I’LL BE DOWN TO GET YOU IN A TAXI, HONEY.

My brother Murray and I Facetimed today and he told me this.

My Dad was 92 years old and he was over the moon because he was going to a Christmas Dinner with his favourite girl. Mom had been in long-term care for one year while dad lived alone in an adjoining apartment facility. It was December and Dad's apartment neighbours were scheduling an annual Christmas Dinner. Mom's meds were balanced and she was feeling better than she had in a long time. Dad asked my brother Murray, "do you think it would be okay if I took Mom to the dinner?" Murray replied, "I don't see why not." Murray made the arrangements. The caring staff promised to have Mom's hair done and a lovely dress ready to wear. Mom could be seated in a wheel chair and if she grew weary during the evening, he could leave with her. Murray sensed Dad's excitement as the date grew nearer.  Murray had Dad's suit dry cleaned, and Dad had a favourite tie to wear. Murray said he would accompany Dad to Mom's room to insure all was well. Dad was noticeably pumped about this evening. His face and his mood told Murray that Dad was going on a date, a special evening with his sweetheart. They took the elevator to the first floor and as they walked down the lengthy corridors, an enthusiastic Dad surprised Murray by breaking out in song. The tune was unfamiliar to Murray as Dad sang heartily the words to 'Darktown Strutter's Ball' a landmark 1917 recording by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Upon finishing it by the end of the corridor to Murray's utter shock, Dad jumped off the ground and clicked his heels together.

I'll be down to get you in a taxi, honey

Pick you up 'bout half past eight

Oh honey don't be late

I want to be there when the band starts playin'

Remember when we get there, honey

Two step, we're gonna have a ball

I'm gonna dance out of my shoes

When they play the Jelly Roll Blues

Tomorrow night at the Darktown Strutter's Ball

Got my new threads ready

And they're really something

With you in yours we'll look a smash

We're gonna make a splash

And when the band starts playin'

Baby we'll start swayin'

Remember when we get there honey

We're gonna dance the night away

And things are gonna hit the roof

When they see the way you move

Tomorrow night at the Darktown Strutter's Ball

Mom and Dad have been gone since 2007 and 2008 respectively, and Murray, Neale and I cannot help thinking about them occasionally.

LINCOLN THEATRE & CHRISTMAS

Theatre still stands but it’s closed

My dad worked for Anthes Imperial, a furnace manufacturer. He was one of hundreds of assembly line workers. Salaries were meagre yet one of the employee bonuses Anthes Execs offered for families was an annual Christmas Party, a December invitation to Lincoln Theatre on St. Paul Street. There we would watch a Christmas flick and then every employee's child's name was read out and an age appropriate gift given on stage by none other than the fattest Anthes Santa they could find. Murray had beautiful curly white-blond hair and sitting on Santa's knee he was asked his name. In his sweet boy voice he replied, "Murray." Santa and his helper misheard the name and gave Murray a present. We didn't open the gifts until we got home. When Murray opened his, he found a dainty toy Tea Set, cups & saucers & teapot. He was not pleased.

Queenstown Heights Restaurant & Brock’s Monument

The other Anthes gimme was the annual Factory Summer Picnic held at Queenston Heights. Races and other contests were organized for children, three legged races, and wheel-barrow races (dads holding their kids legs and the kids scrabbling with their hands to a finish line), and sack hops. I loved it because I was fast and competitive enough to come home with prizes. The Factory also provided drinks and foods, ice cream and watermelon.  

My Painting as a Christmas Gift

A NEW LEARNING
I am thrilled. Long before Christmas, Kae called me to inquire about one my paintings. Kae is the daughter of a college prof I had 45 years ago. She was a few years old when I knew her then. Occasionally her father and mother invited students into their home. She recalls that I taught her to draw sea horses in which she was interested.

She and her brother now wished to purchase a mountain scene she had found on my online gallery website. It was to be a Christmas present to their parents. By now they have unwrapped it. Do you know how much fun this has been for me?


For forty years I have been involved in church work using skills to which Kae’s dad contributed. He taught me New Testament studies. Now after my fulfilling career as a pastor one of my paintings from my retirement period will hang in his home. Although living in the United States now, my former prof is familiar with and loves the Rockies. This view was one of many that I found along the Icefields Parkway between Jasper and Banff, Alberta. This highway is an endless chain of paintable roadside scenes. Glaciers sit cold atop these majestic mountains and melt water makes its way through timbered mountainsides to the remarkable lake water below.

CHRISTMAS DAY 2008

A NEW LEARNING
Who is the oldest guy with the longest driveway on our street? And who consequently has the greatest amount of snow to move? And who can’t move it to the side but has to move the entire lot either forward or backward. And who was out there on Sunday digging out three times. MOI! And yes, Christmas Day 2008 is a snow day. A digging I will go.

Our family, the families of each of two children, five grandchildren are with us for an anticipated time of laughter, gift exchange, table games and a great dinner.

From all of us to you, I extend best wishes for a blessed Christmas Day and thanksgiving for God’s perfect gift of His Son Jesus Christ.

What Hanukah and Christmas have in common are Cupcakes

A NEW LEARNING
I’m serious - cupcakes. I’ll tell you about it in a second but first a recap. Hannukkah sometimes spelled with two kk’s and sometimes spelled with a Ch (Chanukah) is the eight-day Jewish holiday that commences on December 25th. Christmas is the celebration on the 25th of the birth of Jesus Christ even though his birth was more likely in September. Jews are remembering a bloody but successful second-century rebellion against Syrian invaders, a subsequent rededication of the temple in Jerusalem with accompanying miraculous lighting of lights for eight days using one day’s fuel. Christmas recalls that God compelled by love for contaminated humanity, sent his divine Son to earth via a supernatural conception in a virgin’s womb, for the sole purpose that the Son would become a sinless sacrificial atonement for human sin so that believers might be saved.

The two emphases clearly sound unrelated other than a shared calendar date. Some Christian writers are asserting that Christmas and Chanukah (pronounced Hanukah) have a lot in common. Having read their supportive material I have concluded that they have been hitting the punch bowl a bit early.

What are shared in common are trimmings that neither tradition appreciates. North Americans are weary of hearing Christians decrying the secularization and commercialization of Christmas while being as heavily into the parties, decorations and gift giving as anyone. Jews too, have allowed the compromise of an authentic Hanukah with the addition of gift giving for eight days, meals galore, decorations, even trees, albeit Hanukah trees. Some Jews transfer Christmas customs to the Hanukkah festival and to this blend has been given the term "Chrismukkah" replete with a Christmas tree and a Hanukkah menorah. No wonder some Jewish commentators feel that for too many American Jews, Chanukah is merely an insipid blue-tinsel copy of Christmas. For purists in both camps the concerns about the high jacking of respective traditions continues.

What took the cake for me was reading that specialty bakeries were making both celebratory Hanukkah Cupcakes and Christmas cupcakes. This is in reference of course to the cupcake craze that began a few years ago, possibly at New York City’s Magnolia Bakery and gradually spread across the country and into Canada. Cupcakes are the new Krispy Kreme and frozen yogurt. There is high demand for these delectable treats. I am referring you to the TRACYCAKE BAKERY CAFÉ at 9090 Glover Road, Fort Langley accessible. 604-888-1984, www.tracycakesonline.com. Tracy Dueck is the owner who bakes 200 cupcakes every day and they are gone. I have tasted a few of these, compliments of my wife, and they are sooo good. Don’t lick this page.

Happy Cupcakes.

Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas

A NEW LEARNING
Both the Jewish and Christian holidays occur annually in December. Christians have accepted December 25th as a date to honour the incarnation, the birth of Jesus the Son of God. The Jewish community celebrates the Festival of Lights known as Chanukah (pronounced Hanukah) with an eight-day holiday beginning on December 25th. While the Christian faith tradition has Jewish roots, and while they share some common features, like lights, food and gifted presents, they are historically and practically dissimilar. In Century 2 the Maccabees successfully rebelled against Syrian Antiochus IV Epiphanes who had ravaged the temple. This festival commemorates the 2nd century purification and rededication of the temple in Jerusalem with the kindling of the menorah lights, one light on each of the holiday nights. Tradition teaches that the wicks burned miraculously for eight days with only a one day supply of sacred oil.

Jewish and Christian faith traditions have not excelled at understanding one another. Christians and secularists have often mocked Jewish culture and characteristics. I have learned that disrespect occurs among Jews for Christians. I recall a December afternoon concert at Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto and chatting with two Jewish couples when one of the women said, “I hate Jesus and this Christmas thing.” That vivid recollection is the reason why comments credited to Ben Stein struck a responsive chord with me yesterday. In a CBS commentary spot on a Sunday Morning show he said, “I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crèche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.”

That was part of a much larger commentary article which was sent to inboxes all over the world recently but this section may be the only true Steinistic part. Someone added the other material and turned this into an urban legend thing. (More tomorrow)

If you want to hear and see Stein on this topic for 2 min. click this sentence. There is an ad and some intro stuff and then the relevant excerpt.

A BLOG ENTRY ABOUT NOTHING - THAT'S SOMETHING

A NEW LEARNING
Last night I had no clue what I might write as a blog entry today. No theme stood out to me. Dumb-headed politicians had done nothing new that deserved comment. The writing muses who visit me got stopped in heavy traffic or something. They didn’t show up. I awoke with the thought that today’s entry would be about nothing.

Not only is that not implausible (oops, double negative). Take Two: Not only is that plausible (meaning conceivable, feasible, and possible) but also it is not precedent setting (an action to be used as an example for a similar action). In fact in a series of 1992 Seinfeld episodes called ‘the Pilot,’ a storyline unfolds in which NBC approaches Jerry and offers him the chance to make a pilot. He consults with his terminally unemployed, no talent best friend George. George suggests that it be a show about nothing. NBC executives are initially dubious about the merits of a show about nothing but they eventually give the go ahead. In truth, Jerry’s own ‘Seinfeld’ show was a series pitched by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David as a "show about nothing," Relating the everyday happenings in the lives of Jerry and his friends, Seinfeld became one of the most popular and influential TV shows of the 1990s in the U.S., and ran for nine seasons. (HERE'S THE YOUTUBE CLIP)

We cut our own Christmas tree yesterday. We began this family tradition when our children were toddlers. With our daughter’s move from Edmonton in August, this became the first December that all our children and grandchildren went tree cutting together. There were puddles of water sitting in some of the tree fields. An old adage says that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. I learned another. You can lead children near water puddles but you can’t make them stay out of them.

I have maintained a mustache and goatee for the past two months. Christine does not appreciate facial hair. Everywhere we go, people notice and comment and they are customarily affirming to me. It makes me look distinguished they say. It fits my new place in life, my artistic concentration. Finally last night she kissed me goodnight, slowly, as if she was accepting that it is here for a while and she will live with it.

The flu against which I was immunized last year never arrived in Canada. This year I again got a shot, and I have contracted a head and chest cold that doesn’t leave. There may be no correlation. It simply bugs me.

When I was running three kilometres every morning no one in my family paid attention. No one followed my example. Mind you that was a few years ago. I have done some on again, off again walk/runs but I am not a consistent runner. I have some weight to drop. Lately my daughter and daughter in law are running with new friends from the Running Room and are enthusiasts. Last night my wife told me she had bought me a Running Room membership. I told her I didn’t want it. I don’t want to be told when to run, how to run or to be part of something organized.

I have been a leader all my life but in actuality, the women within our family and among our friends, come up with the ideas, set the plans, make the decisions and pass along the news to us men. I don’t think we men mind but we like to complain that we are always the last to know.

I had better stop. I could write about nothing all day long.

EARLY CHRISTMAS, ENDURING HOPE

A NEW LEARNING
It’s only the 24th of November and Christine and I are listening to Il Divo’s Christmas CD during our supper. Yes it’s early. Americans haven’t even celebrated their Thanksgiving. But retail outlets have been displaying and selling everything Christmas for weeks. Last Friday was mild and dry so we strung our outside lights. Nearby homes are already brightly illuminated. We have done our Christmas gift shopping, not only to avoid that frenetic December rush but also to insure we would obtain what we truly want. This coming Saturday, the 29th of November Christine and I will take four of our five grandchildren to a Christmas pantomime. We had to reserve those seats months ago. Maybe that will be one of our best gifts to each other this year. We still have the big house with space enough for the entire festive family. Our three families have tried to coordinate our calendars for a day when we can each cut a Christmas tree for our homes, a lifetime tradition for us. Christine and I finally close to buying an artificial, pre-lit and pre-decorated tree – maybe next year. Certainly when we sell the house and move into a condo. I know I will miss the evergreen scent but I understand you can buy it in a spray can. As soon as December begins, George Frederick Handel reigns supreme in our home. The Messiah is enjoyed repetitively.

Yet as we listened to Il Divo’s magnificent music tonight, I experienced a melancholic moment. This will be my first Christmas without mom and dad. Living a nation apart made it impossible through these last years to celebrate Christ’s birth together. But they were only a phone call away. That is until Mom was no longer coherent, and later as Dad’s hearing made conversation difficult. At least they were there. I knew that. All was well. Perhaps with fresh ears I will listen to Handel’s oratorio this year and the profound hope he expressed within that extravagant composition.

It is in the third movement that exquisite words from Job, and 1 Corinthians and Romans and Revelation are woven into a tapestry of confidence. I will string them together. “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand on the latter day upon the earth. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. For now is Christ risen from the dead. . . the firstfruits of them that sleep. Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep; but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.' O death, where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. If God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is at the right hand of God, who makes intercession for us. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. . . . Blessing, and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. Amen.

All is well.
Listen to Il Divo's 'O Holy Night' in Washington December 2006
Or, Handel's 'Glory to God' by the London Symphonic Orchestra and Chorus
And have you ever witnessed an Amen like this one