Welcome to the second Christmas edition of Dispatches. Being an wired sort of guy, I am not particularly good at sending out real Christmas cards.
Here is a virtual one, along with the very best wishes from Heidi, Andrew, Colin and myself to all of you.
The Best of the Season
This year, I took Andrew and Colin to cut our own Christmas tree at a farm near Milton. Even though the first snow of the year had come and gone, leaving patches of ice and semi-frozen mud, we had a great time.
First we rode out to "where the big trees are" on a wagon pulled by a tractor. Bundled warnly against the wet snow which had begun to fall, we spent about an hour wandering around the farm, trying to find just the right tree for our house. Finally we found a Scotch Pine which was just about perfect, and I pulled out my trusty saw. With both kids shouting "T-I-M-B-E-R", it came crashing down.
We loaded the tree, and ourselves, back on the wagon for the short trip back to the barn. When we returned, the staff offered to "shake our tree" which sounded like too much fun to resist. I had never seen this before, but our tree was placed on a small electric vibrator for minute or so, to shake out all the dead needles, twigs, bugs and any other heebie-jeebies which might be lurking in the tree waiting for the warmth of our living room to bring them back to life.
With the tree safely bungeed on top of my old jalopy, we headed into the barn to warm up with some cider and hot chocolate by the wood burning stove. After a bit, we were sufficiently invigorated to begin the drive back to Oakville. We had a pleasant drive through the farming community south of Milton before arriving back at civilization.
Before we went, I did a bit of research into the Christmas tree tradition and tried my best to get the kids interested. Not surprisingly, they weren't having any it, but I found it fascinating. There is a very rich and surprising history behind most of the Christmas traditions that have been passed down for so many generations.
Most interesting to me was the fact that many Christmas traditions are not particularly related to Christianity. The Yule log, the "Twelve Days of Christmas", the holly and the ivy...all of these have histories that have little to do with Christ. One of the most intersting websites I found on this topic is called Candlegrove and I think it is well worth a visit.
Santa Claus arrives in Oakville
Yes he did, and we were there.
A Hair Raising experience
As far as I am concerned, fall is the best time of year to head into Ontario's cottage country. This year we went back up to Heidi's mum's place in Haliburton
Royal Agricultural Winter Fair
Fall is also the time of year when we make our annual trek down to Exhibition Place to pretend we know the difference between a Jersey and a Guernsey.
Enjoy
Stuart
