Fort Langley National Historic Site presents Heritage Holiday at the Fort this Christmas complete with storytelling, crafts, tree decorating, and roasted chestnuts.

Heritage Holiday at Fort Langley

• Where: 23433 Mavis Ave, Fort Langley
• When: December 19 – January 3, 10:00am to 5:00pm
  (closed December 25, 26, and January 1)
• Admission: Regular rates apply

Pick up a Holiday Scavenger Hunt card at the visitor centre, and have some fun dressing up in old fashioned costumes at the holiday photo stations.

Daily scheduled activities include:
11:00am: Chestnut Roasting/Heritage Hot Chocolate Tasting
12:30pm: Blacksmith Demonstration
1:30pm: Coopering Demonstration
2:30pm: Chestnut Roasting/Heritage Hot Chocolate Tasting
4:30pm: Lowering of the Flag
11:00am to 4:00pm: Heritage crafts. Make your own handmade wooden and fabric holiday ornaments

Follow Fort Langley on Facebook and Twitter for more information about the fort’s special events and activities throughout the year.

The Lumiere Festival will light up the town this week with dazzling installations all around the West End. If you’ve been by Morton Park (near English Bay) in the past week, you’ll be familiar with MK Illumination‘s Orca Whale. I’ve been away but have seen the flurry of photos online featuring this whale, which is just one of the many installations to come.

This now-famous whale however needs a name so the Lumiere Festival has launched the Name The #LumiereWhale.

What do you think the Orca should be called? Whale-ma? Oliver Orca? Wilbur the Whale? Send in your ideas on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #LumiereWhale and on December 15th a panel of judges will select a winner. The winner will receive a $150 gift certificate to the Beach Bay Cafe and Patio, the perfect spot for a little winter whale watching.

The Lumiere Festival will officially take place December 11th and 12th, 2015 after dusk around the West End. Visitors can expect free hop-on, hop-off trolley tours, free horse-drawn carriage rides, and free entertainment on Davie, Denman, and Robson streets.

The Robson Square ice rink is hosting 12 Days of Christmas fun, festivities, and free entertainment starting December 12th.

Photo credit: BC Gov Photos – Submitted to the Miss604 Flickr Pool

Admission to the Robson Square ice rink is free. For rentals, skates are $4.00, ice cleats are $2.00. Helmets are included with skate rental.

The The Robson Square ice rink will remain open until the end of February, 2016. Tag your photos with #robsonsquare on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to share the fun. Robson Square is located at 800 Robson Street between Robson and Georgia, Howe and Hornby.

The fireplace is roaring, you’re snuggled up with a cup of hot chocolate, your favourite holiday movie is on TV, and without even slipping out of your blanket cocoon on the couch you have done all of the grocery shopping for your family, for the whole week. This is a blissful reality for many Vancouverites that have discovered Save-On-Foods’ online ordering system, for delivery and pick-up orders.

Save-On-Foods Grocery Pick-Up and Delivery

I recently spent the afternoon with Save-On-Foods’ personal shopping team at the Grandview store in Vancouver, fulfilling orders with team leader Jay Sahota. His squad is on the receiving end of all regional online grocery orders and with their trusty inventory guns, crates, and carts, they set out through the store several times a day to do your shopping for you.

Snaking up and down aisles with online orders pre-loaded onto the store’s mobile devices that track orders and inventory locations, these shoppers pick up everything in your order. Green bananas, ripe tomatoes, thick-sliced deli meats, low sodium soup, however custom your order or whatever special instructions you leave online, they will make sure your groceries are delivered just as you ordered them.

Personal shoppers in 10 participating Save-On-Foods locations in BC use the inventory guns, which map out their route in the store to ensure an efficient shopping time and also come loaded with your specific order. Any item they pick up and scan is either checked off the list or it will make a sound letting them know they have picked up the wrong item.

In the event that items are out of stock or they don’t have exactly what you selected, and you have indicated that they store may make subs for you, the personal shopper will complete the order for you in the most accurate way possible. If you indicated that you would like 1-litre ketchup but it’s out of stock, the personal shopper will sub for 2x 500ml and adjust the price accordingly.

“I like to remind my team that they should feel as though they are shopping for their own families.” Jay told me, asserting that trust is key with online customers. “It’s all about instilling trust to make sure the customer’s time isn’t wasted and that they get the very best quality out of this experience.”

How The Process Works

1. You go online and create an account; you choose your items (including any special product instructions), with a minimum order of $40.
2. The Save-On-Foods team shops for you, bagging up your groceries, securely storing them, and preparing your receipt. Items are stored in three spaces to ensure freshness: The eComm area for “ambient” items, a fridge in the back of the store, or a walk-in freezer. The delivery vans also have these three compartmentalized areas inside of them for your delivery.
3. After work or school, you can keep the kids in the car while you pull up to the pick-up lane in the parking lot. Buzz the team through a speaker system and they will bring your cart full of groceries right to your vehicle and load them up for you.
4. If you selected delivery, you’ll get your groceries direct to your front door during your selected delivery window time.

Jay recalled a conversation just last week when an in-store shopper discovered the service the personal shoppers offer. “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you guys doing?” said a gentleman who was just starting to fill a basket with groceries in the produce department. Jay replied, explaining that he was fulfilling orders made online for pick-up and delivery service customers. “So what am I here doing my own shopping like a schmuck?!” The man asked Jay if he could just leave his basket with him, which he did, and he promptly returned home to watch the rest of the football game. From the comfort of his couch he then placed an order that afternoon to have it delivered.

Save-On-Foods has turned the average 1-hour shopping trip into a 7-minute online experience and the service is definitely picking up steam. Jay and his team alone have prepared hundreds of orders a week following the instructions of each individual customer.

The team of 16 personal shoppers at the Grandview Save-On-Foods is extremely efficient, and what took Jay and me 1 hour to complete during my visit (I asked a lot of questions, took a lot of photos), he could have fulfilled on his own in 10 minutes and started on another 10 orders.

Delivery windows are between 8:00am and 2:00pm, and 4:00pm to 10:00pm. If you place your order online before 10:00pm, you can get next-day delivery. For same day pick–up, order by 12:00pm and pick-up between 4:00pm and 8:00pm.

Keep your slippers on, watch the end of the big game, and save time this holiday season by letting Save-On-Foods, Jay, and his team do your shopping for you. Sign up now and discover over $25,000 in prizes to be won, including 20 $500 Save-On-Foods gift cards, free grocery delivery for one year, and daily instant prizes of up to 5,000 More Rewards points.

The Shark Club is back! A staple of the pre-game/post-game scene in Vancouver has re-opened its doors and it’s bigger than ever. The original Shark Club opened at 180 West Georgia Street in 1993, and after an 18-month rebuilding, a new team of designers, chefs, bartenders and staff has brought the bar up to a new level.

The refreshed Shark Club in Downtown Vancouver

The 9,250 square-foot space has hit the big leagues with an open, loft-style concept featuring a vintage sports theme, wrap-around score tickers and central, 66-foot-long bar clad in industrial steel. Two giant 12-foot-by-seven-foot media walls offer everyone VIP, front-row seats to all the action, with an additional 60 oversized, flat-screen TVs catching every play throughout the multi-functional room. After the game, the lounge turns into an overtime dance floor with beats thrown down from the fully operational scissor-lift DJ booth.

The revamped menu from Chef Brandon Thordarson combines classic snack and fan favourites, with a modern twist that reflects the updated space. Whether you’re looking for decadent Dirty Chips (A.K.A. blue-cheese potato chip nachos with bacon) or a kale & quinoa salad, or staples like oven-roasted chicken wings, burgers, sandwiches, pastas, salads and top sirloin steaks.

As for the bar, that’s where an all-star team of Vancouver’s top mixologists has created a custom cocktail lineup to compliment of 20 revolving taps of local, craft, and big-name beer.

The Canadian Tuxedo, by Gez McAlpine (The Keefer Bar) for The Shark Club

Win a Shark Club Gift Card

If you would like to check out the all-new, fan-favourite Shark Club, I have a $100 gift card to give away. Here’s how you can enter to win:

• Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
• Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)

The Shark Club is open Sunday to Thursday from 11:30am to 1:00am; and Friday & Saturday: 11:30am to 2:00am. Follow along on Facebook and Twitter for the latest news, events, and offerings.

I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 6:00pm on Sunday, December 13, 2015. Must be 19+. Please enjoy responsibly.

Update The winner is bjh!