…..one of my favourite things to photograph is bark
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A Word a Week Photo Challenge – Wood
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Monthly Archives: December 2012
My Fondest Memory of Christmas as a Child
…. I love telling this story and couldn’t wait till Christmas to share it with you
When I started blogging I wanted to share stories and memories of my family as I grew up. This story is one of my earlier memories. The details ring clear as a bell for me. It’s like it happened yesterday. I hope you enjoy it.
The Best Christmas Present
It was December 24th, 1958. I was six years old. I remember that it was a frosty cold day and my mother was fretting because we still didn’t have our tree. In Germany it was traditional to put the tree up Christmas Eve but Mom had been in Canada long enough to know that trees were sold well in advance of the big day and that finding one at this late date would be challenging. My father, however, the complete optimist, reassured us that bringing home a tree today would not be a problem.
Early in the afternoon, Dad got into his big black Ford and left Mom, my sister and I to prepare the house for the arrival of Santa Claus. Hours passed and I remember my mother started to worry. There were no cell phones and stores were already closed. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity my father arrived with not one, but two trees.
My mother was aghast. What were we to do with two trees and two spindly trees at that? My father, again, reassured us that he had it all under control and disappeared into the basement with both trees in tow. For the next hour or so we heard the hand saw cut away at one of the trees and a hand drill bore holes into the other.
Weary and smiling from ear to ear, Dad emerged from the basement with a beautiful, full, and perfectly formed ‘Tannenbaum’. Christmas was looking up and we quickly adorned our new tree with glass ornaments that had been carefully brought over from Germany. The electric candles were meticulously arranged and then we were allowed to place the icicles on the lower branches while the adults worked on the upper ones.
Darkness came early as it always has on Christmas Eve and I remember the excitement I felt and the anticipation of hearing and maybe seeing Santa Claus come through the front door in an hour or so. When it was time my mother hurried us into our bedroom and sat with us while we waited for Santa’s arrival.
The knock was loud and resounding and my father opened the door to welcome our special guest. It was always the same greeting. “Ho, ho, ho!” while Santa noisily stamped the snow from his boots. The two men exchanged a few words, loud enough so that we could hear through the door and then as quickly as he arrived, Santa left.
My father called for us to come out and see what Santa had left us. It was always magical walking into the living room at that particular moment in time. The candles were lit for the first time, the rest of the lights in the house were dimmed and lo and behold the base of the tree was miraculously laden with beautifully wrapped gifts that hadn’t been there 20 minutes earlier.
Our tradition was always to sing a few Carols before opening our gifts. I wrung my hands as I dutifully sang and my little sister stood next to me with her cheeks flushed, partially due to the excitement and the late hour. The one present I remember both of receiving that night were matching life-size baby dolls. I named mine Barbara. Unbeknownst to us, the best present was yet to arrive.
Our next door neighbours dutifully arrived soon after all our gifts had been opened and we were hustled off to bed with our new ‘babies’. Little did we know that my parents’ friends were there to babysit us while my mom and dad drove to the hospital. It’s funny how I have no recollection of my mother even being pregnant and I certainly had no clue that she had been in labour that entire day.
The rest of the story is how I remember it being retold by my mother and father.
After putting us to bed, with her little suitcase in hand, my mother got into the car with my father at the wheel and sped off to the hospital. At the time we lived in Oakville and my mother’s doctor worked out of a hospital in Toronto. The fastest way to get there was via the expressway.
Before I continue with my story I need preface it with a little more information about my father. My father has always been a very carefree and spontaneous sort of fellow. He was a hard worker and provided for his family but his judgement about certain things was not always prudent. One of those things was how far he could travel on a tank of gas. That said let me continue with my story.
It must have been close to 11:00 at night when the unspeakable happened. In the middle of the QEW the car ran out of gas. I guess after driving around all afternoon looking for a tree my father forgot how much gas he used. Remember this was a time when everything was closed on Christmas Eve and 24 hour gas stations did not exist. I can’t imagine what my mother was thinking as her contractions were getting closer and closer. This baby was coming quickly.
Over the years as I remember this story I can’t believe that my father got out of the car and left my mom by the side of the highway while he looked for a gas station. As luck would have it my father managed to find an open service station and bought enough gas to get them to the hospital. My parents arrived minutes before midnight and about 10 minutes later my sister was born.
The next morning, on Christmas Day, I remember my sister and I climbing into bed with my father where he gave us the news of our new sister. Each year on this day I fondly remember the events that led up to this special day and the birth of my sister….my best childhood Christmas present, ever. Love you Cathy!
Wishing all my loyal readers and followers and my family and friends a very special holiday season, whether it be Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza or Diwali. May you all have special memories to cherish and share.
Carol
A Few New Art Pieces to Share
….before I send them home with the kids
In grades 4 and 5 we’ve been studying positive and negative space. We started with a Japanese art form called notan where you cut away a positive image and flip it so that the negative space becomes the mirror image and part of the design. I posted some of the students’ creations in an earlier post.
In the next class we studied winter trees and how the branches create Y shapes. On black paper the students had to draw a tree shape using white pencil or oil pastel and then extend the branches onto to a sheet of white paper and fill in the branches with black. This creates an interesting black and white, positive and negative image. The idea came from
http://en.paperblog.com/positive-negative-scratch-tree-335521/
It’s always a challenge to find something that can be started and finished in one art class, especially before Christmas. Field trips, science presentations and assemblies often cut into someone’s art period. When I found this project using ornaments as the focus of the lesson I was excited. It held the students’ interest and most of them finished it in the one class.
In this lesson the students learned how to create reflection of light using watercolour and how to paint, on wet on wet and blend analagous colours to create depth. I think the students in my grade 3/4 class did a great job.
The idea for this project came from http://www.artsonia.com/museum/art.asp?id=16233632&exhibit=465172&gallery=y
A Lot of Walking Today
….. 3 hours on the picket line, 50 minutes on the elliptical machine and 2k to dinner and back
I tossed and turned in bed last night and had weird dreams about being accosted on the picket line by an angry parent.
None of it happened of course, in fact, the day was surprisingly civil and we were met with a lot of positive support. For those of you who are unaware of what I’m talking about, let me explain. In Ontario today, 30 000 teachers walked off the job for a one day legal strike to protest Bill 115. In a nutshell, this bill has taken away our right to negotiate a new contract with our employer, the school board, and gives the government the power to determine our wages, benefits and working conditions without consultation or discussion. The minister would disagree with this statement but she has predetermined the conditions of these so called negotiations.
This strike is NOT about money. We have said that we are willing to take a pay freeze. It is about losing our democratic rights and the erosion of The Human Rights Code and our Labour Relations laws. If you want to take the time to read the following letter, it explains it much better than I can.
A Letter by a Member of Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario
The media has said over and over again that teachers do not have the support of the public. After today I’m not so sure. Only one car in three hours gave us the thumbs down while dozens more honked in support. We had so many neighbours and parents come by with coffee, tea, water, soup and treats that our little cart was overflowing with the generosity and kindness of the ‘public’.
More food arrived after this picture was taken.
Even on the radio today, the media was extra tough on the Minister of Education by being more persistent in demanding that she answer their questions instead of side stepping the issues with pre-scripted statements that didn’t deal with the issue at hand. They are starting to put some of the blame for this mess into her court and are demanding that she take some responsibility for it.
I went to the gym today after walking for three hours, to work off the one Timbit, three homemade cookies and the 1/2 cup of hot chocolate I ingested. It doesn’t sound like much but when you haven’t eaten these things in a long time it seems like a huge indulgence. The scale shows that my weight is holding steady at a 32 to 34 pound loss.
We decided to go out for dinner tonight because neither of us felt like cooking. We walked to our favourite Indian restaurant and ordered and shared two vegetarian dishes, a plate of rice and an appetizer of chicken kabobs, nicely grilled and seasoned with lime juice. We had water as our beverage. We took the leftovers home and will probably add some of the sauce from the saag paneer to our eggs in the morning and one of us can probably have a light lunch from what’s left over. We walked home briskly after dinner to add about 2 more kilometres to my walking total for the day.
I have another appointment at the gym tomorrow for my last free personal training session and I also have an appointment for one more acupuncture treatment to see if it can alleviate my occasional bouts of dizziness. I’ll share my experience in a future a post.
Cheers!
An Old Fashion Christmas Market
….. Toronto hosted a great Christmas Market at the Distillery
The Christmas Market at night. Photo courtesy of http://storage.canoe.ca/v1/dynamic_resize/sws_path/suns-prod-images/1297349897629_ORIGINAL.jpg?quality=80&size=650x
One of my fondest memories of Christmas occurred when I was 11 years old. My father had a good year in real estate and decided to take the family on a three week vacation to Germany over the Christmas holidays to reconnect with family and friends that we hadn’t seen in almost 10 years.
My mother’s side of the family lived close to Frankfurt and we were treated to an evening at the Christmas Market in Frankfurt. It was magical. I remember that it was cold and there was a light covering of snow on the ground. I was in awe of the lights, sounds and smells. The entire event was hosted outside with vendors selling their wares from small wooden stalls. The treat that I savoured the most that evening was a small pink, green, or white confection made from coconut and sugar. To this day I can still taste the wonderful sweetness of those Kokosflocken. I’ve never been able to replicate those exact candies but I have sought them out, especially this time of year. I think I’ve come close to finding them but it’s never been the same.
Yesterday, my husband and I braved the cold and grey weather and made our way to the Distillery District in Toronto where Lowe’s was hosting this years Christmas Market. It was as magical as the one I remembered as a child. There were bier gardens, mulled wine stands and vendors selling everything from old fashion European ornaments, traditional German and Dutch Christmas baking to whimsical winter hats and mittens and children’s books. Of course Santa was on hand to have pictures taken with the kids and there were guest choirs singing classic Christmas songs. And if that wasn’t enough at the far end of the market there were rides for the whole family to enjoy.
After walking around for about an hour it started to rain and it came down hard. We quickly made our way to The Mill Street Brew Pub and stood in line with a mass of people who were also trying to escape the wet weather. We managed to put our name on the waiting list to be seated and to our surprise we were paged after only waiting for about 10 minutes, if that.
K and I enjoyed a lovely lunch together in the warmth of this very popular restaurant and we watched the rain come down from the window next to our table. It rained off and on all day but it didn’t stop the crowds from wandering around the market. My friend L, was there much later and it was still crowded after 5:00. I look forward to going again next year. Maybe I’ll go in the evening so I can enjoy the lights. The only other thing that would have made it perfect would have been a light dusting of snow and a bag of pink and green kokosflocken.
One happy husband, after a warm, healthy meal.
Spreading a Little Joy
….I decided to save my rant for another day
One of my new followers inspired me to write about events that bring me joy or in her words ‘what delights’ me. Earlier today I started writing about political issues that I feel passionate about but after my delightful afternoon with my husband I decided to put that piece on hold and share with you some of the happier events that I’ve attended in the last two weeks.
My youngest daughter has been working with a friend to promote their blogs and businesses. Earlier in the year I wrote about the stamp making workshop that they hosted. This time around they created a workshop around creative Christmas wrapping and featured numerous ideas for creating your own ties, tags, embellishments and paper. As always they were highly organized and personable and offered their eager clients all the materials they would need to experiment with. My daughter also made some delicious shortbread to serve with a variety of teas.
The group enjoyed the evening so much that the owners of the art store where the event was held allowed us to stay an extra half hour to finish our projects. Some of the things people made were package toppers, tags, bows, tree ornaments and stamped paper. Unfortunately the battery in my camera gave out and I didn’t get any pictures of the finished projects.
The next day my book club had their annual Christmas dinner. Since the book we were discussing was Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts and was set in Berlin, we decided on a German theme. I was in charge of dessert so I brought a tray of German stollen and other festive cookies and chocolates. I posted a review of the book earlier in the year. In the Garden of Beasts: A Book Review On average the group gave the book a rating of 4 out of 5, much higher than what we gave his last book, Devil in the White City.
A week later another group of friends got together for another annual Christmas dinner. We lovingly call ourselves the “Over the Hilltop’ gang because we worked together at Hilltop Middle School over 15 years ago and continue to meet three or four times a year. My friend L hosted the party and cooked the entire dinner. What a lovely gift. Again the food was amazing, the company warm and joyous and presents were exchanged.
The Sunday before this last dinner my husband and I treated our daughter, A, and her partner to a day of wine touring and dinner. We managed to visit 6 wineries, each unique in its own way. The winery that intrigued me most was the one called Organized Crime. The owner explained to us that years ago in the area there were two orders of Mennonites, a traditional ‘old’ order and a more modern order. The traditional order didn’t like that the other order played music during their services so in the dark of night they got in their buggies and stole the organ from the modern church. Hence the name ‘Organ’ized Crime.
The day before the wine tour I found myself at a fantastic craft show in the city. The crafters were all local and predominately young, although there were a few people there closer to my age. The crafts were original and beautifully made and displayed. The show was held in the Great Hall and in two other stores, all in the same block on Queen St. W.. I spent hours browsing and buying.
Today K and I attended the Toronto Christmas Market but I think I will save this experience for tomorrow’s post. Till then, cheers!
It’s raining today and I was feeling a little bit down until I read the following ‘words of wisdom’ from the blog Sadie and Dasie. Have a great Sunday!
Weekly Photo Challenge – Delicate
delicate |ˈdelikit| adjective
1 very fine in texture or structure; of intricate workmanship or quality:
2 easily broken or damaged; fragile;
3 requiring sensitive or careful handling:nouna delicate fabric or garment made of such fabric
.delicately adverb ,delicateness noun
The Media Never Gets it Right
….. and the public only hears what they want to hear
It’s never been about the money or more PD time or discontinuing extracurricular activities. It is about taking away years of negotiated benefits at a moments notice, no discussion, no vote….just a quick passage of Bill 115. The ability to negotiate a fair and equitable contract between teachers and their boards has been removed.
In the first meeting the unions were met by solvency lawyers, with no Ministry people in sight. The government was unwilling to discuss rules and parameters for negotiations. As a result, ETFO, the elementary teachers’ union walked away from the table. The attitude was take it or leave it. ETFO always said it would return to the table if there were clear rules and parameters.
Talks between unions and the government are short and problems remain unresolved and yet the minister of education leads the media to believe that teachers are not willing to talk. In recent weeks, a meeting occurred with Ministry people, including the deputy minister but Broten shut that down.
The media has been brutal with the teachers. According to them we are to blame for the province’s entire financial mess. Radio talk show hosts clearly have a ‘hate-on’ for teachers. The scenarios and misinformation that they broadcast to the public is shameful and unprofessional. They whip up a frenzy of hate calls from their like-minded listeners and anyone who supports the teachers is quickly dismissed and their calls are cut short.
At our school we have continued with most of our normal, daily activities, including extracurricular activities. The students and community, up until this past Monday, probably haven’t witnessed any strike action by the teachers and yet according to the media all teachers have stopped offering extracurricular activities, extra help and refuse to write report cards. Not true!
As of Monday we have gone on work to rule and every board across the province is participating in rotating one day strikes for the next two weeks. Of course the media is trying to create a crisis by making it all about the ‘poor’ students. Why then is it all right for parents to take their children out of school regularly for extended holidays, competitions and tournaments? I don’t hear the media chastising the parents for doing irreparable damage to their child’s education when they miss days and sometimes weeks of school.
Don’t get me wrong; I know that for some parents finding daycare for their children will be difficult. Tomorrow the parents in my board will be given 72 hours notice so that they can make alternate arrangements for their children. We as teachers, however, have to take a stand, not just for us but for everyone. If the government is allowed to violate the charter of rights and freedoms act and the right to negotiate fairly under the labour relations act who will they target next?
I know that the media will be highly critical when we walk, especially since we are the largest school board in Canada. I need to stop listening to the radio for a few days. I find myself yelling at the box in the corner when ‘they’ get it wrong. They don’t want to hear the truth. It doesn’t make for ‘good radio’.
The Next Best Thing to Being ‘Freshly Pressed’….
…..being ‘reblogged’ by someone with a huge following
I’ve only started blogging in mid April of this year. It was never a goal to reach thousands of readers (or so I thought). I just wanted to share memories, ideas, photos and recipes with family and friends and I wanted a public forum that would help keep me honest and motivated on my weight loss journey.
Most successful bloggers would probably tell me that I need to be more focused on one topic, (i.e. photography or weight loss or food articles or DIY projects or etc., etc..) and not dabble in so many different areas. My blog is like my life. I’m interested in a diverse range of subjects and I like trying new things. As a teacher I also like to share lessons that work well and I love supporting the arts. This includes work that my students have done, workshops that my daughter runs, art exhibitions of my 91 year old friend and photographs that my cousin and I share.
When I started to get ‘likes’ from complete strangers from all over the world and when some of these same people started to follow me I was initially nervous about putting myself out there but I met some great people in the blogosphere and I started looking forward to checking my stats and seeing who was reading my blog. I started experimenting with different styles of writing and posting more photographs. I read ten to twenty new blogs every night and tried to make comments on some that were of particular interest to me.
Over the past six months I would be delighted with three or four ‘likes’ for each post. As my readership started to increase and the number of followers reached 180, the number of ‘likes’ also increased. My best number of ‘likes’ for one post went as high as 19 but sometimes it would take several days to get there.
I’m somewhat competitive and I like a challenge. A few days ago I set a goal to write a post that would get 20 ‘likes’. When Sue Llewellyn put out her lastest challenge I had no idea how posting four photographs that were taken this summer would bring me so much attention. Not only did I reach my goal, I surpassed it. When this post was published I had received 92 ‘likes’. Wow!
I have to give a big thanks to Sue Llewellyn from A Word in Your Ear. She graciously reblogged my post, The Word a Week Photograph Challenge – Blue and the majority of my ‘likes’ came from her followers. I’ve secretly wanted to be ‘Freshly Pressed’ but this was the next best thing.
So what’s my next goal? Trying to figure out how to get some of these bloggers back to my blog would be one goal but another one is getting my number of followers up to 200. It’s time to check out 90 or so new blogs and leave a few comments. “Phew… I’d better get busy.”
Cheers and Thanks!
Mama Cormier 
