It’s early Monday morning, 4:25 a.m., and like any writer I am rushing to get these thoughts down because they woke me up and I don’t want to forget them. Besides, I can’t sleep now because all these memories of Christmas have come pouring back. Actually it was pipe tobacco that woke me. I was dreaming of Christmas when I was a child. It could be the fact that my own place is in the midst of getting “Christmassy”… I don’t have a tree up, or any decorations, but my dining room table is covered with wrapping paper, scotch tape and there is a big Rubbermaid box full of gifts that I will be taking with me to Sudbury in about ten days time. I am sure I will share some memories with my grandsons.
But I was dreaming and as I gradually began waking, all these thoughts rushed in so here goes with some good memories of Christmas.
These go way back to the days when it was just Mom and Dad and Gary and me. We were living in Sydney, Nova Scotia. I can barely remember, but I do smell pipe tobacco. Both my grandfathers smoked pipes and I remember that Christmas was a time of seeing “grandpa and grandma” a lot more than usual. In our lives, there was Archie, who was grandpa on my Mom’s side. He didn’t like being called grandpa, so we called him Archie. Then there was Grandpa Gillis, on my Dad’s side. His name was Neil, but everyone called him Papa or Neil D. He always had the fragrance of pipe smoke, which I came to enjoy. Pipe smoke and wool sweaters. His tobacco was different than most. It was a stick that reminded me of a big piece of licorice. He would take his pocketknife and carve tiny slivers of tobacco off the stick and then put them into his pipe. I remember once he put his knife down, and like any nosy little boy I picked it up. Well! Neil D. growled at me. I swear it was a growl, but as I think of it now, it was probably because he had the pipe in his mouth. He said something I could barely understand, but he had fierce eyes that would stare you down. I do remember Christmas in the country, in Grand Mira, smelled different. I think it was the wood smoke smell. Freshly cut balsam or spruce. And cinnamon. I know that Grandma Gillis liked to make cinnamon rolls and that was always a nice smell. And the woodsmoke smell came from the big stove in the kitchen and there was another stove, just for heating, in the “front room”, which was the sitting room at the front of Grandma’s house. When we kids were sent to bed upstairs, there was a bedroom directly above the front room. The bedroom had a hole in the floor, under the bed, designed to let the heat rise. I remember crawling under the bed and putting my face in the hole and listening to all the grown-ups chatter and laugh down below. The other thing about the house in Mira was that it had no indoor bathroom and we got to pee in the snow a lot. The women used the outhouse beside the big tree.
The house in Sydney was different because it was on a street packed closely beside dozens of other houses. I could never figure out how my parents knew how to find it among the hundreds and hundreds of houses in Sydney, but once we pulled up to the front of the house, I knew right away it was where Grandma (MacLean) and Archie lived. Archie’s tobacco smelled sweeter than Neil Ds. Also Archie did not wear wool sweaters as much as Neil D. Archie wore flannel shirts with wide suspenders. He also talked more, but I could rarely understand what he was saying. Every now and then he would shout, Tina, Tina! That was Grandmas name. She would bring him tea and cookies. He drank the tea. I ate the cookies.
The Sydney house at Christmas smelled different. It had more of a smell of baking. I remember the smell of tea biscuits. And the smell of butter melting on the biscuits hot from the oven. And it was warm, very warm. I think it is because there was a coal stove in the kitchen. In the basement there was a big coal boiler. The men would spend time in the basement talking, while the women would spend time in the kitchen and the dining room. Archie’s basement was big, well; it was big from a little kid’s perspective. It had a concrete floor and massive wooden beams. Beams that went from floor to ceiling and then beams that went across the basement ceiling. It was dark too. There were a couple of bare lightbulbs. But the men would go there to smoke and drink. I remember asking my dad what he was drinking. Archie said it was buttermilk and all the men laughed. It was moonshine of course.
The house in Sydney also sounded different. There was music. There was a piano in the living room. Usually Gary and I would pound on it just to hear the keys, but other people would play and sing. I cannot remember who.
The next Christmas I remember was in France and those are my first memories of Santa. I don’t think I quite understood who Santa was except that all the children had to go and sit on his lap. I do remember not being too excited about that. I know Gary was excited. So I guess I went along with it. If it was okay with Gary, then it was okay with me. There were hundreds of children. We were all in a massive building, which I realize now was a hangar on the airbase. I can remember the faint smell of jet fuel and it is likely one of the reasons why I still like that smell. It was always one of those comfort smells for me. I can pick up the smell aviation fuel anywhere. I think it comes from living on airbases.
The other Christmas memory from France was my first ever memory of snow. I think it was special because I was told that snow was not always common where we lived, but getting snow that first year caused quite a bit of excitement for people. I remember Gary teaching me how to slide on it with our shoes. We didn’t have snowboots in France. Another memory is that my Dad would take out an Oh Henry bar, put it on the table and cut it up into bit sized pieces for us with his pocketknife. Dad wasn’t being nice. He was just being cheap.
My next Christmas memories after that were in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. We went to two big Christmas parties that year, one at the church and one at the airbase. I couldn’t figure out why the Santas were different, but they were.
That is the Christmas I learned about Eaton’s. Mom ordered a whole pile of stuff from the Eaton’s catalogue and one winter day a massive cardboard box was delivered to our house. I remember Mom opening the box and taking out all sorts of things. There were dishes, pots, pans, snowboots, winter coats, pants and shirts and socks … it was overwhelming. Apparently, that same box brought our Christmas toys, but I didn’t know it then.
The other thing about Portage la Prairie was the cold. Our house was always warm, but whenever our big front door was opened, there would be a blast of frigid winter air that rolled right into our kitchen. That was also the Christmas I remember learning about Christmas trees and that they were somehow special.
I was the first person to wake up Christmas morning. I knew that I was supposed to go to the tree. So I did. It was great. There were all sorts of gifts. I couldn’t read names very well, or maybe I didn’t want to read names. Either way, I opened most of the gifts and started playing with the toys. When my brothers (Ronald had been born in France) awoke and came downstairs, I was quite protective of all my new possessions.
Once Mom woke up and came downstairs, she set things straight and I discovered I had to share all these new toys with my brothers. Our house always smelled of turkey stuffing at Christmas. That is still a comfort smell for me.
Some days later, Gary and I were playing outside when we discovered a Christmas tree in a snowbank. Wow, what a find. We knew that Christmas trees were special for some reason, so we decided to drag our prize home. It was an effort for two boys to drag the tree. You can imagine our delight when we discovered more and more of these prized trees discarded all over the neighbourhood. It took us a few hours, but before long, Gary and I were the proud owners of about 25 Christmas trees which we stashed in our back yard. Mom and Dad laughed about it, but insisted we take the trees back out to the snowbank on the street. Somewhere there is a photo that Dad snapped of Gary and myself with all our trees.
That's the same winter that Debra was born. It wasn't long after Christmas, but I remember Dad saying we all got a new baby sister for Christmas. I also remember the hospital was next to a lake and Dad drove the car out onto the ice so we could see the hospital and wave at Mom in the window.
Some years later when I became an adult, I had more interesting Christmas memories. One of the best was bringing my own family to Mira for Christmas. I enjoyed that. Grandma’s old house was gone, but we all had dinner at Sadie and Allen’s house. I remember my children being amazed that Grandma would save the Christmas wrapping paper, carefully folding it and putting it away for another year. I also remember playing a game of Trivial Pursuit with my cousins. The best part was when we got stumped on some answers; Grandma would give us the right answer. We all thought we were so smart, but Grandma would amaze us.
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Before long, there were dozens of C130 aircraft overhead dropping people and material on parachutes. One of them was Ronald. He was out there somewhere. So I began walking along through the drop zone, where there were hundreds of soldiers getting their gear together and forming up into groups. I kept asking if anyone knew Ron… many did. And they kept pointing me in various directions. Sure enough, I eventually found him… he was outside his tent making tea. So we chatted a bit and then decided to go into town for a beer. The problem was that Ron was not allowed to leave the drop area. No worries. He laid down in the back of the car and we drove out. We had a beer in the local tavern, but Ron’s main mission was to find a grocery store, so he could buy a few extra things and junk food. I am sure his buddies wondered where he got all the extra stuff. 
Part of my job involves covering political speeches. This past week was a doozie ... three days of speeches by mayors and visiting cabinet ministers. And it involves evening work too. That's not so bad, because the people putting on the meetings always feed the news reporters. This was the media table Thursday night. A nice roast beef dinner. What you can see on the table though are notebooks, cameras, beer glasses, empty wines bottles and double servings of crème brûlée dessert! All in a day's work eh?
As for political correctness, it gets tiring. With Osama's death, I think I might know how my parents felt when it was revealed that Hitler was dead.
Wow, what a crazy week eh. Locally in the federal election, our MP Charlie Angus, was re-elected. I snapped that photo at his victory party. I have to say I am surprised at the outcome of the election, with Jack Layton in the opposition seat. Although I do remember somebody in Westree telling me that the NDP was coming on strong. I honestly didn't expect Michael Ignatieff to take such a beating, but such is politics in Canada. The Liberals have a special way of killing off their own. I remember it happened to Pierre Trudeau after his famous "walk in the snow" back in the mid-80s. The other crazy news is the killing of Osama Bin Laden. It sends out the message that if you really upset the American people, they WILL get you and kill you. It's a cold message, but lots of people have learned it the hard way. The Americans rarely go looking for fights, but they often finish them, and win. And those who win get to write the history books.
First posting in April. I figured I should wait a few days so no one would think the lawnsign photo from Harvard was an April Fools joke. LOL. Okay, okay, it's a joke but I figured I would put it there to irk my favourite sister Debra. We had a fabulous phone call this week and got right into politics. Oh my goodness, it was fun. We also have a $20 bet going on the outcome of the election. I think it's worth 20 bucks just to get a rise out of her. Anyway, you know all about Michael. He's very big into WINNING. Maybe he should go on tour with Charlie Sheen!!! LOL
I noticed earlier this evening there was a big old March moon in the night sky, so I snapped a photo. Apparently, this was a super moon tonight because for some reason the moon is much closer to Planet Earth than normal.
I was out to snap some photos of the Timmins Porcupine Search and Rescue providing winter survival training. It brought back some great memories of when Neil and I were involved with Scouts Canada about 20 years ago and spending winter weekends at the Windy Lake camp north of Sudbury. I remember one day we went on a 10K hike in minus 35 weather. We built a quinzhee shelter and even cooked up Kraft Dinner over an open fire. Those were fun times. It's just amazing how nice it is to spend time in the bush on a winter day. Today was good in another way. I topped out over 1700 points playing Wii tennis this morning. Woohoo. I can't wait to show off for Tyler, Nathan and Victoria. 
Had a nice chat with Jennifer on Friday to get caught up on things. The boys were in another hockey tournament. I had to laugh because the boys figured they would have Friday off to play hockey. But once their game was over, Jennifer was at the rink to pick them up and drive them to school! She is such a good mom.
Funny how instinct works eh. I was in a bookstore about a month ago and picked up a stack of novels. One of them was by Leon Uris. I read a lot of his stuff years ago, but not recently. He always wrote excellent stories. Acting on instinct, I bought the book. So I started in on the novel and for some reason it didn't click. I just couldn't get into that book. It was disappointing. Last night, I finished reading the last of my other books and I felt a funny panic because I was suddnely out of books, on a Sunday night and today is a stat holiday in Ontario. No book stores are open. I actually laughed because it felt like I had run out of food or something urgent. So I went back to the bookcase and found the Uris novel I had put away and began reading it; actually forcing myself to get into the pages. Well whattya know? It's a good read. I'm really enjoying it. Funny eh?
So I took a few photos and got the story up on the website right away. See it here. 
I almost forget to mention I was feeling silly Saturday morning, thinking of the fun I have when Tyler and Nathan are around. I had a bunch of icicles hanging outside a window ... so I got a tray of ice cubes and my slingshot. I had fun shooting down the icicles. Sure wish the boys could have been here!
This is what minus 38 looks like at 8:00 a.m., minus 46 with the windchill. There is ice fog over the city. I was hoping the get a photo of "sun dogs" but the sun is not cooperating this morning.
I think I mentioned earlier how I feel about my new coffee mug. It’s the best. And it’s not the Tim Hortons thing at all… it’s just that it’s a nice big ceramic mug and it has a rounded lip on it, just like the paper cups do. For some reason I enjoy drinking from it more than any other. So I have thrown out three other mugs. Like most people I have several coffee mugs in the cupboard, but since I am using just one, I figure why bother with others. Oh, I kept several mugs. You know, the ones that friend’s give you that have your name on them or some logo from a special place. They all still in the cupboard. I am confident that at some point they will become pencil holders. Today will be a good day. We’re some expecting some nice cold temps and some sunshine. It is still dark now, but I am planning some snow shoeing.
I was going to do the traditional red wine poaching, but I found another recipe for sherry and whiskey poaching. Well, lah dee dah! I was pleased with the result, except that I didn’t have any whipped cream to top it off. Regardless, the pears were sweet and the nectar of sherry, whiskey, brown sugar and spices was amazing. I ate two halves last night. The other two halves are still in the fridge. Maybe I will go out and pick up some whipped cream. Yes, it’s going to be a nice day.
On the way home today, the forest looked amazing with all the frost and snowflakes clinging to the branches. So I snapped a few more shots. In one photo, if you click on it, you can see the individual snowflakes. And I even snapped a photo of the truck in the snow on a sideroad... A really nice winter day in the North.
Several of us noticed it at the same time. It was Christmas morning in Val Caron and there was Jennifer standing at the sink doing dishes after our Christmas breakfast. What a wonderful change from this time last year when Jenn was sick and had to be brought home from the hospital to spend Christmas with the family. Last year she was in a wheelchair and several times during the day, Jenn was in bed regaining her strength. And so it goes and the world is a better place today. At dinner last night, Scott made a very nice toast to family and good health. Very aprorpriate. Christmas in Val Caron was excellent. Scott, Jenn, Tyler and Nathan are hosting Victoria, Christine, Demetrios, Don, Denise and myself. It is really a full house. The coffee and Bailey's tastes nice this morning. The Weather is mild and Tyler is winning the hockey game on the Wii system. Don just arrived back at the house with a big order from Tim Hortons, so it's time to enjoy breakfast. Cheers to all.
NASA this week reported that the spacecraft Voyager-1 has reached the edge of our solar system. I have to admit, I think space travel is kinda cool. It has taken 33 years. Voyager was sent out to gather data that is supposed to help scientists determine how our universe began. Okay, I'm confused. So let's say they do figure out that the universe began one day billions and billions of years ago. Okay... so what was there the day before? And what about the day before that? I think this is one of those things the human mind just can't figure. (Photo Credit: NASA JPL)
Talkshow guy David Letterman likes to make fun of the fact that he is losing his hair. That was certainly brought home to me this week when a friend sent me a photo be snapped last week while I was at a munching away at a buffet. Pretty soon I won’t need a comb, just a polishing cloth!
Somebody mentioned that after all the suffering Jennifer endured in the past year, I must be feeling especially angry to see somebody faking cancer. Actually, it wasn't anger. It was just sadness to see a young person having to resort to faking illness for whatever reason. I don't think anyone who truly knows what a cancer patient endures could possibly think about faking it. For some unhappy reason, the young person in court did what she did and it's all quite sad. I sat in court and watched at she looked up at some friends and then burst into tears, covering her face. I know this sounds like I am a softy, but the important thing is that Jennifer has recovered her health. Nothing else matters, not even the fact that some misguided young person has done something stupid. 
