Once again in early in December we drove the 10 minutes to Karleson’s Evergreens for our annual tree cutting expedition. Mr. Karleson tirelessly spends countless days and hours all year pruning his trees for the pick-your-own Christmas tree extravaganza. It’s a cash-only business that’s now over in a matter of days with people coming from more than an hour away to search out the best trees (they are all incredibly good specimens). If you don’t want to drag it to the cash stand, Mr. K. or a helper will fetch your prize tree on his ATV and bring it back to be bound in a magical conical- shaped tree binding machine, and then they’ll help you hoist it into your truck (did we mention almost everyone here has a truck?) or onto your roof rack for transporting home. While tree cutting is over in a matter of minutes, there is hot chocolate and local crafts to tempt you to stay. 

As we have done this for many years, Simon and Clara are now suitably schooled and prepared for the cutting. Everyone is involved in finding the perfect tree first. This year Simon cut ours all by himself, lying flat and gloveless on the wet snow, sawing up a storm to get through the three inch trunk. Searching for the Bellefeuille tree took a little longer but ultimately Clara did the honours with a little help from Papa. With a big smile, she announced that this was her first tree cutting. And both kids were very proud, and proud they should be. Such great trees we obtained.

The incredible thing about this adventure was that until 2:45pm when we left the houses, we had received no snow. When we arrived, it snowed those big heavy picture-perfect flakes and covered the ground and all those magnificently cropped evergreen trees. A genuine Hallmark Christmas experience!

With trees safely stashed in the Bellefeuille truck, we headed back to their house to enjoy our dinner and gift opening. For as long as we can remember it’s been lasagne, but this year the tradition was changed to something everyone likes: tomato sauce with spinach on rose pasta – go figure. Dessert was Oreo ice cream bars (there’s an acute shortage of the traditional Candy Cane ice cream tubs). Of course, there were also our Dutch treats:  gevulde koeken and banket  – say that Andrea! The gifts were enjoyed by all including Andrea who received new purple shoes, and Clara with, among other things, a crystal craft kit from favourite uncle Kevin.  As always, he somehow knew exactly what she wanted. Simon got something to tie his camping goodies high in the air, out of hungry bears reach, and Judy and Bob got concert tickets for the Barra McNeils. James is still scheming to decide what he’ll do with his Christmas cash.

We got home and Kevin phoned to keep us up to date on the Aussie Christmas season activities. They had their Santa parade earlier than us as things get pretty warm around Christmas. Seems strange in this winter season for us to hear that the boys are into rowing (on unfrozen water for sure), and Violet continues to win medals at gymnastics. Cassie has changed jobs, moving out of government and into a non-profit medical services organization with over two hundred folks reporting to her.Yikes! Kevin seems busier than ever, too, flying throughout East Asia regularly, and he too is getting more people reporting to him.

On a different subject and one that is a truly a unique Canadian phenomenon these days – Judy and Bob both had Doctor’s appointments this month. We report this not to be alarmist, but to show that even doctors can muster up the Christmas spirit. Seems the annual physical, which we were both due for, has now become a once every three year phenomenon. Judy got hers this week and passed with flying colours but of course the Doctor left her with lots of tests to ensure a follow-up visit would be needed. For Bob, a “well done” was followed quickly by a “moving on” topic change as the Doctor noted his sugar levels had declined. Considered pre-diabetic in September, he has lost 18 pounds since that eventful occasion. The Doc is no longer concerned, he says. Great. But pants no longer fit. Will Santa bring new ones? No doubt with all this diet change, Judy will pass her blood sugar test. We are now candidates for the Canadian Diabetes Foundation’s low sugar couple. A credit to Judy for organizing this, but really, how many mixed nuts can you eat? Wouldn’t Christmas be much better with potato chips, Fritos, some orange juice with our champagne and lots of ice cream!

In mid-December it’s a special day in Crysler. It’s coming soon so everyone should be very excited. The world famous Santa Claus parade will be… here in Crysler, and it will be just down the street from us (actually everything in Crysler is just down the street from us). An endless parade (they do a return trip around town in case you missed the first go) keeps your attention for at least 45 minutes. The Bellefeuilles, Marie and Doug, and the Gatineau Masons will participate with us in this annual fete. Unfortunately the Cornwallers and sometime Morrisburgers, John and Kathy, can’t make it as John is under the weather.

Here’s how the Parade day actually works. First, dinner chez us. It’s lasagne this year (what is Christmas without lasagne?), the usual chocolata letters, cherry squares, split levels, shortbreads, cream cheese cookies, stroopwafels and other Dutch almond filled delights (see above), and Candy Cane ice cream (we have found some now) – a list only someone sugar-deprived could rhyme off. Second: eat heartily. Thirdly, get on the winter gear, and finally, march down to sit in front of Pleasant Street Grooming Studio (care should be taken to wipe the seats of the conveniently placed outdoor resting spot and keep your distance from the poop and scoop receptacle. It is, after all, a dog grooming studio lawn). Hopefully the snow will come back and the rain will not reappear as it did this week and last year as well.

Our recently chopped Christmas tree has now been decorated and the outdoor snowman was installed on a warmer day in November on the front lawn. A Crysler showpiece is our home! Snow fell heavily on several days and things looked very seasonal, but then it was recently washed away by three days of rain. It’s forecast to snow again, so perhaps it will be a white Christmas Parade? Regardless, at our house the CDs that were lost last year have been found and Christmas music has been filling the rooms. Gifts have been bought on-line and delivered, mostly by Amazon, as the post office has gone on strike (are they crazy?). We’re ready for the Big Day (BD).

“Which Big Day”, you ask? Well Christmas Day is really the BD and actually it is a relaxing day for us. This week we got a bottle of Prosecco (poor man’s champagne) and we’ll be drinking it on Christmas morning. Quiet perhaps, but in tune with getting older. We’ll smile at hearing the kids talk about their BD (unable to mask their excitement and lack of sleep) and we’ll be just a little bit happy that we don’t have to cope with broken toys, no batteries, arguing or whining kids. No doubt we’ll get the Christmas telephone pleasantries from afar. And it will be the old timers version of Christmas.

On Christmas Day we’ll probably go and visit mom at the Dundas Manor in nearby Winchester. She’s happy there and well looked after. It’s a great relief to all of us that she’s so comfortable there. Now we’re starting to think of her one hundredth birthday. Oh my! Kevin says he’ll make the trip from Australia and cousin Nancy, who we haven’t seen in 50 years, says she’d like to come too. Wow. Who would have ever thought!

And after this excitement, the winter will be waning (we hope). We look forward to a pleasant warm spring and a more temperate summer. It would be good to hit a few golf balls, but alas, the snow makes it difficult (and my knee still hurts). Something to dream about, perhaps.

There’s probably more to talk about. As a senior, though, we already know that the first half hour of any conversation focuses on “how is your health”, so we’ll simply keep it short by saying:

 “Happy, Healthy New Year to All”