HEy! I could do worse!

You are 'Hark! The Herald Angels Sing'. You take Christmas very seriously. For you, it is a religious festival, celebrating the birth of the Saviour, and its current secularisation really irritates you. You enjoy the period of Advent leading up to Christmas, and attend any local carol services you can find, as well as the more contemplative Advent church services each Sunday. You may be involved in Christmas food collections or similar charity work. The midnight service at your church, with candles and carols, is one you look forward to all year, and you also look forward to the family get together on Christmas Day.

What Christmas Carol are you?
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And it was my favourite among the possible answers too!

Snow Day Friday Five

1) Snow: love it or hate it? Love it. Always have. OK, maybe when I was shoveling every second day for all of January and February 2005 there were days...

2) First snow memory Learning to X-Country ski when I was 4. The adults were slaloming down the hill using their poles as flags. And I was barely standing up in those silly bindings they made for preschool sized skiers.

3) Best Snow Day ever (actual or imagined) I have only experienced one snow day. That was in University. One night it was +5 and raining when I went to bed. When I got up it was -20 and snowing, kept snowing all day, bus system was a mess, over 3 inches of solid ice on the roads with at least a foot of snow on top. University of Alberta closed down for the first time ever the next day--the president thought having 30 000 students and staff coming in was too risky given the conditions. Unfortunately I got to spend most of the Snow Day shoveling out our driveway :(

4) Best use of snow in a movie, song, book or poem For some reason "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back" comes to mind--all that pink snow. "The Lion the Witch..." is also good. AS is the snow on Caradhras that forces the fellowship to go down through Moria (LOTR).

5) What you are planning to do today, with or without snow Well it is now evening so I guess it is more what I did. And that is pretty much nothing. Hooked up our new DVD/VCR (Christmas present to ourselves) and other than that had a nice day off.

A Quote about Marriage

Going through my files today I found this. I have always liked the quote.

Oh Yeah, this will work...

Saw this story on the news last night:

Premier Dalton McGuinty wants to cut the annual high school dropout rate in half, to 15 per cent by 2010.
McGuinty says the province will change the high school curriculum so it encourages kids to stay and next week Education Minister Gerard Kennedy will introduce legislation to keep kids in school until age 18. The Minister says kids will be encouraged to stay in school with more choice, more co-op programs and a specialized high school diploma.

NOw part of this I like. It makes sense to offer a variety of different programs. After all, not all teenagers are suited to academics. Working an apprenticeship-type program into high school would be a good thing to help meet their needs.

But the idea that the way to keep kids from dropping out is to force them to saty in school for 2 more years (currently you can drop out at 16)? What will that accomplish? SO you can't drop out. Big deal. Students who are not getting anything from school will still "forget" to go. Or you can force them to attend but nothing can force them to learn. Unless of course graduation is acheived by being a warm body in a seat and not by learning the curriculum.

Don't get me wrong. Anything to encourage teens-at-risk to get more education is a good thing. But forcing them to be there just doesn't seem the best way to do that.

You must remember this...

Great new game going around. I started playing over at InnerDorothy's

Please post a comment with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL MEMORY OF YOU AND ME. It can be anything you want--good or bad--BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE. When you're finished, post this paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people DON'T ACTUALLY remember about you.

...THe fundamental things apply. As time goes by.

Whooooo HOooooooooooooooo

I must be doing something right because I actually believe that I am getting organized. Just finished the bulletin for Dec 18, which means that I am done all the bulletins for Christmas and JAnuary 8 (my first Sunday back from holidays). Well there are a couple names I need to get from people yet (choir anthem titles and so on) but the work part is DONE!

Now I just need to figure out of I like Christmas before Sunday (sermon title Do I like Christmas?) and what I am going to say about it. Dec 18 is Christmas Pageant so no sermon whoo hoo!

Not only that but I got the Christmas letter written last night and copied today--now I just have to address and sign the cards--never got around to cards last year AT ALL.

Things are coming together nicely. I think I deserve a drink. Oh wait, no rum for the egg nog. Darn :)

A Somber Anniversary

Ceremonies are being held across Canada on Tuesday, the 16th anniversary of the Montreal massacre, a day of remembrance of violence against women.

Classes were finished for the term. I was headed to campus to attend a Christmas gathering when I heard the rumour of something terrible that had happened in Montreal. Only later, when I was home and watching the news did I realize what that was.

As a young adult I always assumed that people my age and younger would have no difficulty with the concept of sexual equality. After all, we had grown up in the 70's and 80's. Our world was one that was different than our parents' world. OF course I have since learned that I was wrong. I have since met many many people my age and younger who still have very old ideas about gender roles.

In 1989 a seriously disturbed young man, angry at the world, at the school that had denied him access, and at the women he blamed for "taking his place" snapped. And 15 lives were lost, 15 families shattered. 14 families were left wondering what had put their daughters in the line of fire and one family was left to deal with the reality that their son had done this.

In the years since December 6 has been marked at campuses across the country. It has been a day of remembering not only those 14 but all women who suffer from violence at the hands of men. It is a day when many men reaffirm our belief about the need to speak out about gender roles, about the need for another way of living, about the need to teach our sons differently.

In memory of those 14 and hundreds of others, I urge you to take a moment of silence. In hope that we can never again have such an event to remember, I urge you to tak time to speak out. Only by teaching what is and is not acceptable to we stop the growth and escalation of anger, of violence, of pain, of death.

Hmm, this is, interesting...

Aww...you are the plant of love! You are the
mistletoe! You are a loving, romantic person
who likes to do what is best for the one or
ones you care about mostly. You are very
affectionate and enjoy being close to people.
You believe that love brings you together,
which is a wonderful thing. You are most likely
going to have a very nice and marvelous season.
Your inventive mind could come up with anything
interesting to do. Merry Christmas =)


What Christmas Figure Are You?
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Decorations

Here are some pictures from our decorating yesterday:

This is the Nativity Scene. It is a Fontanini set (actually 1 Magus and the Donkey are from another series--the first one was discontinued by then).

And these are the Christmas Dishes we received as a gift last year. There are 4 different snowpersons in the set. Also on the table are two ceramic loons and an athletic-sock-snowman made by mother and child last year.

A Seasonal Friday Five

I was out-of-town until this afternoon so here we are on Saturday. But here are my five...

1. Do you display a nativity scene, and if so, where? We might this year. I have one that was given in stages over a number of Christmases. The challenge is to find a place it can go which is both child and dog inaccesible.
2. Do you put a skirt under the Christmas tree? If so, what does it look like? YEs, but you know what? I cant actually remember what it looks like (and it is at the bottom of the decoration box).
3. Do you hang lights on the house or put them in your windows? Yes to both most years. HAven't decided about around the window this year.
4. White lights or colored lights on the tree? Big bulbs or the small, pretty ones? (I'm not biased...much.) Coloured big lights. May invest in LED lights this year. Unfortunately this year we are using an artificial tree since we are leaving town Dec 25 for 10 days. That is too long to leave a real tree :(
5. Do you have a tree topper? What sort? Who puts it on top of the tree? A gold-coloured star. I generally put it up since I can reach. This year I might lift a child up to help me.

Update: WE found a place for the nativity set. Cleaned off half the entertainment stand.

Update#2: While getting some stuff out of the decorations box I found another nativity. This one is in needlepoint and is now hanging on the door to the girl's room. Oh and tomorrow I may take and post pictures of our festive diningroom--complete with the Christmas dishes we got last year.