. Having more people was definitely more interesting, but it was a shame that many of us had to leave early since we had christmas plans. Gotta give props to kevin and ryan (and their mom ;) ) for hosting every year since, for real, they are great hosts. Might sound like a geek, but lan is one of those things i look forward to every year. It's not so much about playing the video games since we do that enough on a regular basis, but it's the joy of blasting your own music thru speakers and the constant random '$h!t' talking to one another all day that makes the experience fun. No pics for this event.

Christmas party @ the Wu's

So like i said, i had to leave lan early so i could make it to a christmas event, which is this one. I missed last year's party since i had to go back to HK, so this was my first time visiting the Wu's place. Now that i've moved, im now a 10 minute drive from their place. As janice says, we're practically 'neighbours' lol. It was a great night since it's not often we're all able to get together and just relax, and also, I think this was the first time i ever tried chocolate fondue. From what i heard, Richie tried pouring Bailey's into the machine last year, and clogged the machine up. Shame i wasn't there for that.

America's very own Mr. Gary Cheng came back to the Land of Hockey and Lumberjacks for Christmas

Don't let this pic fool you, i was pretty happy i got the Dark Knight dvd from the gift game. I've never seen movie before, making this a great snatch. Also, it's not the alcohol (not that there was a lot ingested anyway), im just not photogenic

Church Christmas Banquet
Ah annual church banquet. For those who don't know, the church i attend is affliated with a number of sister churches. As a celebration, on christmas all the churches come together for dinner, worship singing, christmas message from the pastor, and last but not least, prize draws! This marks the first time I sang with the worship team at the banquet. Shame i don't know how to embed the video of our performance here or else you all can enjoy Vanessa's heavenly solo of "O Holy Night". It's on facebook though for those interested. Finally, difference between the previous banquets and this one is that the prizes are much better this time, which we could thank Patrick for. As usual, my number was drawn at the banquet. 2 years ago, i won a basket of oranges. Last year i won a gardening hose. This year, though i didn't win the better prizes, i won a free peking duck platter (with purchases over $50).

With some of the gentlemen: I have to stop with the half drunk expression in my pics

I have grown fond of the double peace sign

Singing

Blue Mountain: Snowboarding @ night

I went snowboarding for the first time this christmas. Not including cross country skiing when i was in elementary school, I've never skied or snowboarded before. I opted for snowboarding over skiing just because i figured it'd be more challenging and fun. With my natural prowess in sports, i thought it'd be easy to get a hang of it. However, I was struggling pretty hard in the beginning because I couldnt control where i was going nor could i stop. Even on the most bunny of hills i was having problems sliding down (i had no problems rolling down). I would naturally slide towards the left side and into the fencing.

Perplexed by my own failures, i started thinking that perhaps the pain my feet were feeling from the tight boots were causing the issues. Not knowing anything about snowboarding, i thought it'd be a good idea to have tight fitting boots, and hence i got a pair that were 1 size smaller than my feet. My toes were at one point going numb because they were getting crushed inside. So after getting a larger pair of boots, i hit the slopes again. I left the extreme bunny hill and tried some of the other green hills and found it much much (yes 2 much's, it's not a typo) more easier to control, turn, balance and stop. Although i still fell on my ass on occassion, i was actually standing on my 2 feet snowboarding. In retrospect, had i smarten up and changed boot sizes the moment i tried them on, i would have had more fun boarding. I changed at the later half of the tme we were there, so i missed some quality snowboarding time. Oh well, there's always next time. I should also wear contacts or wear glasses next time since we were doing it at night when my vision goes all blurry....