This Week in our T.O.

Hello folks.

Another little storm is passing by today but I did manage to put up a feeble bit of christmas lights yesterday.
Where are the Calgary Bradt's? Seems they've gone AWOL. We emailed/talked to everyone else this week. How about a reply Dave?

After the fun from earlier in the year, we bought a little safe. It proved so safe that it wouldn't open at all. Back it goes. I got my new glasses. That only took 3 months and 10, count 'em, 10 pair of lenses to get the order right. It wasn't even a change of Rxn.

Chloe is on the edge of sitting up on her own. She says she's been faking the whole falling over thing for months now.

Simon had another mom and child "swimming" class and actually went underwater without a huge fuss! He was pretty much the last in the class to to it but on the other hand he's about the only one in the class who talks about it in detail. A standard progress chart from his daycare states that a child of his age should be able to make a sentence with 3 words like "me want food". Simon comes up with, "I think that I shall go to the museum today and then to the zoo."

Then he says it again in French, and I ask his mom "what did he say?".

The cats are finally behaving themselves, just in time to get shipped off to the farm for vacation.

We have a couple of million things to do this week before we go to visit with Corinne's family etc.

We watched a few of the classic xmas specials this week. The Grinch (the original of course), Frosty and a new one that wasn't too bad called Shrek the Halls. This week we'll try to squeeze in Charlie Brown's Christmas and Santa Clause is Coming to Town. Still debating Rudolf (it really does have more than a few bad messages in there). I'll watch it anyway. We have it on vhs. I got a set of original Christmas tapes about 15 years ago (from Judy as I recall) when overseas for a taste of home. I always appreciated the things that were sent. David once sent a couple of tapes of TV that included the new years eve Leafs game (Don Cherry was decked out in his finest). Karen would usually come up with a box with lots of little stocking stuffer things along with at least one if not more items of clothing that stayed in my wardrobe for a long time. David sent as pkg with little science toys like a gyro top, fun for me and my students! Of course Judy would always include at least one book which, after David sent me Arthur Black's first book of stories that were just long enough to read on the subway in to work, started me reading, so I learned to appreciate the other books even more. At least half my 'library' is Judy books. I'd usually take as many of the gifts that was practical along with me to so I'd have something to open wherever I was Christmas morning, whether it was on a beach in Bali, a cafe in South Africa or atop a mountain in Nepal. It was still a piece of tradition that you all helped keep alive. Thanks for all the stuff guys. Especially when I was overseas.

None of us need much 'stuff' any more, but I was thinking of those early years when it was all so much fun to shop for everyone (it was easier when we didn't already have so much) and the pile of stuff each of us was left with on christmas morning. It occurred to me that, as in those early years non of us had an income, ALL of that great stuff really came from Dad and Mom, regardless of who it was tagged from.

Thanks again for it all Mom and Dad.

~me