Everything I know about Christmas

I learned from my mom.

The joy of baking and the smell of butter, nuts, chocolate and cinnamon filling the house. That's still the smell of warmth and home-iness for me today.

The pleasure in giving those treats away in pretty packages. And trying to have some on hand by Christmas day!

And the old classics on TV; Frosty, Rudolph, Charlie Brown and The Grinch...guess they weren't "classics" then.

And learning to play carols on the piano and singing badly along.

That adding sparkle and twinkle and color to a house is partly lights and tinsel and partly the same decorations that go up year after year...many homemade and given by others and not about matching or color schemes or themes.

That wishlists are starting points and no guarantee. And they're really just a way to dream and imagine and maybe even realize how little you need.

That the hustle and bustle should be less about shopping and more about stopping in. My mom was not generally a fan of stopping in - that's my dad's domain but at Christmas there was no end of friends stopping by and Christmas Eve was about us going to friends' homes all over the place.

That Santa is more about magic than anything else. And a great motivator for an early bedtime.

And grownups still love cookies and milk.

And stockings are the best part of the gifts.

That Christmas morning is about chaos and mess and unhealthy breakfast and that's absolutely ok once a year.

And that the whole thing should be capped off by family gathered together with hospitality, laughter and thankfulness.

Merry Christmas!

I knew I preferred road travel!

I made what was supposed to be a quick trip back to the home town for a surprise birthday party for my dad. A party for 40 friends at the legion seemed like the right thing to do for someone turning 65. It remained a surprise and was well received.

As much as I love a trip home I honestly don't ever love the pressure of getting packed, finding a spot I trust to leave the dog, asking the neighbors to watch my house and then the whole airport experience. And in the interests of time, air travel generally wins out.

Well maybe not any more.

I took my usual decongestant before boarding the plane although I felt fine. As we were landing my ears crackled, popped and then wouldn't pop and just plain hurt like a bugger. I got off the plane and assumed that my hearing etc. would all return as normal and we carried on with the million and one errands necessary to pull off the party.

By later that evening I felt like I had a cold. Nonetheless I allowed myself to be dragged out for a girl's night out aka a reminder that I am no longer 20. The day of the party I had a smidge of a hangover and still felt like a cold was coming on. Today before catching my flight my sister decided I should check with a pharmacist because I was now having bedspins at night and had one very stuffed up ear and earaches.

The pharmacist said that if I was taking decongestants and my ear still wouldn't clear I should see a doctor. Pshaw I thought but then got "the look" from my sister.

After a 2.5 hr wait at the walk in - they should be called walk in and wait, I saw a doctor who gave me a lecture including sketches on the dangers of air travel when you have injured/ruptured your middle ear membrane and prescribed some nasal spray (yuck!) to try and get my eustachian tubes to open. And a suggestion to see an ENT since this has probably happened before and will continue to happen since he thinks there is something wrong with my septum. All said as though I was an idiot who should know better.

Next up, a ton of phone calls and emails to sort out a plan b.

And a inclineation not to get on a plane again....

Also wondering...where do you get new plumbing for your head?

Winnipeg vs Calgary; the good, the bad and the ugly

I just returned from a trip across the prairies back to my hometown of Winnipeg. It wasn't my first drive back and forth and it probably won't be the last. It was one of the tougher drives - note to self: the May long weekend can bring snow to Calgary but the rest of the prairies aren't out of the woods either!



I couldn't help but compare the two cities/provinces at times.


The good:




Calgary is green (for Calgary) but Winnipeg has it beat for just how green a city can be - loads of trees, flowers in flowerbeds and pots and green grass. (and check out that sky!)


















The Wagon Wheel is open again in Winnipeg and their clubhouse and chocolate shake still beat anything I've found out here. They cook 5 turkeys every morning to make their clubs and if you order gravy with your fries it is real roast turkey gravy! The shakes are made from hard ice cream in the old school shake blenders with metal cups. Awesome. I also had charbroiled pork vermicelli from Pho No.1. It was a huge portion; nicely presented and the pork was amazing. And I think it was around $7 - a price you'd never see in Calgary for anything that size or that good.



Neighbors are often friends in Winnipeg. I know that happens here in some areas but even my dad's new, younger than him neighbors were willing to give him a hand and chat. The longtime neighbors stopped over when they saw my car in the drive and my sister was making s'mores with her neighbors around a firepit when I arrived at their house.


You can't beat the lake...the big lake. We went to Gimli and although the water was still really chilly it was a busy spot; not a surprise being about an hour from the city. And beautiful.























Kids' sports are like mini socials. The games are well attended and people chat while they watch. I had a super conversation with a mom of the opposite team's goalie at 3 on 3 hockey and had never met her before. I don't have kids in sports here but random, pleasant conversations with non-crazy strangers isn't something I've encountered in Calgary.

















The bad:

The roads in and around Winnipeg still leave a lot to be desired. Particularly highway 8 to Gimli which is both narrow and rough in spots and the Transcanada which is an embarassment across most of the prairies since it is our national highway. The absolute worst spots were around Moose Jaw SK. Winnipeg also has an interesting habit of marking pavement and putting up barricades where there is clearly no construction actually happening.

Lots of rain in Winnipeg means lots of people get water in their basements. And the City says that it isn't their fault the system can't handle it. Basement flooding has been a problem in Winnipeg for as far back as I can remember my parents rushing around bailing out window wells and hooking up pumps. Torrential downpours happen often enough and the current storm sewer system can't handle them - time to acknowledge that and make some changes which should include backup systems/pumps.
















Although Winnipeggers will be shocked to hear this; the increased house prices and high taxes mean that their cost of living is as high or higher than Calgary's - with lower wages. It appears that the real estate market there is still hot, hot, hot. Some things are less expensive but not nearly as many as there were 4 years ago.


The ugly:

The lower speed limits (100 on the highway when it's 110 even in SK), abundance of traffic cameras, high $ tickets and poor traffic flow (including unpredictable drivers which never seem to get pulled over) mean that driving in Winnipeg is not fun. Things may be closer and commutes shorter in distance than Calgary but driving is slow or full of lots of stops (and people stopping on yellow out of fear of those cameras) and is an exercise in frustration and surprise since you will have no idea who is about to cut in front of you, stop suddenly or change speeds randomly.

Downtown Winnipeg also feels grungy and unsafe. I parked on McDermott near Main at 11:30 a.m. and was happy to have another female leaving the parkade on foot at the same time as me. Even walking into the Lombard at Portage and Main didn't feel like the office-crowd spot that it used to and walking through the Exchange to grab a sandwich at prime lunchtime was dodgy at best. I had come to expect the drive along north Main street to be depressing but it seems to have spread right into the rest of downtown.

All in all, I had a great visit which went by way too quickly. And of course the main draw for Winnipeg that you can't beat is that Winnipeg is still home to my closest friends and family.

Something's missing and I don't know how to fix it...

Bad case of the pre-Christmas blues compounded by pms, my sister and her boys' departure and some sad goings on of a friend.

I miss:

• coffee with friends
• shopping on Corydon
• snow....hmm, maybe I'm coming down with something!
• having company crowded into my little house
• not having to think about the packability of gifts
• my mom
• being part of a couple
• believing in Santa and the magical sparkle of the season

I am not the kind of person who is organized for Christmas months in advance which may be a good thing. Maybe as I get into the swing of things the blues will lift. My trip home this year will be very brief since I have no vacation time so I will have to enjoy all of the -30 and visiting that I can!

There's only one place they call me one of their own...

And only one place where time flies and I don't even take much for pictures because I'm busy doing stuff!

"So what, I'm still a rock star, I've got my rock moves..." (and yes, my older brother thinks I'm nuts)

And there was also running....

We also did the 5km Run for the Cure and finished in under 45 minutes somehow. We didn't run the whole way but I suspect it was my sister's insistence that we walk faster and get by people...there were about 5600 people participating.

Now I'm packing and flapping since I am headed to Boston tomorrow on the red-eye. I don't know how I keep ending up on the early flights considering I am not a morning person! On the way home I actually caught myself leaning forward and snoring....so much for the attractive gentleman sitting in the seat next to me!

I also played in a soccer game this week. The other ladies had played the three nights before as well so I'm not real impressed that I kept up....but I kept up! Looks like I will be playing defense...right after I figure out how to pay the fees that are double what they are "back home"!