holiday highlights

On Monday I took down our Christmas tree and decorations, which always seems to mark the official end of Christmas holidays and the beginning of the new year. Here are a few highlights of what was for us a quiet but enjoyable Christmas.

Walking to church on Christmas Eve.
Bethel had a Christmas Eve service at 5:00 p.m. so we had an early supper and walked to church, pulling Jonathan in the wagon since there was so little snow. It was lovely to look at the Christmas lights and decorations on people's homes and to imagine what everyone was doing to prepare for the special day. Our church service this year focused on letters: a woman who is at home convalescing from a long illness sent a letter about hope; a military man read a letter he had sent to his family about 20 years ago when he was serving in Africa; and another woman read a letter she had written to those who are "too busy". Then the pastor asked us to imagine what we would write in a letter to God and what God is saying to us by sending Jesus.

Watching "It's a Wonderful Life" on Christmas Eve.
This has become a Christmas Eve tradition for Rich and me: we put the kids to bed and watch our "It's a Wonderful Life" dvd (taking a few breaks here and there to have snacks and open our gifts to each other). I have probably watched this movie ten times, and I still find it very meaningful every time. It's definitely somewhat corny and dated in certain ways, yet its message is timeless. I think many of us can identify with George Bailey's struggle as he sees life passing him by, watches others realizing the dreams he'd hoped to achieve, and wonders if his life has really meant anything significant. When he gets the opportunity to see what might have happened to his family, his friends, and his town if he had never existed, and realizes how many people have been touched by his life, everything changes for him: he can celebrate what he has and let go of his regret and bitterness. My favourite moment is right at the end when his brother Harry arrives in the middle of the party and raises a toast: "To my big brother George -- the richest man in town."

He puzzled and puzzed till his puzzler was sore. [Identify that quotation, you keeners]
Jonathan's love for -- ok, addiction to -- jigsaw puzzles was fed by a whole host of "enablers" this Christmas. (You know who you are.) I believe the official count was fourteen separate puzzles received.

Good books.
I didn't actually get any books for Christmas -- at least not books with words in them. Rich got me two beautiful journals which I suppose I will have to fill with words of my own. But I spent the holidays re-reading the Harry Potter series, since I haven't seen movie #6 and wanted to refamiliarize myself with the plots before eventually renting the movie. This is a truly amazing series: funny and exciting, increasingly suspenseful and complicated, and full of plot twists that are all satisfyingly untangled at the end.

Beautiful music.
One of the best parts of Christmas, for me, is the music: singing carols at church, listening to Christmas CD's at home, etc. Rich and I attended a church Christmas dinner where the soloist sang "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." I love these words from that carol:

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor does He sleep.
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men."

Actually I suppose that's what the Harry Potter series symbolizes for me too: that good will ultimately defeat evil, that love will conquer hate, that life will conquer death. (Interestingly, the final book quotes 2 Bible passages: "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" and "the last enemy to be destroyed is death.") Those words and themes symbolize hope for the new year.

the thrill of victory!

(photo by Caroline & Doug Prinsen)

This afternoon the Queen's University football team, the Golden Gaels, won the Vanier Cup -- the university football championship for all of Canada.

We're especially proud because our nephew Josh, who is in his first year at Queen's, is a member of the team. Congratulations Josh -- yay, Gaels !!!

November roses

When we moved into this house in 2000, Audrey planted a rose bush for us in the back yard. The bush needed its regular cutting-back, and I finally got around to doing it earlier this month. There were all these beautiful fresh blossoms at the ends that weren't being enjoyed, since we're no longer out in the back yard; so I made this bouquet from them. Somehow they seem even more beautiful because they bloomed in a month that is usually so dreary.

Help! My computer is haunted!

... or at least that's part of my excuse for not posting in so long. Computers are kind of like cars, as far as I'm concerned: you go happily along, using them on a daily basis, not giving much thought to what goes on inside them or how they work, and then suddenly they don't work and you're completely befuddled. I've taken our computer in to a repair shop three times in the last week and a half. First there was a problem with the power supply: the computer would start up and then immediately shut down. It took several days to locate a replacement part, but they got it working. However, when I took it home, it worked fine except that as soon as it was shut off it would start up again (kind of the opposite of the original problem). I took it back, and they solved that problem -- but then when I got it home again, it started turning on whenever the phone rang, which was completely bizarre. I called the technician and he said he had never heard of that before. I took it back in and he commented that perhaps the computer was possessed. (I suggested we call an exorcist.) Anyway, they were able to locate the glitch and now it is working fine. I have the exorcist on speed-dial just in case, though...

The second-last time I posted, the kids were sick and the school rife with illness. I had a bad cold which lingered a few weeks and plugged my ears and sinuses. But Rich got the worst of it: on Nov. 1 he woke up with the flu and was flat-out for a week, with headaches, fever, and weakness. He started to feel better after about 5 days but then his fever spiked again, so he went to a clinic a couple of days later and was put on antibiotics for pneumonia (he's had that before, but fortunately this time he got the meds early and didn't wait for it to become very severe). After 2 weeks he was back to his normal self and is feeling great, thankfully. Jonathan got so used to Rich being sick that even after he was better Jonathan would say "Daddy nap? Daddy blankets?"

milestone

We had a party to celebrate Mom & Dad's anniversary back in August when we were all in PEI, but today is THE official day. Here is a picture of them on October 28, 1959, at their wedding at Long Creek Baptist Church. Congratulations, Mom & Dad, on this special day. We love you!