Boxing Day

It turns out that Boxing Day is all about shopping! The day after Christmas, Canadians go out really early to shop and the stores have huge discounts to bring people into their stores.

We were amazed with all the crowds of people who were out just a day after receiving Christmas presents!

And the line ups to get into some store were crazy long! Luckily Myra didn't want to go in those stores.

We thought about buying this board game to help us learn more about Canada.

We watched people making these interesting candy apples. We don't think we could tackle the double candy apple snowman!

These boots are styled like the Inuit kamiks or mukluks. They look like they would be very warm for the cold Canadian winters.

We got tired of walking around such a big shopping mall so we hitched a ride on this horse.

All the shopping made us hungry so Myra got us a Canadian snack called poutine. Originally from the province of Quebec, it has French fries, cheese curds, and gravy.

The three of us got bored with the shopping so Myra introduced us to some Canadian wildlife that happened to be in the mall. This brown bear was awfully mean.

This deer was much friendlier than the bear.

We found a hunting store with lots of animals to play with!

These moose were huge! We'll make sure we don't get them riled up.

We met a very tall polar bear.

We found that this black bear was much nicer than the brown bear.

Ummm, Hans? Are wolves friendly?

Paul told Myra that he caught a huge fish like this once! Hans just laughed!

We couldn't decide if we wanted to hang out with this bison or take a ride on the ATV behind him.

This bull must get awfully cold waiting out here to greet shoppers.

Well, that was enough shopping for us! We are ready for nap time. See you all later.

Christmas dinner

 Wow! There was so much food for Christmas dinner. This is lechon kawali, fried pork belly. It's a popular dish at Filipino potluck dinners.

 This is lumpia shanghai, fried spring rolls. It's one of Myra's favourite foods so we tried it, and we agree it's quite yummy.

 There is always a fish entrée at a Filipino potluck dinner. "Look how huge those fish are, Paul!" "I don't think I can eat all of that, Hans!"

 This dish is called Bicol Express. It's a stew with pork, coconut milk, shrimp paste, garlic, and long chilies. We thought it was very spicy, but Myra said this was a very mild version. We can't imagine what the spicy version would taste like!

 One of the desserts was called bibingka. It's a rice cake with cheese and a piece of salted duck egg on top. The cake was tasty, but the salted egg was a little odd.

Oh, we are so full! That was a great dinner. It is amazing that we are in Canada, but we got to learn a bit about Filipino culture. Myra says that's the great thing about living in Canada. Everyone can share their cultures and traditions. We are off to bed. We are going to experience something called "Boxing Day" tomorrow, and we have to wake up very early for this. Merry Christmas, or as it is said in Tagalog "Maligayang Pasko"!

Christmas in Calgary

 We made it to Calgary in time for Christmas with Myra! Everyone is getting ready for a big Filipino dinner so we are looking forward to seeing all the delicious food! Merry Christmas to everyone!!