Imperfect Christmas

December 30, 2013 / edebock / 10 Comments

Other than the sounds of the washer and dryer chugging their way through a mountain of bedding and towels, our house is a great deal quieter and seems much larger than it did yesterday! With the departure of our children and grandchildren, we’ve gone from twelve people back to three.

There was a time when I harboured unrealistic expectations for Christmas time imagining carols quietly playing while angelic children and happy adults enjoyed one another’s company without a hint of discord. Meals would be perfectly turned out and everyone would gather around the table looking like we belonged in a Norman Rockwell painting.

Expectations like that are #1 on The Big Sheep Blog’s list of the Top 10 Ways to Inflict Holiday Torture Upon Yourself! This year, I decided ahead of time that I didn’t need the stress of unrealized fantasies. Instead, I chose to toss them out the window and go with the flow. Thank goodness I did!

One family arrived with nasty colds and another brought stomach flu. Over the past week, the two ailments were passed around with only Richard and I failing to succumb to either one! We’re chalking that up to our many years in the classroom where we were exposed to every bug that came along. In addition to the coughing, sneezing and vomiting that surrounded us, one of the wee ones spiked a high fever and she also required a late Christmas night trip to ER for a nose that wouldn’t stop bleeding!

It isn’t easy being sick away from home and it’s even more difficult with young children. Add to that the dynamics created by families with very different parenting styles and philosophies and the crowded house held even more potential for dissension. It was noisy, it was chaotic, it was messy and at times, nerves were frayed, but it was also wonderful to have all my chicks under one roof.

Games have always been part of our family get-togethers and even the youngest members got in on the action.

Even when the temperature plunged to -25ºC (-13ºF), the children, who ranged in age from two to five, were happy to play outdoors. Snow was shoveled

and quinzees built.

The playground was visited.

We skated

and tobogganed.

And when it was too cold or tummies were too tender, stories were read.

It might not have been a Norman Rockwell painting and it wasn’t perfect but it was Christmas, we were together and I am thankful.

Dinosaur adventure

December 20, 2013 / edebock / 8 Comments

At the beginning of June, when we were still in China, Richard received an email from our then three-year-old grandson, Sam, transcribed by his Dad.

“I want to take you to the dinosaur museum with us when we go to your house.”

Sam and his family, who live in Vancouver, are here to spend Christmas with us and today we made the long awaited trip to the dinosaur museum. Located a few kilometres from Drumheller in the heart of the Canadian badlands, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology is one of Alberta’s primary tourist attractions as well as a world class centre of palaeontological research.

The boys were wildly excited about today’s adventure. When our daughter-in-law, Robin, woke them early this morning, two-year-old Nate jumped out of bed and announced loudly, “We’re going to the dinosaur museum! I need my shoes on!”

It was -29ºC (-20ºF) and dark when we piled into the vehicles and began the almost three hour drive.

Though we’ve visited many times, the museum never ceases to impress us. There are amazing dioramas

and faces that only a mother could love

but it’s the bones that I find the most astounding, especially the towering skeletons.

Sharing another of our province’s highlights with Sheila was fun. There she is, knee high to a dinosaur!

Keeping up with an exited two-year-old was challenging though. There he goes!

The boys were done by noon so after lunch in the museum cafeteria, Matt and Robin headed homeward with them while Richard, Sheila and I spent a while longer at the museum and then drove through the valley to the hoodoos, sandstone towers that formed when softer rock eroded away. By this time, the temperature had climbed to -18ºC (0ºF) so we ventured out of the warm car for a quick walk amongst the stately pillars.

Our last stop before leaving the valley was Bernie & the Boys Bistro in the town of Drumheller. Sheila wasn’t sure if she’d ever had a milkshake and Bernie’s has 71 flavours to choose from! She chose blueberry, a flavour that’s become a favourite of hers since arriving in Canada, and I had chocolate raspberry truffle! Definitely a delicious way to end to a great adventure!

Cultural surprises

December 13, 2013 / edebock / 4 Comments

Sheila has been with us for over two weeks already but she continues to be amazed by something new almost every day. In her eyes, my kitchen is a magical place. Most of the small appliances and gadgets that we take for granted are brand new to her. Like most Chinese kitchens, the one in her parents’ home doesn’t have an oven let alone a toaster, a bread maker or a food processor. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head the first time she saw me using my electric knife!

It’s not only the appliances that surprise her, however. Most of our food is also new to her. Though she’s familiar with a lot of the ingredients, we cook them entirely differently and even I’ve been surprised at how many convenience foods I use. We tend to eat a healthy diet avoiding a lot of processed foods but I do depend on things like pancake mix that are completely foreign to her. Breakfast cereal is also something she’s never eaten before. So far, Harvest Crunch, a sweetened granola with coconut and almonds, is her favourite. She’s accustomed to a spicier diet than ours and the ketchup bottle has become her best friend. In fact, she’s dubbed herself a “ketchupholic”!

The rest of the house contained many surprises for her too. Not unexpectedly, even though I’d explained the bathroom to her the evening she arrived, it took a flooded floor to remind her that the shower curtain must be inside the tub when you take a shower! That’s a common blunder for Asians when they first arrive on our shores as an Asian bathroom is basically an oversized shower stall and bathtubs are not common in China.

Laundry brought more surprises. Though we had a fitted sheet on our bed in China, Sheila had never seen one until we stripped the beds to wash the sheets! She thought I must have sewn the elastic corners myself. (In case you were wondering, fitted sheets were actually invented by an African American lady named Bertha Berman in the 1950s.) The clothes dryer also fascinates her as clothing is hung to dry in China.

That brings me to a topic that has been a big surprise to Richard and I. When we lived in China, we were amazed to see people in the street wearing their pyjamas. What we didn’t realize until Sheila came to stay is that Chinese people wear their pyjamas whenever they’re at home! Sheila only dresses to go out and immediately changes back into pyjamas when she gets home. Of course, if you’re just stepping out to run a quick errand, why bother changing at all? Sheila has been out with me more than once now in her pjs and I finally understand why we saw people walking down Little Street dressed that way!

While we continue to learn much about Chinese life from Sheila, it’s definitely been fun looking at our own lives through the eyes of someone for whom almost everything is brand new!

Magnificent mountains

December 9, 2013December 9, 2013 / edebock / 12 Comments

We came to Calgary after church yesterday to spend a couple of days with our daughter and her family but the main purpose of our trip was to take Sheila to see the Rocky Mountains. It was snowing when we woke up this morning and a cold wind was blowing. The recently updated road reports indicated that the highway to the west was in good condition, however, and though the weather forecast called for scattered flurries, it also mentioned sunny breaks.

We left the city in near blizzard conditions wondering if we’d see anything at all but an hour later, there they were; a wall of rugged mountains standing against a band of blue sky! We drove out of the storm and into a spectacular day. Bright sunshine glistened off the snow covered peaks and the snow flurries never materialized.

Our first stop was Banff where we browsed several souvenir stores and enjoyed lunch in a quaint little restaurant just off the main street.

After stopping just outside town to enjoy views of the mostly frozen Bow River, we continued north toward Lake Louise.

In spite of the colder temperature at Lake Louise’s higher elevation, we walked down the the lakefront to enjoy the view. Though partially hidden by cloud, it was still magical.

We were back in Calgary in time for supper thankful for a wonderful day and for the opportunity to share one of our country’s most beautiful areas with a very delighted Sheila.

The spirit of Christmas

December 6, 2013 / edebock / 4 Comments

“A very Merry GIFTMAS!” proclaims the latest Canadian Tire advertising flier. Really? Is that what this season is all about?

Sadly, for too many people Christmas has become little more than a commercial frenzy and a time of ever increasing stress. We mouth the words to traditional carols announcing peace on earth, goodwill to men as we rush from store to store and bills pile up. Perhaps young families feel it the most. Mounting costs and time constraints make it difficult for them to find any peace and joy during this season.

My daughter’s latest Facebook status and her sister-in-law’s response say it so clearly.

Over the years, we’ve tried to focus on the reason for the season and keep our Christmas preparations simple but obviously we need to look for ways to make it even less stressful; less about the gifts and the preparations and more about the CHRIST of Christmas.

Sharing our Christmas preparations with Sheila this year is making me more conscious of the things we do simply because we’ve always done them that way. There’s nothing wrong with traditions. In fact, they often make life easier. Planning Christmas dinner is simplified by the fact that we prepare basically the same meal year after year, but if those traditions become a source of stress and anxiety, perhaps they need to change.

I haven’t done a lot of decorating yet but, as always, the first thing to come out was the beautiful olive wood nativity set that my parents sent us from the Holy Land the year they spent Christmas there. As we put out each piece, Sheila, who had absolutely no idea why we celebrate Christmas, and I read the accounts of Jesus’ birth from Luke 2 and the visit of the magi from Matthew 2.

But then, out came Santa Claus and I had to try to explain his role in the story.

For that, I used another favourite ornament, my kneeling Santa. Perhaps he best symbolizes what I’m trying to say today; we need to find a way to ensure that the spirit of GIFTMAS bows before the true spirit of CHRISTMAS!