Broughie Christmas 2013

I met Karen and Meghan the day I moved into Elgin Hall at the University of Western Ontario, during my second year of university. We would be living together in the “suite-style” residence that year. Little did we know that we would become super close friends and end up living together for three years, travelling to Hawaii on a big vacation together, and going on weekly girls’ nights five years later in Toronto. Needless to say, we have a great friendship and these girls are like sisters to me.

Here are some flashback photos of our final year at Western. We lived at 187 Broughdale Avenue…”Broughie” as we like to call it. Every year we had a “Broughie Christmas” where we would cook an entire turkey or chicken dinner, complete with mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberries, rolls, stuffing, pie, etc. etc. etc. We’d exchange gifts, admire Karen’s Ugly Santa Collection, and watch some sort of Christmas movie. For years this tradition lapsed, as Karen was off in Montreal being a super amazing biochemist, Meghan was bouncing between Nunavut and finishing her Masters at Western, and I was in the Netherlands and then completing my MBA. But then, by a miraculous stroke of luck, we ended up all in Toronto at the same time. This is when the girls’ nights began, and our friendship picked up where it left off. Don’t you love those types of friendships? The ones where you can go months without seeing or speaking to each other, and then bam, you get back together and it’s like no time has passed?

For last year’s Broughie Christmas, I hosted the girls at my apartment. Meghan (aka Serpy) made a festive punch, and we enjoyed hors d’oeuvres and chocolate covered strawberries.

If we look a bit bedraggled in the above photo, that’s because we were. That punch packs a punch. Anyway, this year we decided to do more of a potluck style thing. Karen brought a crock pot of beef stew on the subway (during rush hour, which caused many people to comment on her delicious-smelling stew), Serpy of course brought her infamous punch, and I prepared hors d’oeuvres and sugar cookie dough to make Christmas cookies. We all sat around my island, devouring the stew, sipping the punch, and catching up. Amanda brought over some wine and cookie decorations, which were a hit as well. Then we spent the rest of the night making the finest creations we could out of the thin gluten-free cookie dough I whipped up.

Above: Ecstasy Santa makes his annual appearance at our Broughie Christmas celebration. Below: Karen and Amanda creating some beautiful cookies!

Karen’s Rob Ford cookie creation, above! Ha ha ha.

Needless to say, it was another successful Broughie Christmas. Here’s to many more years of good friends, re-living undergrad memories, and festive punch!