Tag Archives: Christmas

Aruba, Vacations

Merry Christmas!

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Christmas TreeMerry Christmas everyone! Santa seems to have missed us here in the Caribbean! haha Luckily he left the cold and snow in the north! Our thoughts are with you guys, and the people we lost this year. Hope you all had a wonderful day.

GrouperWe spent Christmas morning swimming in the ocean, and a great swim it was! The ocean was very clear today, and we saw piles of cool fish. We saw a HUGE triggerfish, the biggest we’ve ever seen – at least 3 or 4 feet! She was pretty shy and swam away from us, and try as we might to chase her down, we got only blurry shots of her.

The famous divi divi tree We’ve kind of settled into a little routine, swimming in the ocean in the morning, then spending time in the swimming pool and hot tub in the afternoon, while catching a few rays. There have been some brief rain storms, but mostly it’s been sunny. The locals have complained bitterly about the amount of rain in November and December and they are hoping for an improvement. It’s been pretty good by our standards, but not as nice as some years we’ve been here.

Atos PrimeHere is a picture of Pam in front of our rental car, an Atos Prime. She is pointing at the license plate because it is V-1925 – her father Vern was born in 1925! How cool is that?

PalomettoI should point out that I don’t reference all the pictures we’ve taken in the blog posts. There are other pics available by clicking on the Galleries link in the menu bar. So if you aren’t sick of seeing fish pics you might want to take a look.

I’m adding a brief movie to the end here of a Queen Triggerfish. This was taken in fairly shallow water, which is kind of unusual since this fish prefers to be in slightly deeper water.

 

Holidays

Little Drummer Boy

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Sean QuigleyThe Christmas season is here, of course, and Christmas tunes are everywhere. The following video is done by a 16 year old guy from Winnipeg named Sean Quigley. He played all the instruments himself, had his sister shoot some of the video, and then he put it all together himself. It’s shot outside, in and around Winnipeg. He played the drums in a light snow fall, on a popular walking trail in the Charleswood area of Winnipeg.

This is one of my favorite Christmas songs, and this version is definitely a “rocked up” version… In a CBC radio interview, he says he started thinking about making a video of a Christmas song about a month ago, and this song just “speaks to him.” The idea that you don’t need money to make Christmas special just appeals to him…

Hope you ENJOY! And Merry Christmas!

Commentary, Holidays

Merry Christmas or Season's Greetings?

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There is always a large, and very vociferous, debate about how to greet someone over the Christmas Holiday season. Many feel that Merry Christmas is too Christian, and offends the Jewish, Buddhists, and Islamic communities. They feel that Western culture does not take their feelings into account.

Merry Christmas!This may be true. But do Islamic countries allow Christians to celebrate their faith, openly, and without persecution in primarily Islamic countries? The answer, of course, is a resounding no. So should we be sensitive to their needs, in primarily Christian communities? The answer, of course, is a resounding yes.

Why the discrepancy? Simple. Because we can. We are freedom loving people. We don’t want to offend people; we want to welcome them to our communities and to our lives. If they choose to NOT celebrate our customs and traditions, that’s fine. I don’t celebrate the Islamic Diwalli Festival of Light either. I don’t greet people with Happy Diwalli. In fact, despite living in a community with a significant Islamic community, I have yet to be greeted by those of the Islamic faith with such a greeting.

Christmas is celebrated on an ancient pagan holiday. It is not a faithful representation of  the day of the birth of Christ. It is merely when we celebrate it, much like we celebrate the Queen’s birthday on some weekend in May. So why do we feel the need to express ourselves in such a way? Frankly, I do not object to people greeting me with Merry Christmas. But I also do not object to people greeting me with Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings either. The latter two are more inclusive, embracing Jewish Hannukah, Islamic Diwalli, and even pagan celebrations of the New Year.

Surely, the whole point of this holiday is one of inclusion, celebration of family and friends, and thoughtful reflection on the year just finishing. Most of the dissenters are not people of other faiths, but agnostics who wish to remove all religion from any kind of meaningful context in our lives.

Let me be clear – I do not practice any faith, but to suggest I do not have Christian values is silly. Many of the things that make this country great, are because our forefathers were of Christian faith, and preached tolerance and love. To deny this, is to deny our heritage, our history, our life.

So my wish to you is this – Happy Everything! Happy Holidays! Season’s Greetings! And Merry Christmas too! I use all three sayings, and have no hangups about using any of them. I hope you will do the same.

Something About Us

Remembrance Day

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Remembrance Day DisplayI can’t believe it is Remembrance Day already! This month has gone by so fast. I’ve been in and out of sorts, getting the flu and a cold and still just generally feeling crappy. Pam has avoided getting sick, I’m not sure how!

With this down time, I’ve been puttering around getting the Christmas decorations repaired and ready to go. Lots of blown lights, broken reindeer, damaged snowmen lol! If the rain every breaks, I’ll start putting some lights out.

This year, I’ve done something for Remembrance Day that I don’t usually do. In fact, this is the first time. The cross on the right has the first two lines of In Flanders Fields.

Let we Forget.I wanted the deer to have a scarf made from the cloth of the Black Watch, which was the regiment my grandfather volunteered into during the Second World War. But I couldn’t find one. Anyway, it’s the thought that counts this time of year,  right?

So let’s take a moment to give our thanks to our veterans, past and current who have put their lives on the line so we can be free. Wear your poppy proudly. Thanks Dad. Thanks Grandpa.

Holidays

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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Pam in the SnowWe shoveled and shoveled yesterday. And woke this morning to greet Christmas with more shoveling! hah

Looking forward to global warming. They say we can expect another 20 centimeters before the night is over.

Are we not full yet?

Here is a little movie to go with our winter theme; it’s from a couple days ago. There is a lot of snow there, as you can see, but we’ve had at least 8 inches since that movie was taken.

This is of a neighbour’s house, just so you don’t think I’m the only one around who does his lights up!

All About Max

Another great snow-in

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Max In the SnowSeems for the last few years running we’ve talked about the worst snow storm ever.

Like most of North America, we’re digging out from another big dump of snow this year. I hope you’re all safe and warm, and your cars are running without any additional damage!

Digging OutMax likes the snow, that’s for sure. He has no problems plowing into any snowbank. The snow is piled way high.

Took about an hour to dig the driveway out this morning -third time i’ve dug the sidewalk in 36 hrs – I didn’t sign up for this – supposed to be the WET coast! And not a single car came by.

Two trucks came by, but that’s it. Basically the city is crawling. The police were recommending that only those with chains should be driving. It is very deep on the corners, easy to skid out.
Digging OutThe snow has buried about 30% of our display! lol Just keeping the blowups going is a challenge some nights. The snow easily beats them down.

But honestly, really enjoying the snow. Would like to find a place to skate outside!

Last night, Pam and Max and I went for a nice walk, and we cruised up the middle of the street, since there were zippo cars. He’s a very obedient guy, came running to our side every time we called him when a car dared the streets. He’s quite hysterical in the snow, when he gets pumped up.

We met another couple of dogs out in the snow, and they figured it was the off leash park haha.

He was always running back to us with face full of snow just grinning.