Gingerbread Masonry in Vancouver

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One of the hi-lights of any Christmas season in Vancouver for our family is a visit to the Gingerbread Lane, hosted at the Hyatt Regency on Burrard Street. The hotel lobby houses the best in gingerbread masonry, meringue fixtures, and burnt sugar siding to be found in the city. The even runs from December 1st to the 29th this year. Although you may wish to get there early to avoid the inevitable loss in curb side appeal from the erosion of greedy little fingers that just don't know how to resist all those pretty tempting sugary treats.

Don't want to do any spoilers for those you that might still drop by in the remaining days. Here is a look at last years offering.

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This year marks the 31st year of gingerbread. 2023 Gingerbread Lane can boast that it is the longest running festival of gingerbread houses, castles, villages, and hotels in Canada.

You will find offeringa from the professional culinary arts academies, to the grade-school amateur entries. Some of the creations will wow you and some will show you the fun the children had putting them together for the event with their classmates. All of them may very well inspire you to give a festive build a try yourself next year.

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Personally, I was not up to a whole house construction this year, but I did make a few dozen almost carnivore gingerbread cookies; so me a Minime and I were not tempted to indulge in the full sugar and flour versions.

My cookie, I paired with a Starbucks coffee. The Hyatt has a franchise conveniently in its lobby. Minime got a steamed milk with a shot of no sugar added vanilla. The outing was a treat for the tastebuds and the eyes and a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish foundation. Those who would like to contribute can make their vote for best house count in more ways than one. There is a donation box in the lobby that generally resembles Santa's letterbox.

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SMART Goal

Minime Careers Education unit has him setting a SMART (Specific. Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound) goal. We have been studying second languages for a while on Duolingo. Learning another language is a very long term goal, but he set a achievable, if determined goal for the short term.

From our studies ...

Date: November 19- 26, 2023

Goal: My smart goal is to complete three lessons a day for each of four languages, French, Spanish, Russian, and Mandarin, I study on Duolingo, for a total of twelve lessons a day for one week, 84 lessons in total for the week.

Reason this goal is important to me: When I grow up I want to travel and knowing multiple languages is important for travel.

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Minime's Reflections

I achieved my SMART goal. I exceeded it. I made Duolingo a priority and kept track of my lessons with tallies in my progress chart. It took about an hour a day, and I still had to fit in other studies. Sometimes, at the end of the day, I felt tired and had to power through. I found the SMART system useful because it allowed me to keep track of my language studies and made me more accountable. I couldn’t just give-up when I was tired. I had to keep going.I think I will continue with the goal because I want to know the languages and Duolingo tells us that we need 15 minutes a day to learn a language. I like learning languages and traveling.

Once I decide on a career, I could research the steps to have this career. I could set a SMART goal for each step, taking a very big goal and chopping it into smaller ones to make it more achievable.