Christmas Meme and other news

Well we now have a ceiling in the kitchen, the plastering is done and they should be coming to paint tomorrow... finished at last just in time for Christmas. I haven't bogged in a while because I just didn't have the time or energy. Since I just came back from 10 km of cross country skiing where it was -14 degrees celsius with a nice brisk 30 km/h wind (feels like -24) I am not all that energetic. Having said this I'll borrow from my lil sister and make it easy on myself.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?

I'm all thumbs with wrapping paper and tape... the presents invariably look like they were rolled in colourful newspaper, so I much prefer bags. Usually it is Mrs. BB who does the wrapping since she likes to give nicely wrapped parcels and it ain't going to happen with me.

2. Real tree or artificial?

To tell the truth we usually don't have a Christmas tree since Mrs. BB puts up a mega Christmas village. Village? Heck, it's closer to a major metropolitan centre. It takes up at least 75% of the living room. The kids are fascinated by it since everything lights up and many things move around, such as the train and the gondolas for the ski slope.
This year we didn't do the village since our twin grand-kids (Allison and Zoé) are 10 months old and in the crawl everywhere and put everything in the mouth stage of life, so we put up a small artificial tree out of their reach and didn't even think of building the village. It would be about like Godzilla in Tokyo if we had. ;o)
Looks funny but I made a panorama out of three pictures so I could get the whole village in the picture. In the front that you can't see in the picture there are the train and bus stations and the harbour complete with artificial water, fishermen and boats.

3. When do you put up the tree?

Usually Mrs. BB starts construction of the village at the beginning of December. It obviously takes quite a while to put up and take down.

4. When do you take the tree down?

She takes it down in the beginning of January.

5. Do you like eggnog?

Yuck! nuff said.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?

It must have been a telescope that I received when I was about 11 years old. I had it for years and loved looking at the sky.

7. Hardest person to buy for?

Me... I love to give presents, but I'll usually just go get the things I need or want when I need them. Drives my kids crazy because anything they could buy me for Christmas I've already gone out and bought.

8. Easiest person to buy for?

Mrs. BB... I just watch her when we go shopping and when she looks at something longingly (often art supplies, she's an artist don't you know) I'll just buy it for her. I usually don't wait for Christmas because I much prefer the instant surprise, the impromptu gift.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?

Do they do non-denominational, atheistic nativity scenes?

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?

I'll usually give a Christmas card to my close colleagues at school but I don't buy them, I print them myself using my winter photos and special cards for printing in an ink jet printer. I love to give a bit of myself rather than buy generic Christmas cards.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

None that I can think of.

12. Favourite Christmas Movie?

Hmmm, don't really have the time to watch Christmas movies but if I had to pick one it would be "A Christmas Carol" with Alastair Sim as Scrooge in the original Black and White. The scene with the ghost of Christmas Future and the tombstone scared me silly when I watched it as a young kid.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?

Usually too late...I hate being in the stores at Christmas... way too many people for my taste.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?

Nope.

15. Favourite thing to eat at Christmas?

My moms cooking... Ragout d'boulettes, tourtière, galettes à Laura (a kind of thick cooky/scone. It was a secret recipe of my grandmother), tarte à pichoune (a type of pie with a raisin and molasses filling)

16. Lights on the tree?

Of course there should be lights that way Santa can see in the dark.

17. Favourite Christmas song?

Don't usually do the Christmas song thing, but if I had to give some favourites I'd have to say the old French Canadian Christmas Carols because they remind me of when my father would sing at midnight mass. For example: Adeste Fideles, Ça Berger, Il est né le divin enfant

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?

My family lives in Québec and Mrs. BB's family lives in Sherbroke so we usually end up doing the great triangle between Montreal, Québec and Sherbrooke... not always fun when the weather acts up.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's?

Dasher, Donder, Cupid, Blitzen, Prancer, Vixen, Dancer, Comet and of course Rudolph (although he is a recent addition to the sleigh, the originals are from the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" published in 1823, Rudolphe makes his appearance in the 1950 song "Rudoph the Red Nosed Reindeer")

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?

A star... poor angel with the tip of a Christmas tree stuck where the sun doesn't shine. ;o)

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?

We usually follow the French Canadian tradition which is to have a Réveillon after the Christmas midnight mass (we don't do the mass anymore but we still have the reveillon) I remember when I was a kid we were happy since we always got our gifts before the English kids since they would open theirs on Christmas morning and we'd open ours after midnight mass. We'd open our presents and then stuff our faces with mom's great food. We'd end up going to bed at 4 am and sleep til noon.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?

The whole ersatz good cheer thing. Christmas has become just a big consummer thing to help the stores make their bottom line before the end of the year.

23. Favourite ornament theme or colour?

At the birth of each of our children we bought an ornament with their name and the year of their first Christmas. We did it again this year with Allison and Zoé so now they also have their ornament in the tree.

24. Favourite for Christmas dinner?

I'll go with my lil sister's description... Mom's "ragout de boulettes". You take chicken broth, make pork meatballs, boil them in the broth. Add flour that you previously browned in the oven to thicken, season with pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg and serve with potatoes (potatoes must be mashed in your bowl after putting in the ragout) and sweet pickled beets. It sounds very bizarre written out like that, but it's delicious. Oh, and tourtière (a meat pie) and desert til it comes out of our ears. My mom bakes so many deserts that it becomes a chore to choose which one you'll take, so we end up taking a bit of everything...;o)

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?

Like my lil sister, I have pretty much everything that I need. A wonderful wife, two marvellous children, two adorable angelic grand children, a job I love, food on the table, a roof over my head (even if it leaks from time to time). What more could I wish for?
But I do wish that for Christmas others have the same joy, serenity and security that I enjoy. So I'll just repeat that old refrain in the hope that maybe one day it'll come true: Peace on Earth and goodwill amongst men.
.

What P's again?

I've been tagged by my lil sister Jazz again. She just likes making me work hard, lazy person that I am. Well OK here are my seven P's


Parenthood: I consider parenthood to be my greatest achievement. Not that I'm a perfect parent, but if the proof is in the pudding, we seem to have done a pretty good job with the kids because they have turned out to be intelligent, well read, responsible adults.

People: where would I be without people? I work with adolescents (yes they are people, sometimes I think that they are more mature than certain adults) everyday, many, many of them, with their hopes, dreams, and problems. This kind of leads me to a kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde complex. In school I am a people person, I like to listen to the kids, talk with them, joke around, laugh and be there. On the other hand outside of school, I can be pretty much a loner, a leave me alone and I'll be just fine, type of guy. Every so often I have a desperate need to be by myself, go trekking alone in the mountains, go on long cross country ski runs, bike alone. Thank deity that Mrs. BB is such an understanding spouse.

Public schools: This is where I have spent most of my career. It is underfunded (well anyhow the money doesn't get to the classes) and often not appreciated. (Often get the feeling that we are considered to be a free babysitting service). It often has a bad reputation and yet it continues, in sometimes appalling conditions, to produce a relatively sane next generation. In my experience the majority of kids are just fine. As in any group of humans there are always some bad apples but the vast majority of students do not deserve the reputation they have. The kids deserve much better than they are getting.

Pedagogy: I am a teacher, first and foremost. Always have been, always will be. Even after 30 years, I still have great fun teaching and interacting with my kids. I think that I am a good teacher, or so the kids and parents tell me. Teaching for me is more than a job, it is a vocation. I know of no other job that can have such an impact on the future, on the kids who are our future, so it deserves to be done well and with passion.

Packsack: What I wear on my back (all 35 pounds) when I do one of my favourite things, trekking. My good old 80 litre pack, full of dried food, gorp, water, water filter, stove, fuel, sleeping bag, mattress, clothing, socks, wet weather gear, etc.

Peripatetic: My life has been peripatetic. Being an Airforce brat we would move every 3-4 years, Montréal Qc (2 years), Downsview On (3 years), North Bay On (2 years), Greenwood NS (8 years) , Bagotville Qc (3 years) and finally stopping in Québec city. I've slowed down since university, I've only moved three times in the last 30 years. But the urge to see other horizons hasn't left me since Mrs. BB and I just love travelling.

Perseverance: I have shown this and finally got to the end of the list...

As for tagging five people, well I'll be lazy and let anyone who wishes to do this exercise go right ahead. If your little heart desires, be my guest, consider yourself tagged.

PS: How weird, my blogger has turned back to English after having talked to me in German for the last few weeks. Go figure.

Good vibrations et al.

meme |mēm| noun Biology an element of a culture or system of behaviour that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by non genetic means, esp. imitation.



I've been tagged by my lil'sister Jazz as to the five things that give me good vibrations. My darling sister is always thinking up ways of complicating my nice smooth life. After much thought, head scratching and cognition, I have come up with the following five things.

The first and second are no brainers. The first is of course Mrs. BB who has put up with me lo these 31 years and believe me I am not always easy to put up with. After 31 years it is no longer a great emotional passionate affair, but has morphed into a lasting, comfortable, love. It is like the difference between a new snazzy pair of shoes and a well worn pair of slippers. Which is more comfortable? My wife completes me in a way that is hard to describe. When she is absent, there is a part of me that is missing, a malaise, something that is not right. When she is there, even if we are both doing our different things, I can feel her presence and that is an eminently comforting and wonderful feeling. So yes she is a big part of my good vibrations.

The second thing that is a part of my good vibrations are my two children, BB's daughter and BB's son. They are now adults and are flying by themselves, but when I look at them my heart swells with pride because they have become adults to be proud of. It's funny because when I give them a hug, I do not just see the adult they are, but the baby smiling at me, the small child showing me the carrot from the garden, tears because of scraped knees, the children doing their homework, the ados going to their first dance, their prom night, his face lighting up as we discuss programming and OS systems, university graduation (my daughter winning the two prizes for micro-biology). I see their whole lives go by and that definitely gives me good vibrations.

The third is trekking in the mountains. I love trekking because of the sense of solitude. Making it to the top of a mountain with nobody around gives one a feeling of peace that is hard to describe. The wind whistling across the rock and remnants of winter snow, the austere beauty of the surrounding landscapes, the solitude, the stark white of a cloud against the deep blue of the sky, the chill of the air at altitude. It all makes me think of a line from the poem "High Flight" by Pilot Officer Gillespie McGee; "Put out my hand and touched the face of God." This line of poetry pretty much says it all.

Here is my fourth, books. I love to read and I probably have more books at home that many bookstores. I love to read and regularly have to bring boxes of books to my local library since they have taken over every possible nook and cranny in the house. Thank goodness that Mrs. BB also loves to read because this could have been a definite problem. I can read for hours at a time and get through a 300 page book in less than a couple of days. Love of reading and books is one of the greatest gifts my parents gave me. When I was young they would always find some money to buy a Scholastic book at school. Books are a great invention, hours of pleasure, easy to carry and use, never need batteries. They can be taken anywhere and when trekking in a lost land can be used as fire starter and toilet paper in an emergency. LOL ;o)

My fifth is travelling. We love to travel, not go south to a Club Med, but really travel and get to know the people and culture of the country we are visiting. Since we usually stay for quite a few weeks and we are not rich, we usually end up camping most of the time. In England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, they have a well organized system of camp grounds. Staying at a camp gound permits us to meet the people of the place, talk with them and learn how they live. If you want to know how people live, go grocery shopping at their local Tesco or Morrison's. Travelling like this has permitted us to meet so many fantastic, helpful people and see things that ordinary tourists just never see. The local people are always willing to tell you about this great place that you must visit. Travelling opens our horizons and makes one realize that under the skin we are all the same, all having the same hopes, loves and fears no matter where they are.

Now to whom should I pass it on?
First of all to Em, who as a dad often makes me laugh and think.
Second to Evil Spock, just to give him an opportunity to do some PR for his run to POTUS.
And last but not least Tai, cuz she doesn't have enough to do with moving into a nice new house.