Oh Canada

Until 2004 I don't think many of my Aussie friends even knew that Canada Day was the 1 July. From the first year that Chris moved here we started our crazy traditions of playing Kitchen Table Hockey (involves miniature plastic hockey sticks I bought as souvenirs, a foam hockey puck and goal posts made out of straws stuck to the table with big wads of blue tack), cooking poutine, hot wings and blue cheese sauce, Beef Dip and of course, Angel Food cake. (Hot sauce, Au Jus and cake mix was ordered from USAFoods). Canadian Club, Kokanee and Labatte Blue was easy enough to find, but sadly no Molson Canadian. The night usually ended with a Trailer Park Boys marathon.

This year though, none of us were up to celebrating and thought we'd give the whole night a miss until my cousin, Leonie White from White by Design Cakes turned up tonight with this gorgeous cake.

I miss my Canadian more than words can say. Meeting him changed my life. Living in the Yukon, Canada was a once in a lifetime experience for this Aussie and I'll always be grateful to him that I had that opportunity.

Northern lights,

Grizzly bears,

Partying with the locals in the Gold Dust Lounge in Carmacks,

Eating Moose,

Watching the gorgeous dog sled teams in the Yukon Quest,

Walking across the frozen Yukon River in -60c weather,

Gorgeous snow capped mountains,

Fishing by the light of the midnight sun in the summer.

These are only a handful of incredible memories I'll treasure for a lifetime. And none of them would have ever happened if it hadn't been for Chris and for that I'll be forever grateful.

This is one of the slideshows that we showed at Chris's service and it was a fitting tribute for our favourite 'CanAussie'