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It’s hard to believe how quickly my holiday time on the Island has gone by, but it’s really no surprise. It’s always the best of times that go by much quicker than the less-than-stellar times. Everything has been a whirlwind of family, friends, food and festivities. Perhaps one of the most wonderful little blessings is the copious time spent in my pajamas.

After seeing how the Henricksons dealt with the fall-out from the brazen shooting of Roman Grant, I ripped open the last two seasons of Sex and the City to re-live the fabulous love life of Ms. Carrie Bradshaw. I’ve been spoiled by living the simple life for more than a week now, and it’s going to be very difficult to return to life in the “city.” Stay tuned either tomorrow or Monday…I hope to have some encouraging words and ideas you can put into practice to make the most of turning over a new leaf (and year).

This is my friend Kourtney and I. I mentioned her at the end of yesterday’s post. She is my very oldest friend.

In other homegrown news, Charley has become a much more affectionate dog as of late. When she was still getting adjusted here, she was completely adverse to cuddling or being held. Any attempts to do so and she’d wriggle out of your arms faster than you could blink. Now she lets me hold her and cuddle her and give her lots of little kisses. She had her first play date with Amy’s chihuahua, Peanut. At first Charley was very skittish and hesitant, but soon they were sniffing each others butts like they’d been friends for years.

Tomorrow is the day I’ve been looking forward to with more anticipation than I’ve felt in a long, long time. Right now, the lodge lights are low, the lift chairs are swaying gently in the nighttime mountain breeze and a few fresh flakes of powder are falling on Mount Washington. It’s all waiting for me. Many times I’m asked why I don’t just ride the local mountains on the North Shore in Metro Vancouver. My answer is simple: half of the delight I take in snowboarding is the escapism aspect to it. Why on earth would I want to go snowboarding if I can look down beyond the slope and see my office tower? Plus, the men worth oggling are just that much hotter on Mount Washington than anywhere else.

So in only a few short hours I’ll be tossing my ass out of bed, dragging it to Ski Tak Hut to meet up with Amy, her brother and his friend and 4×4 our way up the Mount Washington parkway. I can’t wait to take a ton of photos to share with you all - I hope they’ll shred a glimpse on the love I have for that place.

Photo courtesy of Mount Washington Alpine Resort. Mountain cam photo snapped at 9:41 p.m.

Only a few hours ago I arrived at my destination. The Comox Valley bus depot is nothing more than a decrepit storefront in one of the Valley’s industrial sections wedged behind the London Drugs store with just enough space for an hourly bus to drop-off and pick-up. I never enjoy my rides on Greyhound buses. Well, any buses for that matter. Each and every time it’s an absolute freak-show of the most mutant kind. To even attempt to describe the fellow travelers that I encounter couldn’t do it justice. I just feel dirty.

However, after a long ride over a short distance, I finally pulled into my mom and aunt’s driveway - too much luggage and Szechwan take-out in hand. The lights of our tree twinkled from inside the warm and cosy rancher as a few wisps of snowflakes began to fall. To see Charley made me laugh and smile in delight and I’m constantly amazed at how much bigger she gets every time I see her.

Comox Valley snow photo courtesy of Nemo’s Great Uncle on Flickr

It almost ridiculous that I’m blogging when I could be wrapping gifts and listing out the baking ingredients I need to pick up tomorrow. The fact that I was hammering away at the office 12 hours ago is the furthest thing from my mind. And so, this is where I say goodbye and goodnight as I sign off in the greater interest of a hot shower, toasty legwarmers, a roaring fireplace, puppy cuddles and yards and yards of giftwrap.

I’ve been spending another rushed weekend on Vancouver Island with my family, and part of what makes the time feel as though it flies by is the fact that I always try to pack so much activity in such a short period of time. Today was no exception. Being that my birthday is officially next weekend, I’ll be sipping pinot noir and noshing on chic tapas with a few fabulous and fun friends at “Chez Jack.” This weekend was reserved for celebrating with my mom, aunt and Charley with a big vat of Szechuan beef and chow mein before ice cream cake.

And guess what?

I photo-blogged.

Being the lover of First Nation art that I am, my mom thought it appropriate to get me a birthday card designed by a local artist from the Comox First Nation. This untitled piece is, for all intensive purposes, entitled “Queneesh.”

“The Majestic Comox Glacier is a symbol of our community, heritage and one of the physical features that make our area so beautiful. Recent reports have made it evident that the glacier is disappearing at an alarming rate and will likely be gone within my lifetime.

For members of the Comox First Nation, the glacier has even more significance according to stories such as this: An old chief was forewarned of the coming of a great flood. He was told by the Creator to prepare four canoes, great lengths of rope and to pick the strongest and most attractive members of the community. When the flood came the selected people went into the canoes. Whenever non-selected individuals tried to enter a canoe, the craft would magically move away from them. The flood destroyed the village and the rest of its inhabitants.

The people in the canoes floated around for a while with no evidence of land in sight. Eventually, they spotted a large white whale. They attached their ropes to the whale. By the time the water receded, the whale landed on the sight of the glacier, keeping the Comox people in our territory. To this day we respect our Heritage and refer to the glacier as “Queneesh,” or white whale.” - Andy Everson

For months, I’ve been covetting this hoodie. It was designed by Sheri Moon Zombie, one of my personal heroines. She defines individuality and has created her own “sexy.” For those of you who are unfamiliar with her, she’s not only the wife of Rob Zombie, but also the star of a handful of his films (including one of my personal top tens, ‘The Devil’s Rejects‘). Add “designer” to her roster as she’s created her own line of hot tops for men, women, kids and pups with Total Skull.

Please don’t copy me, k?

After all birthday celebrations were said and done, it was time to trim the tree. My aunt was displaying a previously unseen level of Christmas spirit, and surprised me by showing up in a Santa hat.

Needless to say, the hat got passed around.

The pre-Christmas festivities proved to be a little much for Charley. In no time at all, she was tuckered right out…

And last, but certainly not least, I want to turn your attention to a fairly new cosmetic line from Australia.

Today I was on the hunt for a fantastic new lip balm or gloss and was directed to Bloom Cosmetics. Though the line’s been around for almost 15 years, it’s based out of the southern hemisphere and is something very new to me. I snagged their grapefruit-flavoured ‘Delicious Lips’ lip balm and I’m completely sold. Their products are made with mainly natural ingredients, including the succulent essential oils contained in the lip balms.

Stay tuned because I’m quite sure that I’ll have more to say about this line in the future.

Tonight I broke my cardinal rule of baking: I ripped open a Betty Crocker box. Baking from scratch is something I’ve always taken pride in. However, this evening I’m in a bit of a rush and some expedient “cupcakes in a box” were the solution.

You’d had to have been living under a rock over the last 24 hours if you were in southwestern British Columbia and didn’t know that our first massive windstorm of the season passed overhead. My only real concern was whether the ferries would be running or not today because, as always, my boss really needs me in tomorrow. Little did I know the damage done overnight…

My truck was missed by just inches. It’s now 9:28 p.m. and BC Hyrdo has yet to pay a visit to my aunt and mom’s home. They have been without heat, electricity or running water for over 16 hours now.

Our neighbourhood wasn’t the only part of Courtenay affected by the storm. The Puntledge river shared a little love with Lewis Park:

Tomorrow is almost here, which means it’s nearly time to return to Vancouver. Times on the Island with my family and Charley always pass by much too quickly. One of the beautiful things about the time here is that I do a whole lot of nothing. So here we are, two days since my last post, and I really don’t have anything exciting to share with you. In fact, last night I was out cold by 9:00 p.m. and didn’t wake up until 8:30 a.m.

I spent the day in town with my mom and visited the Charles Dickens Christmas Craft Faire. Among the items we picked up were loose herbal tea and lavender jelly. Both tasty and at delicious prices. Plus, it’s always a superb idea to support your local economy.

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It’s been raining and grey and dark all day in the Valley. “What’s so great about that”, you ask? Rain in the Valley means snow on the mountain.

Mount Washington’s lift pass kiosk, 6:42 p.m.:

Might I add that I am ridiculously excited for a girls’ day on the Island’s mountain with Becky? Swishing snow, glorious sunshine, beers in the lodge at lunch, a plethora of unbelievably hot boys to oggle and some of the finest that the Island has to offer. It will be grand…oh yes, it will be grand.

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I’ll be formulating this coming Wednesday’s “Wanton Wednesday” post pretty soon and I think I’ve got a rather interesting issue to write about, so stay tuned for the 14th.

Other than that, I’m trying to keep my day-to-day life a busy flurry of work and Christmas preparations. It’s been a tough and trying last couple of months for me. Sometimes it’s easier to keep your head down and your spare time focused.

A girl can’t Rome without Caesar.

Oh yes I did. Since my trip to the U.S. is most definitely happening on Sunday, I unscrewed my bottle of Saturna Island Vineyards‘ 2006 Pinot Noir (in adhering to 100-Mile ideals), poured myself a big glass and hauled the decorations out of my storage locker. Frank Sinatra’s “A Jolly Christmas” started spinning on my stereo and the prettifying commenced. Is that even a word? It is now.

But can you blame me? You cannot say that this doesn’t look like the coziest apartment in the West End, because it does and it is!