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We have had a happy and comparatively sedate Christmas this year. This is largely due to the forethought and planning of Ann, but also helped somewhat by the fact that the kids are not enrolled in quite so many activities this winter. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate completely: it rained buckets on Xmas Eve, though Xmas Day was beautiful despite being too green. We are told that that will change tonight and tomorrow morning with 30 to 50 cms of snow expected.
At work things ground peaceably to a halt by noon on Xmas Eve, there being the usual turkey dinner at lunchtime on Tuesday followed by a party in the afternoon. An Xmas Eve many showed up, but not a lot of work was done; instead most sections hosted social gatherings with various sorts of Xmas cheer. I arrived home at around 1 PM in time to help tidy up and then pack everyone off to the Xmas Eve children's service at 4:30. This year the service was run completely by the kids, with Katy and Laurissa leading. The service had two highlights. The first was a solo by James of the second verse of Il est né le divin enfant (but in English) with the children's choir. I was sitting on the edge of my seat as it approached as James had had some trouble remembering the words just before the service. Then during the first carol and during the first verse of Il est né he seemed to be distracted and not singing with his usual gusto. But when the moment came he stepped up to the microphone and did a marvellous job.
The second highlight was the nativity play about the grumpy inn-keeper who keeps being woken up by all the visitors coming to see the baby Jesus in his stable. This had been a favourite for several years in a row, but last year, due to some grumbling by older people (say 20 and up) in the congregation, it was replaced by something different (which I didn't see -- see the Archive -- so I can't recall). This year, by popular demand, we returned to the tried and true with David's friend Brenden dong an excellent job in the title role. David was an angel, Emily a shepherd and James a sheepdog.
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After the service we returned home for a buffet dinner and to play Town, River, Mountain, as I have done for as long as I can remember. Dave, Chris and Alison, and Ingrid, Mike and Alex joined us as usual, though some of our other "regulars" were out of town, so it was a slightly smaller bunch than the past few years. We also played the gift exchange game that is part of Ann's family tradition.
Xmas morning came far too early for my liking, as James seems incapable of sleeping past 6 AM these days. We opened stockings, whipped up a batch of Eggs Benedict, then settled down to the serious business of present opening, finally emerging from the piles of wrapping paper at about 11. The afternoon was spent playing with new toys and preparing the Xmas feast: a brace of ducks with assorted veggies.
Today Ann and the kids went to church as usual, then we stopped in at the open houses at the Reads' and at the Harveys' before returning home for dinner and an early night, trying to be ready for a morning of shovelling tomorrow.
We hope that, wherever you may be, you have a joyous and happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
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Our busy approach to Christmas has continued this week. On Monday Ann went to a cookie exchange at Julie's, taking a few dozen poppy seed balls and returning with a much wider assortment of Christmas cookies. On Wednesday Ann and I went to Emily and James' Christmas concert at school. Thankfully they were both performing on the same night this year. They each sang a couple of songs with their classes. On Thursday we finally got the tree decorated. On Friday we were sufficiently exhausted that we completely forgot to go to a party at our friends Mark and Anna's.
On Saturday evening Ann and David went to watch some Christmas movies with the church Youth Group (Katy was babysitting). This was to be followed by two sleepovers, one for the boy and one for the girls, the latter at our house. The boys went as planned, but all the girls decided to go home at the last minute, so we were spared. Meanwhile Emily, James and I went to a party across the street at Carl and Roxanne's. They have just returned from a several month road trip around North America, so we had not seen them for some time.
This morning all of us went to church because Katy played her flute. She played Patapan in a quartet during the prelude, then during the collection of the offering she played the first movement of Telemann's Sonata in F, solo but with piano accompaniment. It was quite beautiful. Afterwards, as I had not made Sunday lunch, we all went out to Keystone Kelly's. Later in the afternoon Ann, David and Emily went carol singing with other members of the church.
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On Monday evening we all went to see Katy perform in the All-City Bands Christmas Concert. Katy was in the Senior Jazz Band and the Senior Concert Band, but there were also three different choirs, a string orchestra and a percussion ensemble. Altogether it was very enjoyable, especially the finale of Christmas carols in which everyone played together.
On Wednesday morning the weather was quite nasty: snow and drizzle with warnings of freezing rain. To the delight of the kids, school was cancelled for fear that someone might be hurt getting there. No such luck for me, of course, but, as it turned out, the driving was not that bad.
On Friday, Ingrid took David, Katy and Alex to the Nutcracker, performed by Symphony Nova Scotia, Halifax Dance and Mermaid Theatre at the Rebecca Cohn Theatre at Dalhousie. Ann drove them over to Halifax and went out to dinner with them beforehand at the Dalhousie Faculty Club. Meanwhile Emily, James and I stayed home, had macaroni and cheese, and read The Lord of the Rings. After the show, David went to a sleepover birthday party for one of the other members of the church youth group. The term "sleepover" is probably a misnomer as, after I picked him up again at noon on Saturday, he disappeared into his room and slept for five hours until woken for babysitting duty.
Yesterday afternoon James was asked by his friend Mark to go and see the SpongeBob movie. I must admit that the SpongeBob phenomenon has largely passed me by, but you can get some idea of what it is about from the link above. Anyway James seemed to enjoy it.
Last night Ann and I went out to the DRDC Xmas party. Like the past few years, it was held at MacAskill's Restaurant overlooking the harbour in the Dartmouth ferry terminal. Katy babysat for our friends Mark and Shirley who were also going, so we dropped Katy off on the way and picked up Mark and Shirley in exchange. Dinner was preceded by a social hour with champagne and followed by a disk jockey spinning dance music, though neither Ann nor I did much dancing.
This afternoon Ann, Emily, James and I drove to Hubbards to cut down a Xmas tree at the Harnish farm. We have been going there since our friends Beth and Rob first introduced us to it back when Katy was still in a Snuggli. The trees have been $15 for as long as we can remember. This year we were remarkably efficient, picking a nice spruce within about 10 minutes, though, as usual, Ann had to be dissuaded from choosing several 15 foot candidates along the way. The tree is now installed in the corner of the living room by the piano but still awaits ornaments.
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Katy and her friend Krista are doing a joint physics project on common household phenomena, so this afternoon Katy, Emily and James were busy doing experiments to find out whether it is really true that a dropped peanut butter sandwich, when dropped, will usually land with the peanut butter side down. Answer: No, it isn't. They have also determined which liquid is best used to wet your finger when trying to make a wine glass sing (see the picture). Answer: vinegar, though water, apple juice and cranberry juice are about as good; 1% milk is not good; nor are any of the alcoholic beverages in our drinks cupboard; any sort of oil is terrible.
We have all been suffering various sorts of malaise over the past couple of weeks. Earlier in the week James had a similar stomach upset to the one that Katy and Emily had last week; he missed a day at school. This weekend it was my turn, with some laryngitis that has made it difficult to talk. I expect it to be over in a day or two.
Yesterday Ann and I and Dave and Chris went to Jocelyn and Puxley's in Mahone Bay to celebrate their birthdays. This was the party postponed from a couple of weeks ago due to the snow storm. This time the weather was more cooperative and we made it there and back without incident. We had lots of fun including a session of tunes by the Dave Brothers Band, though I could not sing due to the laryngitis. (Some would claim that that was a blessing.)
On Tuesday George Bush was in town and his presence dominated the media and general conversation. The Halifax Daily News had their first ever extra edition which hit the streets a few hours after Bush's speech. A lot of downtown Halifax was bunged up by security for much of the day, but that didn't affect us much. Much of the local talk was about whether his thanks for the help after Sept. 11 was too little too late, though after the speech there was also a fair amount of gnashing of teeth about the missile defence remarks.
November 2004 Archive
January 2005 Archive
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