The Covid Grinch

Today the Prime Minister of Canada said that a normal Christmas is off the table. I had already decided that and informed my family a couple of weeks ago.

Normally by now, I would have already been to my first Christmas house party. I'd have a lot of my baking done, and would even have received my first Christmas card. Soon we would have a major Christmas event in our village with people coming from far and wide to take part. None of that is happening this year. Exchanging presents with my family is also off the table.

Pandemics change the way the world works.  People are working from home, shopping more often online, wearing masks when they venture out, and keeping their distance from those they meet. Shopping for gifts is much more difficult this year. Normally I wander the stores hoping to find something that will make me think of one of my recipients. I seldom know what I'm after until I see it. I ask for lists but never get them so they just have to be happy with what I find.  This year I have not been in an actual store except for groceries since March. The second wave of this nasty virus is upon us and there are more cases than ever so I'm not about to start shopping now, at the time of year when the stores would have even more people.....or worse still, lineups to get into the stores where I'm not even sure I'd find something.

As for shopping online, it helps to have a clue what you are looking for or you could be scrolling aimlessly for months. For me, there is an even bigger problem than that. While many of you are lucky enough to have things delivered to your door, I live where you have to go to the post office to pick up a parcel. There are lineups there already so you can imagine what it will be like as the big day draws closer. Only a couple of people are allowed into the building at a time so everyone else has to stand outside at this time of year when the weather is also about to get worse.  I'm too old to stand for long, freezing temperatures or not.

I finally faced the fact that I just couldn't do it. I have told my family not to expect presents this year.  Instead, I suggested that they take the money they would have spent on us and go buy something they want for themselves if they care to. Unlike me, they can get packages delivered to their door. It might be nice if they could show us in pictures or live video on Christmas morning and we would still get a surprise, and delight in their choices. That's right, we can't even be together for the holidays. 

What I want most from Santa is a new bed, and that is one thing I know can be delivered here without a problem.  I just won't be able to test out any in the shops, but that's okay as I used to order my mattresses from the Sears catalogue. I will miss getting together with my loved ones, but I am actually relieved not to have to try shopping for presents under the current circumstances.

The Grinch has stolen Christmas this year. He came disguised as Covid-19 (or maybe me), not the Prime Minister.

Dishing It Up

Back in the days when I wrote a weekly column for one newspaper or another, I used to say that it gave me something to think about besides what to have for supper. That's a big decision, you know. Planning meals and cooking them so that everything is ready at the same time is hard enough, but making sure there is at least something everyone at the table will like is no easy chore.

The column had a deadline so I had to be constantly thinking of new things to write about, and how to get the information needed to make sure I was being accurate.

I don't have a column anymore. I just have this blog. While some blogs do have a strict schedule as to when they are published, mine is more of a hobby, so I just write whatever comes to mind at whatever point in time that happens. I no longer hand off one column, give a big sigh of relief, only to .....just seconds later..... find myself under pressure to come up with a new idea.  In other words, I'm back to sometimes finding that the biggest decision of the day is figuring out what to feed my guys.  Even once I make that decision, I might discover that I would have been better off not to have made the choice I did.  Let's look at two recent examples.

My grandsons were coming for the weekend. They were to arrive on Friday evening, and I wasn't going to be home at the time of arrival, so I thought I'd make it easier for their dad to feed them. I made Sloppy Burgers.  The weather didn't cooperate, and by the time they did get here, it was 8 pm and they had already eaten. No problem. They could have the burgers the next night. But the next day they were invited to a friend's place for dinner, so the Sloppy Burgers that were meant for Friday night got pushed to Sunday. Well, then the freezing rain started, and since they don't live anywhere near here, the time to head home was just after lunch, instead of after supper. We had a hospital visit to make, so I left them knowing that they wouldn't starve.  Their dad made them Nachos for lunch instead and my hubby and I were left to eat as many Sloppy Burgers as we could hold for supper Sunday night just so I wouldn't have to throw them out.

Monday I decided to take a chicken out of the freezer so it could thaw and be roasted on Tuesday.  Tuesday I discovered my hubby was planning to go work out with one of his black belts, so I figured a lighter supper would be better. I had some chicken burgers in the freezer, and there were still some buns left from the weekend. Just before we ate the call came though that the other person had to work late, so they rescheduled the workout for Wednesday.  Lovely. So I'd cook the thawed bird on Wednesday and he could eat as little or as much of it as he wanted, and the rest could be for the next night. Then a good friend calls and wanted me to go with her to the Brockville Aquatarium Wednesday afternoon. She had free passes from the library. Well, I wasn't about to turn that down!  We had a good time and got home later than expected, and I knew I couldn't get that chicken to cook in time for supper, so we had Fish and Chips along with some cold slaw. Quick, easy and satisfying. Along comes Thursday and hubby suddenly decided to take the afternoon off, and run me into Ottawa to see if I can get my camera fixed (that's a whole different story). We didn't dally, but I arrived home even later than the night before. That darn bird had to go in the oven or I was going to have to throw it out! So, dinner was an hour late that night but it tasted good. Anything served that late is bound to.

I'm always hearing how important it is to plan your meals ahead of time so you can buy what you need to make them. I usually buy what I'm out of, and whatever is on special that I know we could eat, and then decide day by day what to pull out and cook. This past week of good planning only ran me into trouble and frustration so I'm issuing a warning to my guys......I'm going to cook the way I write my blog.  What ever comes to mind is what will be served up.

Rideau Ferry Regatta

Last weekend we attended the Rideau Ferry Regatta once again. This time we took our youngest son and his two boys with us, and planned on a picnic lunch.

There was such a large turnout that we thought we were parking a long way from where we wanted to be, and the guys didn't want to lug the chairs and food all that way. We ended up having the picnic in the car before heading down to the waterfront to watch the races.  Then we discovered that there was actually a shortcut between the car and where we wanted to sit, so they went back for the chairs after all. 

Meanwhile, as I stood waiting, two men called to me.  One was from our village. I've known him a long time and he actually gave my son his first job when he was a teenager. The other was his brother-in-law, and had gone to school with my hubby and his brothers.  We sat with them and had a nice visit.

We were not there in time to see the cardboard boat race, but I did locate the one decorated by the children from my village.  It was in far better shape than some of the others.





My youngest grandson decided it was time for a swim.










But he had to get out of the water when the races were underway.

We had to explain to him that it is possible for powerboats to lose control during the races and that it's much safer to watch from dry land.








Kids will only be amused by intermittent races for just so long and then you have to find something else to interest them. We went to see what else was going on at the site.

We discovered that teams of four could pay $120 and build a canoe on Saturday and race it on Sunday.  All materials and instructions are provided. Several teams were busy with the construction while we were there.

Better than that, as far as the kids were concerned, was that they were allowed to build and decorate a boat of their own, for free. There were three varieties of boats to choose from: a tugboat, a sailboat, and a race boat. Well, we were at a boat race, so they both chose race boats and happily set out to each deck theirs out in their own way, along with several other kids doing the same thing.

This kind of work takes great concentration.

Someone was really happy to have been able to make a boat that day.












I really enjoyed my day with family, and I always enjoy this event.

Family Day, For Whoever Feels Like Family to You

The idea of a close family is often shaped by the media. I grew up watching such things as Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver.  Everything was perfect, or if there was a problem, it was really nothing serious. We all know real families are seldom like those.  More recent TV families have somewhat more realistic problems, but once again, things are usually worked out by the end of the  time allotted for the program each week. Real life families have a much longer time frame for problems to arise and diminish in, but the media has planted false ideas in our heads and not everyone seems to understands that.

We are all born into our first family, though some of us never feel like that's the one we belong in. Children within a family can be so different from one another, that though their parents may love them equally, the kids themselves never quite connect. They may fight as children and then become total strangers once they have grown up and left the nest. Other families are more closely knit and they are the lucky ones, though even those often have problems. No family is as perfect as we would hope. That doesn't mean the members don't love each other.

Many people find others they feel closer to than the ones they grew up with.  There is just something they connect with that draws them together.  In some cases they can form and build their own families with those people. The rest just enjoy one another's company and feel accepted and understood and have what we grew up believing a close family connection would be like.  There are the families you are given, and the families you create.

February 16th is Family Day.  Draw those dear to you close. Let them know you care. Everyone longs to feel some sort of family connection.  This is the day to try to create it.




 

Christmas Stocking Traditions

Every family has it's own Christmas traditions. Some of them are quite common and others sometimes surprise me.

I was reading an In R Dream  blog post about Christmas stockings and started to comment on what I had just read.  The comment was getting long, so I decided to make it into a new blog post of my own.  

The blogger mentioned wrapping a stocking. I had never heard of wrapped stockings before. That would just slow poor Santa down on his trip around the world. Kids already wonder how he can get to every house all in one night. I assume that the only reason the stockings mentioned might have been wrapped was because they were for the other adults, and the givers didn't want the surprise to be spoiled before Christmas morning.

We don't give stockings to people over 16 at our house, but while there was a younger child in the house, the older one got what amounted to stocking stuff wrapped up in a box, just to make the gift giving equal.   Hmmm..... maybe we did wrap stockings after all, just without the actual stocking. 

I never thought of it before, but my grandmother always sent us a box full of strange things among the other presents too.  Opening those boxes got everyone's attention because we never knew what to expect.  There would be strange colourful socks, stuffed in a glass with some hotel logo on it, a bar of soap, and other things we figured she got out of her own cupboards.....generally useful things that didn't go together.  It never occurred to me that perhaps she was wrapping stocking stuff too, and just including socks that were too small to stuff.

While stockings are traditionally hung by the chimney with care, or placed under the tree, I was amused while reading the blog mentioned above, to find that others sometimes find their stockings in their rooms or by their bedroom door. I thought I dreamt  that up on my own as a kid. My brother and I used to sneak downstairs to get our stockings, sometimes as early as 4am. Our stockings were wisely stuffed with comic books and tangerines, as well as other little toys to keep us busy and hopefully quiet for a while. The excitement of two little kids pretty well does away with any ideas of parents getting much more sleep though.  I know we would eventually drag our stockings into our parents room, climb up onto their bed and excitedly show them what we got.  


One year, when I was probably about 11,  I suggested that my folks just put the stockings by our doorways so we wouldn't have to go downstairs. They shhhhed me, as my brother was 4 years younger and they didn't want me to spoil the magic of Santa for him. Actually, it was at that moment that I realized that I had just given up that belief myself. It was quite startling really. 

I'm thankful that my own kids tended to sleep until we woke them up on Christmas morning. I don't know how they managed to do that though, as I, even as an adult, had a hard time getting a good sleep on Christmas Eve because of all the excitement.

While there are no longer any filled stockings to be found at our house on Christmas morning, we still have gifts under a now artificial tree, and the same Christmas meal we've always had for the 37 years since I took over from my Mom. I have dared to change something now and then, always to be met with a protest. Traditions are traditions, you see, and not to be messed with. 

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and would love to hear about anything your family does that you may think is a little different.  Perhaps it's not.

Newest Family Member

I've had a new grand-dog for a week now. I was holding off so I could post a picture of him, but my son brought him to visit with me today, and I forgot all about taking a picture.  He's really cute and for now you will just have to take my word for it. I'll post pictures when I get some.
........I just hope he's still a puppy when that happens!