Current Music: cello music from Kareem (Friend from writing at BackWash).

Getting tired already so I doubt I'll last till midnight. The plan is to take a shower and do a little home spa deal before the end of the year. I'm also drinking hot chocolate with a splash of Kaluha (however you spell it).

Happy 2004!

St. Patrick's Day is coming up, it's a special day for me. Kind of my own Remembrance Day, for my family. I was thinking today about all the old cleaning methods women have used in the past. I can remember my Grandma talking about using the old wringer washing machine. Not automated at all. I remember my Grandpa using the old lawn mower, the kind you really have to push around to get the blades turning. How did those old folks manage? I tried pushing around that old fashioned mower and I could barely get it to budge when I was a young sprite of ten.

The funny thing is that I tend to think of my Grandparents as being old, that's the only way I knew them. In fact, they would have been young 20 year olds, hanging laundry out on the clothesline. New Mothers washing cloth diapers, ironing shirts and cooking dinner. In turn, there would have been young Dads fixing the car and then taking the kids out to the park while Mom stayed home to wax the floors.

It seems the biggest changes we have from our modern electric machines are the saving of time. I don't know how long it would have taken to wash all the clothes by hand and wring them through. Grandma told me about catching her hands in the wringer and boiling them in the hot soapy water. Not that she was a complainer. She just wanted me to understand how things were. How else could anyone know what the experience was like? I'm not tempted to try it personally. It's so much easier to turn on a machine and leave it to do the work. So convenient too. I've got laundry in the machine right now.

But, I don't forget Grandma, Grandpa and all their brother's and sister's who make up my family. On St. Patrick's Day I remember them all. We're an Irish and Austrian blend (mainly) so I picked this one day for them. To think of their struggles, their jokes and everything else they've left me.

Valentines Day is coming. Do you know what your sweetheart wants? Chocolates, flowers, dinner out, heartfelt wishes, your head on a plate?

Why do people stick with the old, standard stuff so lacking in impulse, creativity and originality. This Valentines Day really sweep him or her off their feet. Do something they'd never be expecting in a million years.

Get out there and be active. Go swimming at the public pool, go horseback riding at a local stable, go ice skating, go hiking, go and do something together that doesn't involve eating and sitting.

If you think about it, aren't the days (nights) when you are really out there doing something more fun, more romantic and memorable than the days you sat and ate? Anyone can sit down, push food around and then get back in the car to go home. How many people will be dancing, jogging, playing soccer, nature walking, etc. Not enough.

Need ideas? Check your local newspaper. Not the one that comes out daily with all the news from the nearest cosmopolitan area. No, get the local rag, the one you check for occasional garage sales and store flyers. In there you will find local events, pick one, pick two even.

Have fun and Happy Valentines Day.

Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays!

Whatever your greeting of choice, whichever your religion, have a very merry Christmas.

I'm cooking cabbage rolls and making buns from scratch this morning. All to be taken over to my sister's house for Christmas dinner this afternoon. I've still go presents to wrap and I never did put my Christmas tree up. I don't think I will now. Mainly, I'm just too tired.

Christmas came in like a lion and is going out like a lamb, for me. In a couple of days I'm going to wonder how I missed it and I will miss it. I've been working so many hours I haven't done many of my traditional Christmas things. I didn't get a mall coffee and wander around like a tourist, looking at all the decorations. I didn't take a weekend trip away for my birthday weekend. I didn't put up my tree and fling lights around the house/ apartment. I also didn't get my Christmas cards sent out, well, only one of them which I hand delivered.

I did buy myself a new ornament for the tree. I did buy Christmas presents for all the family I will be seeing. This morning I'll wrap them all up. I did have at least one gingerbread coffee at Chapters bookstore. I did play in the snow. Lastly, I did my little happy winter ritual, which was also important to me.

So, I'm not totally missing Christmas and, if I'm not too worn out after working on Boxing Day, I can still pack into the mall and look at the decorations. Maybe Santa will still be there taking pictures with the kids. That's another tradition I've missed this year.

Merry Christmas, now dash away, dash away all!

I love Halloween. It's second only to Christmas for me. There is a spooky, daring spirit to Halloween. Not the opposite of Christmas spirit, just different.

I enjoy seeing the kids in their costumes and handing out candy. Even though we hardly get any kids coming on our street and it does get boring sitting there for three hours, waiting. Still, I like sitting there in the dark, trying not to eat the chocolate and looking out into the night sky, thinking, absorbing the spirit.

I like the air on Halloween night. When we were kids my brother and sisters and I would all go out together. Whatever we dressed up as, it didn't really matter. Once my Mom got to kid #4 the costumes melded until we were all hobos. She did make costumes for each of us when we were young. I remember a princess that I was. One year I wore a grass skirt and Hawaiian style shirt and won first prize for my costume at the community centre.

My sister kept her angel wings from a Halloween costume. She even wore them in a Christmas school play later. My brother went as a hockey player more than once, he actually was playing hockey at the time. I don't really remember the costumes, just the fun of getting ready, looking forward to getting out there and then being out there.

There was always something in the air on Halloween night. An element of risk. That seems the best way to pin it into one word. Halloween felt like something could happen. Something unexpected and daring. Not so much scary but certainly fresh and exilerating.

The night would end with my baby sister and myself home first. The other two would stay out until the last house closed up for the night. They walked all around the neighbourhood and would come in after 11:00 some Halloweens. I'm sure they had more fun than I did. But, being the big sister means you bring home the little sister. I didn't mind too much. By 9:00 I'd already had time to feel the charge of Halloween. At home I could look for spooky shows on TV or the radio.

Halloween is still fun. It's still an adventure every year. Always, there is that element of risk. When you go outside taking a deep breath of that night air. Scanning the shadows, to make sure something isn't lurking out there. That Jackolantern's grin seems just a bit more spooky. Are you sure you left it sitting just that way on the step? It couldn't have moved, could it?

No, surely not! Halloween is just a bit of fun, right? Don't let it scare you.

Go out and get spooked.