Good Day Neighbours! It’s been a few weeks now of getting to know each other and I think we are starting to have a pretty good friendship! The type of friendship where you tell each other anything! You might not know this about me yet...but I LOVE a photo opportunity! Maybe it’s because I’m from the North Pole, but there are only so many times you can take a picture with a snowman before it looks forced. I confess, I have been going on a regular Art Walk right here in the EV; it’s been magical, sometimes the light is perfect and the colours really pop and Voila! Another amazing Selfie!  I call it the “Elfie”.   

I like to start my walk with Julian Opie’s computerized LED-animated piece called Promenade, it really gets me moving! Along the Riverwalk you can see Ron Moppet’s Tile Murals, Katie Green’s photographic installation and look across the river and see Bloom a sculpture by Michel de Broin on St. Patrick’s Island.

Over at the Library, I like waving hello to Christian Moeller’s three-piece sculpture, TRIO (they are the kind of friends you can have without ever saying a word). 

I like to end my walk at the Bounce Game Park, the murals named Found Home, by MAUD always make me smile, because I feel very at home here in the EV. I might even use a couple of these “Elfies” to send out for my Christmas card this year! 

I was out just going for my Sunday morning walk when I came across the sign for the Nordic Loop! How exciting! It’s a 1 km loop around Fort Calgary and you can use your cross-country skis and snowshoes – this makes me think of what we have back home. Although I’m not complaining that we’ve been having the warmest weather but we might need a little bit more snow to use the track. I checked the weather forecast and it’s looking like we might be able to try it out in the next few days. If you’re looking for me, I’ll be here doing my laps – woosh woosh!

Have I mentioned how at home I feel here yet?(wink wink-chuckle chuckle)  It’s exciting to countdown the days until Christmas, but I’m really going to miss you when it’s time to go back to the North Pole.! I’m thinking maybe there’s a way I can talk Santa into letting me stop by the East Village during the summer. Picture me in shorts and a tank top , sunglasses, and a lot of SPF 50!  

Maybe it’s a ‘ north pole thing’, but it’s always been my dream to grow my own real vegetables, in a real garden. So naturally, I have become obsessed with the East Village Community Garden on my daily walks; sure, it’s all snowy now, but I can imagine tall sunflowers, towers of tomatoes, kale blowing wistfully in the wind. What would you grow?   

I better make my case to Santa soon, because registration opens for the garden on March 1, 2021.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without stack of classic cookies that taste like home! Passed down through generations of ‘Star Elf Bakers’, I always make my great grandmother Elf’s Christmas classics:  Shortbread and Ginger Cookies!     

This year on my visit to the East Village, I’m going to try new cookie twist for Christmas 2020!  Inspired by my visit to the confluence of the Bow River and the Elbow river in the East Village, I am creating a new holiday treat the Confluence Cookie: half shortbread and half ginger cookie!  How will you make your confluence cookie? Swirled? Stacked? Half and half? 

Bow Shortbread: 
 
        •       1 lb butter (or 2 cups, or 1 brick) 
         •       1 c icing sugar 
         •       1 c cornstarch 
         •       3 c flour 
         •       1 tsp almond flavouring 
 
        1.      Cream butter until fluffy, add icing sugar and cornstarch 
         2.      Add flour and knead until dough cracks 
         3.      Roll into small ½ tsp balls, lightly flatten 
         4.      Bake at 350 degrees until delicate brown (approx. 10 min) 

 

  

 

Elbow Gingersnaps:  

        •       1 c brown sugar 
         •       ¾ c butter 
         •       2 tbsp molasses 
         •       3 tbsp maple syrup 
         •       1 egg  
        •       1 tsp vanilla 
         •       1 tsp fresh grated ginger 
         •       1 tsp cinnamon 
         •       1 tbsp powdered ginger 
         •       ¼ tsp cloves 
         •       2 cups flour 
         •       2 tsp baking soda 
         •       Pinch of salt 
 
        1.       Cream butter and sugar. 
         2.      Add molasses, syrup, egg, vanilla & ginger 
         3.      Beat until blended. 
         4.      Add spices and mix in. 
         5.      Add flour, soda and salt, mix. 
         6.      Roll into little finger size lengths or small balls.  
         7.      Place onto parchment or greased cookie sheet 
         8.      Bake at 350 degrees for 12 - 14 minutes 

 

 

Combine them for the Confluence Cookie!

You might have noticed that I am no longer wearing my classic holiday elf hat. All these selfies look glamorous, but it ain’t easy! I must have taken off my hat to get just the right angle on my slim elf features and left it somewhere. Every day is so exiting and new, so it was bound to happen. Let me know if you spot around will you?

I mean, I really think I am starting fit in here, and ready for a “EV” look. My new hat could be something colourful and big?

Or something shiny?

On my daily walk about the EV, I was so happy to find many new hat options right here. AND I definitely look like a local. What do you think?

Have you seen the poster for light up the village? I feel like you did— since my walk last week it looks like there are at least 220 lights! We’re so close to our goal of 300. I bet if we do, Santa can see it as he flies by when delivering presents on Christmas Eve. Yipeee!

Here are some pictures I took of the neighbourhood!

 

Well, it’s wintery and cozy in my EV home away from home. A visit to the Calgary Public Library today will mean I have new books to snuggle up with tonight! The library is offering curbside pickup these days to keep things safe and convenient! How awesome is that! I just show up and they hand me my books!

One of the perks to being an elf is that you can make any place you visit feel like a fun playground. The library building is really an extraordinary architectural landmark (an elf on the shelf’s dream come true), but have you seen the stair handrails!  Perfect for sliding down!    

When I said I feel at home here, I meant it. The people and landscape are really making this elf feel less like he is 100 million miles from home. I mean, it’s pretty easy for me to make my own fun being the 11” tall party animal that I am, but there are also times where an elf likes to put on his glasses, find a nice comfy spot on a shelf and catchup on some reading. How will you make your own fun this holiday season?

Happy Monday East Village! I don’t know about you, but this chilly Monday has me feeling very flipsy tipsy....and topsy turvy. When you are an elf like me just visiting from the North Pole, sometimes things seem a bit...upside down. 

To cure a case of the Mondays, I stopped to ponder the unique public art piece “Device to Root out Evil”, by world famous artist Dennis Oppenheim, here in the EV square. Glass, aluminum, steel! Oh My!  Just like me, this public art piece has travelled the globe and making stops and “crashing” in few cities along the way. I better let Santa know about this sculpture, so that he doesn’t get mixed up on which way is “up”, when he lands his sleigh in Calgary’s East Village!

Well, even for a little elf like me, this upside-down church has me feeling right side up again and ready to continue the holiday count down in the East Village! 

Adventuring is my game, Derek is my name! Gotta tell ya though, some days just call for cozying up and taking in other people's adventures! So, Christmas movie marathon it is! 
 
I'm sure you can guess such movie I started with today. The quintessential Christmas movie of course!  
 
What really makes a movie Christmas though is the spirit and memories behind it. I remember being just a wee elf watching this movie with friends and then getting our mouths washed out with soap from the older elves as we spent weeks quoting it! Now it's an annual tradition and I even like the taste of soap now!
 
What's your Christmas tradition? Do you have a favourite movie? What's your favourite line? On this chilly day fill my heart with Christmas stories, East Village! 

  

 

Thought I'd take this great day to check Bounce! Man, are you guys lucky to have all these places to play here in the East Village! I'm going to be demanding some renovations and development in the elf village when I get home, let me tell you!

Unfortunately, it was maybe a little too chilly today? Being from North Pole this weather is practically balmy! It's ok if I didn't find any friends today, I also found an Instagram worthy photo spot right outside Brewer's Apprentice and uh.... maybe a growler full of Christmas cheer as well!