After a nice sleep in today we took the car for a drive. The roads have been cleared so it was a bit easier. Still did lots of wheel spins to get some momentum on the icy patches. We drove to Sulphur Mountain and caught the Banff gondola to go up and see the views. The temperature in Banff was -10oC and the sign said the temperature at the top is 10oC less than town. Once we got off the lift the slight breeze certainly made it feel the -20oC they said. It was clear so we got a good view over Banff and the surrounding mountains and valleys. We could see Mt Norquay where we had spent the last 2 days snowboarding. Sulphur Mountain had a cosmic ray station at the top. This is the best place to pick these up in all of Canada - while it was still in operation. The restaurant had a good buffet so we had lunch inside. The girls found a cookie making spot and saw Santa there too.

In town we went and bought some "Beaver Tails" to share with everyone and did some shopping as tomorrow is Christmas day and some shops will be closed. When we got back to the hotel we found a nice spot to make a snowman. It is just outside our room and we can see it from our bedroom window. The snow is very dry and we had difficulty getting it started. Stacey suggested to add water and this was the magic ingredient that helped our frosty grow. Dad filled bottles in the room and Tilds ran water and poured it over the snow. Once we had the shape we needed to finish him off with the trimmings. There are plenty of pine tree's around so the arms were easy. We bought some carrots at the shop to make the nose and Penny and Stacey found some stones close by to make the eyes and buttons. Emily donated the hat and scarf to make our snowman complete. We had compliments from other hotel guests so we think he is pretty good.

After a light dinner the girls set up for Santa. They left some carrots outside the door for the reindeer, a cup of water and some chocolates inside near our tree for santa. We have seen on the Smart Traveller website that there has been some activity in the North Pole region. As we are behind Australia in time zones he will visit there first but, hopefully he remembers we are in Banff this year. So we sign off wishing all our friends around the world a very merry christmas. Hope you have all made the nice list.

If you have ever thought about a white christmas, we can highly recommend it.