The Day We Bought the Mincemeat Pies

December 23rd

Loren and I wandered down to the park, in search of ice cream. It was a beautiful sunny summer day, and we needed an excuse to get outside. On the way we stopped by Pandoro, a fantastic little Italian bakery near our house, to buy mincemeat pies for Christmas day. (we didn't know much about these odd little British baked goods, but we figured our favourite local bakery would at least show us what good ones tasted like).

Pies in hand, we walked toward the waterfront until we reached Movenpick, a new ice cream parlour with lots of tables outside. We sat near a big, grassy field which was being thoroughly utilized on this lovely warm Sunday. There were informal games of rugby, soccer, cricket, and lawn darts all going on at the same time. Past the grassy field, the skate park was also being put to good use, as well as the small basketball court next to it. A Pacific islander at a nearby table started up a lovely slack key version of "O Holy Night" on his guitar. And it crossed my mind how crazy it was to be eating ice cream in the park two days before Christmas.