Let the countdown begin.....the Christmas countdown that is!

Wow, it is hard to believe that Christmas is less than 3 weeks away. Time, surely, is going to fly by between now and the best day of the year. But it is not the one day that is special, it is the entire Christmas season. For some people, the Christmas season starts November 1st. As they take down their Halloween decorations, they replace them with Christmas ones. For me, that seems to long to be focused on Christmas. Rather once December 1st hits, then it is time to bring out the decorations and start listening to Christmas music. Let the Christmas spirit take over and create a season of peace and joy for everyone.

Christmas conjures up many wonderful memories and traditions in my life. Some have evolved over time and some are brand new. One of the newest traditions in my family is for my mom, sisters and I to exchange Christmas ornaments. It is so much fun to seek out the perfect ornament for the others. Some of the more creative ones have poured their heart and love into creating beautiful homemade ornaments. Others have been bought at places like Bronners in Frankenmuth and The Pottery Barn and Ten Thousand Villages. My tree has some beautiful decorations on it. This year, we will be doing the ornament exchange in July when Kendra returns. She has informed me that she has purchased her ornaments at the Christmas Bazaar at the school she is working at in South Africa......do they make Christmas giraffe ornaments....lol I guess I will have to wait and see....man, July is a long time to wait and I am not very good at waiting. Yikes, what am I to do?

Christmas baking.....hmmmm.....I can smell my mom's kitchen now. Gingerbread, Finnish butter cookies, Pecan crisps, Sugar cookies, Peanut butter tassies, and so many more. My father enjoys the job of being the professional taste tester, a position, I am sure, he relishes. My sisters and I also contribute to the baking with some cookies and squares. I, myself, have always liked doing a cookie exchange and seeing what wonderful treats that I receive from the others participating. I better figure what cookies I am going to bake this year. Lots of time browsing through the multitude of cookbooks and cooking magazines I have.

Now Christmas would not be Christmas without the annual viewing of the "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation". As silly as the movie is, it is one of highlights of the Christmas season. This past week, it has been on TV every night and sometimes twice. It is a movie that never gets old....lol. Every year, I ask my dad if he is going to watch it and every year he states he is not watching that "ridiculous movie" and he has already seen it and only watches movies once. Without fail, he ends up watching it and laughs and laughs and laughs. No worries, I have secured a copy of this movie on DVD, so there will always be an opportunity for him to watch this movie if it ever is not aired on TV. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZx6Xg6KJDw

Music, whether traditional carols or contemporary Christmas songs, always make "the season bright". When taking piano lessons, the highlight of the year was learning new Christmas songs to play on the piano. The Readers Digest published the best and most concise Christmas Songbook. I wish I could find another copy as my mom's copy has been so battered and finds itself in pretty fragile state. In elementary school, back in the day, when it was ok to celebrate Christmas, we had carol sing a longs in the gym. Participating in the school choir, also, gave us the opportunity to learn less traditional Christmas songs. While a participant in the High school choir, we spent a day travelling from one elementary school to another to another and so on and performed a Christmas concert for the students. It was at one of these concerts, that my friend Athena discovered a very cute guy...lol.....she was in elementary school and he was in the high school choir. The ironic twist to all this, is that guy happens to be the brother of one of our other good friends, Cindy. It was funny when Athena found out the connection. Maybe for Athena, this is a good Christmas memory...lol.

I know that there is so much more I could relay in this blog about Christmas but I will wrap it here for now. I will in the next few days or weeks blog more about the best time of the year. I think that is appropriate that I end this with the following set of lyrics. I feel it sums up everything so perfectly. As a fan of "Christmas Vacation", I could not resist. LOL.....I can hear you all humming/singing a long.

It's that time, Christmas time is here

Everybody knows there's not a better time of year

Hear that sleigh, Santa's on his way

Hip, Hip Hooray, for Christmas Vacation

Gotta a ton of stuff to celebrate

(jing-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling-ling)

Now it's getting closer I can't wait

(jang-a-lang-a-lang-a-lang-lang)

Gonna make this holiday as perfect as can be

Just wait and see this Christmas Vacation

Happy Birthday Dad!

It certainly has been a long time since I wrote my first blog entry. So I thought it was about time I got back into blogging. So for today, I am going to blog about my dad as it is his birthday. That's right...he is the big 62. Now where do I begin writing about my dad as there is sure to be lots to say.

My dad is incredibly unique, in a good way though. There is no one quite like him and if you have meet him, I am sure you will agree. He always has a lot to say in a very animated way. He is bound to bring laughs to those he is attempting to entertain. When I know one of my friends is having a bad day and needs a laugh, I know that a story about my dad will be the fix for her. One moment that comes to mind happened not that long ago. My mom's cousin Don, his wife Dianne and their son Danny stopped by for a quick visit. My dad had just arrived home from working for the day at a friend of his. Apparently, my dad's hearing loss got the better of him that day. Clarence, his friend, had placed a flower pot out on his lawn. My dad thought he understood that Clarence wanted the pot taken to end of the laneway. So my dad took the pot to the end of the lane and came back to find Clarence looking for his flower pot. What Clarence really wanted my father to do was to check for the newspaper that lands there when it is delivered. One just had to hear the way my dad described the event. Everyone had a great laugh at my father's expense and he didn't seem to mind. My father certainly has a gift for telling a story, some maybe short but most are tall tales.

Well, for some strange reason, flower pots seem to have a way of finding a spot into my father's life in a comical manner. Although, I can assure you all, my father, would not see it quite the same as I do.
Many many years ago, when I was about 8 or so, my parents had purchased 5 tickets to the Garden Brothers Circus at the KW Aud. My sister Kris, my cousin Melissa and I were going to be in for a big treat that day. This was the day that my father, inadvertenly, unbeknownst to himself and those around him, joined the circus. After watching the trapeze artists, the horses, elephants and lions, tight rope walkers, it was time to bring the clowns. No, my dad, did not become a clown. As much as my father can get rather silly on occasion, he is hardly clown material. Rather, what did occur, involved my father's interaction with one the clowns. With the spotlight on him for all to see, the rather jolly clown, asked my father to get up from his seat and stand in the aisle. The clown proceeded to hand my father a big flower pot to hold while the clown sat down and his seat and pretended to have a conversation with my mom. The flower pot was to be a gift for my mom. The clown stood up to get the flower pot from my dad and then the comedy began. The clown and my father played a game of tug of war with the flower pot. To a few little girls, this was exciting stuff. Who would have ever thought their dad/uncle would have been in such a public spectacle.

He, also, could be considered the "Tim the Toolman Taylor" of Listowel minus the tools. For some reason, he finds the oddest ways to end up in the Emergency Room at the hospital with the weirdest of the injuries. These incidences as scary as they are, always have some humourous moments. The last time, he went to the hospital for a black eye he received from tripping over a bucket on a digger, he ended up being hooked up to a heart monitor and they wanted to keep him over night. But leave it to my dad, he insisted that he was fine and he was capable of driving the 5 blocks home as he was not drunk. Not really sure why he advised the nurse that he was not drunk....but that is my dad...lol

What else can I say about my dad......well, he is a bit of an outsider in our family. He is the lone Montreal Canadiens fan. Not sure what he is thinking by cheering for "Les Habitants". It should be the old blue and white that he should be cheering for. We, the rest of the family, seem to find ways to help him with the cause by supplying him with Canadiens memorbilia along with teasing him at the same time. Liam, my nephew, is an avid Leafs fan and finds it quite a hoot when the topic of the Leafs and Canadiens comes up. Also, he is the lone male in the family, other than my nephew. I think that might be the reason the dogs we have had in the family are male. He needs someone on his side. You have to give him credit though for having to put up with 5 females. Maybe having four daughters has been a good thing for my dad. We allow him to show his emotional side from time to time. I recall that when my sister Kris and I left for our Choral Tour to Europe, my father had tears in his eyes as we broaded the bus for Pearson Airport. On the other hand, my mom was so excited, I think she just about hopped on the bus to go with us. Around holiday time, my dad gets really sentimental and wants all of his family at home. I think that he got this trait from his father. My grandfather was huge proponent of holidays and family togetherness.

I don't want everyone to get the impression that my dad is always a comedian because he certainly has moments of seriousness. Actually many moments of seriousness. When one of us girls comes to him with particular matters such as car problems, he goes at them with a vengenance. Sometimes we think, he doesn't care but the next thing we know we are getting a call from him with his advice/instructions on what should be done. He was even one of the few dads that actually went on school field trips with us back in the day. He was a chaperone on a trip to a newly renovated dairy farm for my grade five trip and he went on a grade eight class trip to the Sky Dome with Kendra. He also likes to impart his wisdom on life in general to his daughters whether it is wanted or not. I strongly believe that he does this from the bottom of his heart and that is he proud of each one of us for our accomplishments. He may not say it in so many words as he is not one to share it with us. But each of us girls knows how important we are to him and how also important he is to each one of us. All of us has our favourite moments we have shared with him and look forward to sharing many more of these moments especially those with laughs involved. Thanks Dad for adding so much to our lives. And on that note, "Happy Birthday Dad"!

Firsts

Ok, so I am not really sure what exactly I am doing by blogging. Not really my style....but it may be an easy way to share what is happening in the world around me. Maybe it is more so, to keep Kendra, my little sister, current with the happenings of the family. Kendra has just left for an 11th month stay in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, where she will be working with MCC(Mennonite Central Committee and Project Gateway). I know that she will enjoy every moment she is there. I hope that she is able to take in so many wonderful experiences and in turn share them with her family and friends. I am looking forward to seeing many many pictures and to hear countless stories of her adventures. You can check her blog out at http://southafricanzuluadventures.blogspot.com/. Or maybe the real reason for blogging is to help my mom with her blog. Kendra was were technical assistance when it comes to things of this nature. So to be able to help my mom, I figured I better figure out how blogger works and what better way of doing so, then starting my own blog.

Since this is my FIRST blog, I thought I would tackle the concept of first. It is such a commonplace word. To many people, first has many meanings. For me.....I am the first born, the first daughter and the first granddaughter in my family. An important spot to be....I think so. I was the first to go to school. My birthday is in the first month of the year. I was the first to graduate highschool. Sorry Kris, my name comes before yours alphabetically.

Firsts for many new parents are exciting....the first time your child does something is incredible(just a bit of an educated hunch). I am only an observer in the world of parenting as I watch my sister and close friends raise their children and witness some of these firsts. I chuckle as I recall the first time, my friend gave her little 18 month old a bit of a tangy dill pickle. The moment was indeed priceless as we watched the little puckering of the mouth and the wince in the eyes. My friend and I stood back and continued to watch as Ayla proceeded, puckered mouth and all to finish her piece of pickle. And then, to our amazement, she wanted more.

My nephew Liam, who is 10 sometimes lets us, his family share in many of his firsts. And let me tell you, as an avid sports fanatic.....he is extremely competitive and for him, it is all about winning. I know it is not always about winning but for a kid, it is a very hard concept to grasp. First is so often classified as being the "best" and being a "winner". And what kid doesn't want to be the best or a winner? Certainly not Liam. This year, is the first year that Liam has played baseball. And what a summer it has been for him. His first foray into the world of ball has been astounding. He has gone above and beyond in helping his team garner first place in his league. He was invited to participate in a Recognition Game for the Niagara Mosquitos League. My parents and I made the trip to Niagara Falls to watch the game. And yes, Liam's team won.

Not only do we see firsts with little kids but adults as well. I recall a few months back, while visiting my 86 year Grandma at her nursing home, I showed her my cellphone. The look on her face was of pure astonishment. "How can that possible be a phone?" she said. Her concept of a phone is what she has in her room sitting on her nightstand and plugged into a phone jack. What amazed her even more was when I proceded to take her picture and then showed it to her. The other night, my mom and I visited her and were telling her about Kendra's adventures and how we along with Kris and Kendra had a conference call on Skype. For the life of her, my grandmother could not fathom the idea that all four of us could be in different cities and have a conversation via a computer all at the same moment. What I really waiting to do, is to have my Grandma participate in a conversation with Kendra via the computer. I am sure that this may confuse her somewhat but life is always full of firsts.

Now back to Kendra. She may not be the first born, or even the second or third born in our family. She is, however, the first to move overseas to live. That is a great accomplishment. So often, growing up, I think she may have gotten a little lost in the shuffle and I know for a fact tormented by her older sisters. Rest assured, she may have brought some of that torment on herself. Now, we can sit back and watch her many firsts. Firsts that not a single one of us can ever take away from her. Way to go Kendra. I am so thrilled for you. Wish I could be there too.

First, as commonplace, as it may be, is also rather unique. It has been the very essence of all historical events. It is the start of something that can become a major force in our world. Take the first airplane flight by the Wright Brothers. Where would air transportation be if the Wright Brothers didn't take the chance to be the first? Think about some of the firsts in your own life. Some are momumental while others are minor. They all hold meaning of some nature. So take time to enjoy your first cup of coffee in the morning or the first star you see at night. As I conclude this blog, I am looking forward to many more firsts in my own life and as well as being an observer to many firsts in the lives of my family and close friends. It is a wonderful experience.