Another Christmas Has Come and Gone

The days following my return from hot and sunny Barbados to cold and snowy Canada weren't as bad I thought they would be. Years ago, there would already be snow on the ground and temperatures would be dipping below zero. The last few years, this year included, December temperatures are more like October and November temperatures, hovering just above zero with no snow to be seen. In fact, the temperature rose to a very warm and unseasonal 13 degrees on Christmas Day and it rained.

I love Christmas but the last few Christmases have not really felt like Christmas...at least not like the Christmases I experienced as a child. For one, I always remember having white Christmases growing up. My sisters and I would help dad build snow forts in the backyard during Christmas break and these were not just little holes in tiny snowbanks; these forts were intricate tunnels that we could stand up in and bring plastic furniture into. You need A LOT of snow to build a fort like that.

Obviously with my mom passed away and my sisters both living out west, along with most of my friends and extended family, Christmas is certainly a lot quieter than it once was. Growing up in the big house, there would be the five of us, both sets of grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and friends and neighbors piled in on any given day between the 23rd of December and New Years. At times, there would be more than twenty people. The adults would sit around the dining room table playing cards or gossiping and us kids would bein the living room watching holiday classics and pigging out on chips and candy. The best thing about Christmas now? Going back and reminiscing about the good ol' days. I feel so fortunate to have those memories - memories that, when recalled, have me remembering the people who were around and the events that transpired with loved ones, not the presents that were under the tree. It sounds cliche but Christmas HAS become way to commercialized. I suspect that many children today only focus on the mass amounts of material items they receive. And the material items that they get today are more geared towards keeping them inside on the couch being zombies. When I was a child, it was a new bike, a pair skates or a year pass to the ski hill that awaited me under the tree. No cell phones, laptops or video game consoles. Interactive items made to keep kids active and engaged!

Despite the lack of Christmas spirit that I've experienced the last couple of years, it has been a good few weeks. In the days following my trip, I cleaned out my room and parted ways with many items that I no longer have a use for and donated them to local charities. I finished some last minute Christmas shopping for my closest family and friends and put up a few decorations around the house. I long ago decided that I will no longer be sending cards out to every acquaintance I've met since grade school; not only is it a waste of time but its a waste of paper and the cards only get thrown out after they are read anyway! Although I told everyone there was nothing I needed or wanted for Christmas, my father still insisted on getting me something and threatened to pick it out himself if I didn't tell him what I wanted! Truthfully, there really wasn't anything I needed or wanted! The only thing I came up with was a new pair of skates. I often said I would like to take up my childhood passion again so a few days before Christmas, my father and I found ourselves at the local Canadian Tire store where I picked out a new pair of skates. I even had the opportunity to try them out on Saturday and get back on the ice after many years. I was a bit rusty on blades but I did manage to skate without holding onto the boards and didn't fall once. Now that I have no excuses, I will skating a lot more. Adult skating takes place at the local rink on Wednesdays and Fridays so that is where I will be on those afternoons!

Christmas Eve turned out quite well. I went about my usual daily tasks consisting of checking emails, walking a couple of miles at the track and doing my usual daily chores. The only difference with that day from any other day was I made sure to complete my daily tasks a little earlier than usual so I could relax and spend the rest of the day with family and friends. Turkey dinner was held at a friend's house this year. The dinner was absolutely delicious but what made it so special was the fact that there were young children there and watching them open their presents and squealing with delight at their new toys was so much fun! Toward the end of the night, caffeine withdrawal symptoms started to kick in with the coffee drinkers, me included. We came up with an excuse to persuade dad to take us for a drive so we could get coffee. We disguised the coffee run with a plea to drive to Glace Bay to see the house that was on the news earlier because it had Christmas lights all over it that blinked and "danced" to a soundtrack that was accessed on the radio dial in the car. This seemed to intrigue dad and we piled in the car in search of that house and grabbed our coffees along the way at the only gas station that we could find that was still open.

Christmas Day also went well except for the very disgusting weather that saw Cape Breton drenched in rain. I awoke, got ready and drove to dad's where I had a hearty breakfast before we exchanged gifts. The rest of the day was spent visiting and exchanging gifts with other close friends and family members followed by an evening in front of the TV watching an old family favorite, "A Christmas Story".

So, all in all, it's been a good holiday season so far. Hopefully New Years Eve will be good too!

Best wishes to all my readers and followers in 2015. May it be the best one yet :)

6 Tips For Happier, Healthier Holiday Travels

If you are planning to do any traveling during the holiday season, you might want to consider what you need to do to make your travels safe and enjoyable. There are some things you can do to accomplish this often-difficult task. With that in mind, please read over the following six tips for happier, healthier holiday travels. The goal behind traveling safer and healthier is to prepare for the inevitable problems areas that often happen with little notice. There are also way to make traveling with children a more comfortable experience. You need to be prepared for all of the common trouble spots that can make traveling such a grueling experience. Let's look at those tips now: 1. Carry snacks and water with you. It is a good idea to take sandwiches, snacks, and even reusable water bottle with you when you go on flight. It is way to provide you (and maybe your kids) something good without spending so much on in-flight food. 2. Don't leave without hand sanitizer. Now, with many worried about the threat of H1N1 the need for precautions like sanitizers during travel makes more sense. Be sure that you use it whenever you or your children cough or use the restroom during the flight. The goal is to keep exposure to bacteria. In addition to this obvious tip, you should remember the proper procedure to keep germs from spreading when you cough. Use a tissue or the crook of your elbow. Also, be sure you aren't sharing drinks or food. 3. Take medications with you just in case. As with the previous tip, there is something to be said about being prepared. If someone gets sick, you should probably bring along one of the common OTC medicines such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen. You may be able to stop a problem or at least control it before it become worse. 4. Make provisions for unaccompanied minors. When you as a parent must send a child on a flight as an unaccompanied minor, you should have clear plan to make sure they stay safe. It should account for any of the obvious problems that can arise with an airline flight. First, be sure the child knows their final destination. There is always the possibility that someone may be put on the wrong flight. Next, for older kids, it might be good to designate a cell phone that they can take with them that has all the important contact numbers. 5. Limit yourself to a carry-on bag. If you limit your luggage to the carry-o bag you have with you then you will save on not only the fees that many airlines are now charging, but also valuable time at the terminal. When you do not have to check baggage, you can move from one end of the terminal to the gate, in far less time. Anything else you want to take can be shipped ahead. 6. Plan your travel schedule. For instance, if you go on the Monday prior to Thanksgiving or that morning, you can save on air rates—sometimes by hundreds of dollars. The same is true of Christmas. The reason for this difference lies in the airline surcharges are generally applied during the busiest travel days, such as the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and Sunday, November 29. The previous tips are just a few to smooth out your travel plans. The point is to have some sort of plan so you have happier, healthier holiday travels. Mary E. Ward blogs about how to become a phlebotomy technician.

Christmas Past, Christmas Present and a hope for a better future

Christmas Eve is almost here. That means I can now relax and focus on what the season is supposed to be about. For the last two weeks, I became more aware of how Christmas has become to so many. The time of year that has always been associated with peace and harmony has become a rushed and stressful time of year filled with shopping, cleaning, decorating and entertaining and ending with an empty wallet and maxed out credit cards. Not exactly my idea of peace on earth. But Christmas Eve is always different from those days leading up to it. All the shopping is done, the decorations are up, the house is clean and I am able to actually sit down and relax for more than five minutes. The only thing I have to worry about this Christmas Eve is whether Air Canada will get my mother here on time and with all her luggage intact. Considering the airlines track record, not bloody likely of both of those things happening simultaneously! In the meantime, work is done until after New Year’s, all my household duties are done and I have the house to myself for a few rare days. While waiting for Air Canada to deliver mom, I will sit back with a glass of wine and watch my two favorite movies; Shrek and Forrest Gump. Somehow, over the years since I have been on my own, watching these two movies has become a Christmas tradition. I’m not sure why, neither one of them have remotely anything to do with Christmas. Something else happened since I grew up and moved out on my own. Christmas started to loose it’s meaning for me. I think it all started in the year 1999, a couple of months before I moved away from home. My Grandfather passed away on Christmas Day of that year and a few days later on New Year’s Day, my Grandmother passed away. That’ll take the Christmas out of anyone. After spending two weeks at the funeral home, Christmas pretty much didn’t happen that year for us and for good reason and every year since, it has just not been the same as it was when I was a kid. My generation may very well have been the last to experience anything even remotely what Christmas is supposed to be about. Back than, it was not just about the gifts, it was about family, fighting over the turkey wishbone, piling too many people in a car too small to drive around looking at the Christmas lights around town, skating in the moonlight on the pond across the street and a little boy who shoots his eye out with the BB gun his parents bought him for Christmas. Ah, the good ‘ol days! Thinking about Christmas back in those days brings back happy memories of a time that will never be again except in those memories. I almost feel sad that the children of today and of the future will not experience Christmas the way their parents and Grandparents did back in the days when Christmas actually meant something more than what is under the tree. Of course there were gifts, there were decorations and there was a lot of food! But there was also that magical atmosphere that only came that time of year when family and friends from far and near stopped by for a visit, Boney M’s Christmas Album played on the record player, the smell or turkey filled the air and if we were extremely lucky, it snowed! A few weeks before Christmas, the preparations began. The 12-foot tree would go up in the Big Room. I still have my special ornament that always went at the front of the tree for all to see. It is of snoopy in a parachute and he spins around! Other decorations included pre-school arts and craft attempts and homemade decorations. Back than, it wasn’t about decorating according to a certain style or even making it look as good as can be. It was about displaying Christmas memories from the past for all to see. But no matter what we put on our tree or how not “in vogue” it was, I still have not seen a tree that comes close to any of the ones my family had when I was growing up. Once the decorations were up, we were ready for the stream of holiday visitors that would trickle in during the season. One of my fondest memories of Christmas was when my dad’s sister and her family would come over because her daughters were around the age as me and it was a break to be able to hang out with kids my own age instead of listening to the boring conversations the adults were having. If there was snow on the ground, we went sleighing in the front yard or at the apple orchard. If it was cold enough, we skated at the pond. Because it was a “special” time of year and school was out for a couple of weeks, I was allowed to stay up later than I usually would. The late evenings after dinner were spent watching the numerous Christmas specials on TV. A Christmas Story, it’s a Wonderful life, The Muppets Christmas and of course the cartoons like A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. On Christmas Eve, my grandparents came to our place for dinner. Early that evening, kids would line the roads of my rural community waiting for a fire engine with Santa Clause on the back. We waited for what seemed like forever to get a couple of candy canes. After dinner, we all piled in the car for our annual family drive to look at all the decorated houses. At 11:00, we got dressed in our Sunday best and headed to midnight mass at Mount Carmel. I was never one for church, but for some reason, the service on Christmas Eve was one I always enjoyed. Before bed, I was allowed to open one gift from under the tree than it was off to bed in anticipation for Santa’s visit and Christmas morning! My mom had an ongoing trick that she played on me until I was old enough to know better. She would put out a plate of cookies for Santa and instead of placing an empty plate on the table the next morning to make me think Santa had ate the cookies, she took the plate and hid it so I would think that Santa had also taken our plate. Of course this made sense to me because I never found any trace of the missing plate and year after year, the plate from the year before would pop up the next year! I caught on when I noticed that Mom’s writing was eerily the same as Santa’s! Christmas Day, I awoke early, woke up my parents and darted for the tree with breakfast in hand. The toys back than were so much simpler but, in my opinion ten times better than what the kids get today. The internet had not even been invented yet so Ipods and other assorted web-based electronics were things out of a science fiction movie. Clothing and necessities like socks and underwear were a given but I also got Barbie Dolls, VHS movies, Nintendo games and other classic toys that offered hours of fun unlike the toys of today that do all the work for you! After the presents were opened, we headed to my grandparent’s house for Christmas dinner. The evening was spent relaxing at home watching Christmas movies and recovering from the massive amounts of turkey we ingested! Those days are long gone now but they are cherished memories that I will never forget as long as I live. Now, on my own, Christmas does not stir up the same feelings in me anymore. The only thing that holds me close to the season is thinking back to those wonderful days of my childhood. I’m not sure if it is the times that are changing or me changing. I suspect it is probably a combination of both. When I was a child, I didn’t have the stress that adults associate with this time of year. I still carry on with some of the traditions I grew up and have developed some of my own but it just isn’t the same and every year, Christmas seems to be loosing more and more of it’s meaning. And more and more, I realize it is not just me who thinks this way. We have lost our way when it comes to the Holiday that was once meant to celebrate the birth of a king. Now it is about spending ridiculous amounts of money on gifts, trying to outdo each other when no one ever really likes what they get anyway. No one seems to know what Christmas is about anymore and the people who do know, just go with the flow. This year, my thoughts turned to more important things. I still bought gifts for the usual suspects that expect something every year but my mind was on something more important. Every glimpse of the news brought new violence, more war and more heartache and despair. Here I am in my developed war-free nation with plenty of food on my table, a roof over my head, a job that provides the security to pay for those things and freedom while so many are suffering due to lack of even the basic necessities of life. This Christmas I felt guilty when I thought about this and the little things I worry about on a daily basis and I wondered why it seemed no one else felt guilty as they went on with their holiday “cheer”. I do like some of the simpler things related to Christmas such as the decorations and the family dinners but the realization that some won’t even have that this season made me take a vow I promise to fulfill next year. Starting now, I will no longer be purchasing Christmas gifts for anyone, including the ones who expect it. It has nothing to do with money or the lack thereof, it’s the principal. Most of the people I buy presents for have jobs and can afford to buy their own stuff. If I spend any money by now on at Christmas, it will be on the ones who don’t have much and don’t have the means to get the things they need. Maybe I will make a generous donation to my favorite charity or volunteer at a shelter or soup kitchen. If I change one person’s attitude towards Christmas with this post, than it was worth it. If I change many people’s minds, imagine the people who will benefit from the generosity. So next Christmas, instead of buying people superficial presents that they will only throw out or re-gift anyway, spread this message and remind everyone you know about the people who don’t have anything. If you must give gifts, make a donation in someone’s name or just sit back and enjoy the season in a peaceful way with the ones you love count and your blessings. Forget about the material things, they are getting us nowhere! When I look at Christmas when I was a child, I cannot remember any of the gifts I received. I do, however, remember the time I spent with loved ones and the fun we had during those times. How about you? What do you remember most about the holidays of your past. Is it the gifts you received or is it something else that you hold near and dear to your heart? Here are some links for some of those Christmas Classics you watched as a child to get you started with the family time! http://websearch.about.com/od/imagesearch/a/christmas-movie_3.htm http://emol.org/movies/christmascartoons/index.html And here are my two favorite Christmas songs of all time from the Classic Boney M Christmas Album....these two songs are always guaranteed to get me in the Holiday Spirit!

	Boney M. - Feliz Navidad .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

	Boney M. .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine