Let It Begin With Me

It's beginning to look a lot like the hap-happiest time of the year again. The traditional pre-Christmas e-mails have started showing up in my mailbox, I'm sure you've gotten them too, perhaps you've forwarded them to others. At first I find myself angry, but now, I've decided to just laugh.

I'm sure everyone with e-mail has received them. They use HUGE FONTS and bright colours. The subject line is often something like this ...

Fwd: Fwd: Re: [insert something pious, self-righteous and/or patriotic]

They often start off with something about our great country, (either Canada or USA). Then they mindlessly rant about people from other countries and other cultures coming here and insisting we change our way of life. They determinedly spew "our" right to "our" religious beliefs. They piously call themselves Christian, and go on to point out that they are having their religion taken away by these horrible heritage-sucking immigrants. The message is most often about calling a Christmas Tree a Holiday Tree, or a Family Tree or saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas".

Well so what. People the world over have had celebrations at this time of the year for thousands of years.

As far as Christmas trees go, they predate the Christian era. They were called Paradise Trees in the middle ages, when on Dec 24th people celebrated with the Feast of Adam & Eve. Ancient people hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows as they believed this would protect their family against witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness. There have been people living on this continent for thousands of years who never said "Merry Christmas". It is each person's right to celebrate as they choose. If retailers choose to market to those other than Christmas shoppers, so be it.

So let me take this opportunity to wish you and yours peace, health and happiness, now and throughout the year. Whether you celebrate the Winter Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Chanukkah, and/or Ramadan or anything else, I respect your right to do so.

I will celebrate the Winter Solstice in the beautiful, snow-covered forest in which I live, I will decorate my house with a "Christmas Tree" and spend Christmas Day enjoying my family, exchanging gifts and over-eating.

Meanwhile, I wish you a Blessed Yule, Merry Christmas, Joyful Kwanzaa, Happy Chanukkah, Blessed Ramadan or to sum it all up, Happy Holidays, whatever and wherever they may be.

Feel free to copy this post and send it to everyone in your mailbox with the subject line "Let It Begin With Me".

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Ankle Weights, Dog Training and My Lunatic Family

We've got about six inches of snow over the last 36 hours, and it's still coming down. When I took the dog for her walk, I decided to wear my new Bunny/Mickey Mouse boots. They're US Army issue and I was told they were the warmest books imaginable by my sister, Mushing Mum (see link to her blog in the column on the right).


She's right, I have been given the genes for cold feet year 'round (Thanks Mum!) and these boots were unbelievable, my feet were hot not just warm. I also have small feet, if I wear boy's shoes, a size three is perfect, my new really warm boots are men's size 5. I expected them to be a bit sloppy. What I didn't expect was the weight of those suckers ... 2.61 pounds each. It's like walking with ankle weights, really ungirlie, too big ankle weights .. and through the snow.


My legs were exhausted after 3 kilometers, but hey, my feet were warm so no complaints.

Which brings me to my next topic. Those of you who know Muggins, the guard cockapoo, know that she's pretty smart. She's easily trained for the most part. However, we haven't broken her of her unusual greetings ... best left undescribed here, nor her little-poodle barking when someone dares to walk on her road. However, the car chasing thing I believe is behind us.

When we go for walks, if a car comes along the road, I say "car", and she's expected to sit until I tell her "okay". We've been working on this for three years now. We were walking yesterday, and a total off 4 cars passed us. She heard the car each time before I did, she'd look up the road watching for it and as soon as it came into sight, she plopped her bum down exactly where she was. I had to try to get her to move off the travelled portion of the road, but the old bum was glued to the ground. I pulled the leash .. two steps .. .plop ... pulled ... two more steps ... plop. It was actually pretty impressive. (She pats herself on the back for persevering on the training for so-o-o-o long)

And the third part of my title ... and you thought they were all one topic - hah! It was just a clever ploy to get you hooked on reading this blether.

People often say they have a weird family, or a crazy family, but my family is completely deranged, a collection of lunatics, yes out and out nut bars. Why you ask, would I speak so harshly of my loved ones? Take a look at this it's post my sister put on her blog today . When she and Gryper (see link to his blog in the column on the right) get together, you never know what madness will ensue. I'll leave you to read her blog and form your own opinions.

Hey, I may be able to add to the "Ongoing Ode to Cheryl" .... what rhymes with tongue?

Weekend of Stress

Well now I'm in deep.

Quite some time ago the concert band in which I play the flute, arranged to play in a local seniors' home on one of the Fridays in December. Not too big a deal, I know all but a couple of the pieces fairly well. Can Can is tough 'cause it smokes along pretty fast, but I'm getting there. My fingers are just a-flyin' though.

Then, I get asked to participate on Sunday of the same weekend, with Grandpa and a friend in a local fundraiser. "Grannies to Grannies" is a fundraiser to help grandmothers in Africa raising their grandchildren who have lost their parents to aids. Great idea. I'll be playing the soprano recorder in a recorder trio. Yup, I got a $2.50 recorder on ebay earlier this year, and now I'm performing with it. What??? Ten pieces?!?!? Oh, well, it's similar-ish to the flute, so how hard can it be?

As if that's not enough for one weekend, this week, I get a call from my fiddle teacher. Saturday of that same weekend, she wants me to play a couple of pieces in a recital. I'm just laughing about it. Whatever! The week before, I'll be freaking out, but for now, whatever.

So last night, I had practiced on my fiddle for somewhere around an hour and a half, and I'd gone through the recorder repertoire, I'd done Can Can and the tricky bits in several others on the flute. So I decided to relax.

I started learning Away In A Manger on my harp. Okay, it's a really easy tune - not even one of my favourites for the upcoming season, but it sounded so pretty ... so angelic ... and I don't have to play it for another soul, just myself. Tonight, I'm determined to get the left hand part ... at the same time as the right hand part. Well ..... maybe that'll take more than one night.

For now, before I can do that, I have to go through my other stuff. Apologies to my banjo .... you're gonna hafta sit quietly tonight.

Not My Night to Cook

What a week this has been. A couple of weeks ago we were invited to friends' house for supper this past Thursday. A day or so later, we were invited to other friends' house for supper on Friday. Then a couple of days ago we were invited to yet a third couples house for supper Saturday. I'm still full. Great food, great, circles of friends. Each of the three nights there were eight people in the group and we had a wonderful time all three nights. Tonight my "Not My Night To Cook" lucky streak is coming to an end with potluck night in our community. When you have 40+ people coming to a potluck supper, there is an incredible number of things to choose from. Even if you only take a teaspoonful of each, you're stuffed to the gizzard by the time you're finished.

What an awesome week. This brings me to the point of this post.

While we were driving to supper on Thursday night, I had a question pop into my mind. We were talking about someone who talks about his wife quite often. I heard about her for about two years before I actually laid eyes on her. For the longest time I referred to her as "Maris" (which made me laugh like crazy). This led me to thinking about the TV show Frasier. What a great show. They had a regular "character" on the series, that nobody ever saw, we never heard her voice. We heard lots of tales over the years, usually one-liners delivered by David Hyde Pierce with an absolutely straight face.

"Maris is pushing me over the edge which is ironic because she can't push. We learnt that the time she got stuck in the revolving door."



So my question for you TV trivia types. Has there been a "character" like Maris on any other TV show? A character that we never saw, never heard, but was a regular on the show.

This Morning

I often go outside and look at the lake in the morning. When you live in an area like this, it's easy to fall into taking it for granted. The quiet when the sun is rising often takes my breath away, as it did this morning. I'm not a great photographer, but when your subject is like this, you can't go wrong. I had to share these pictures.

I love the reflection in the mist on the water.

Add on to the last post

Susan asked me about the size of the violin I'm making, so here is a picture of it with the one I play right now.

On the left side is the back and on the right side is the front, which still needs more work.

If you look around the outside edge of the voilin, you see the black lines - they're wood fibre inlaid in the wood, called purfling. When I'm finished the countouring, I'll do that. It will go on the thick part around the outside edges of both the front and the back then the edges will get finished.