Christmas questions

It's easy to get trapped in melancholy around Christmas time. I find it challenging here at times; things are based in the same western European Christian tradition that we have North Americanized, and yet so different that it's hard to "feel" Christmas at times.

A friend asked me tonight if I was sad that I wasn't going to be in Canada for Christmas. I answered truthfully that I have avoided thinking about it. What's the point? But the longer I stumbled through my answer the more I felt that painful paper-cut slice of missing my family.

I have this reoccurring thought lately. It will be the second year in who-knows-how-long that my sister and I haven't watched the film White Christmas together. (Admittedly we fast-forward just a few parts -- the romantic fire-side duet being one) but mostly we love that movie and watch it every year.

I have seen clips popping up here and there and decided to cheat -- indulging in just a couple of our favorite dance scenes. Then I found another version, with Run DMC, and just couldn't resist.

The Original

With Run DMC track

clap trap, indeed

It should go without saying that people should be highly critical and always thoughtful when ingesting news.

The state of media makes more difficult for people to even want to stay current -- the downward spiral of the quality and consistency of online/independent journalism, and then the huddling of big media under powerful corporate umbrellas. Often the quality and integrity of journalism in general these days is questionable -- the laziness and the urgency to post online is blatantly obvious, even in simple spelling and grammatical mistakes.

Then along comes an article -- so vague, so unexplored, so lazy -- it's totally refreshing to the reader, who doesn't have to think very hard at all about what kinds of insane things are going on backstage.

A female and male journalist team from Canada and Australia, kidnapped last year in Somalia, are freed this year with the paying of a ransom, hiring of British mercenaries (in the following article called a "British company") and before leaving Mogadishu, a meeting with the president of Somalia himself, who is full of ridiculous, inane comments that are hilarious. Read an example...

Hostages, mercenaries, ransoms, corruption, politics...

I am sorry for the harsh things these two journalists endured -- although they (I assume) would have known the risk for foreigners in Somalia. But the media generated from it is pretty much the worst kind of crap -- soft, boring and lazy -- turning a potentially explosive story into a mushy, short feature story. Localized articles coming out of Australia and Canada contradict one another in basic facts -- for example, who paid the ransom. I could go on. But read for yourself.

stereotype santa

There are some things that just get a person excited for Christmas. This is one of them.

2009 Santa world games in Sweden

This makes me (more than ever) want to get on with planning a trip to northern Sweden and Norway -- see the mountains and fjords, nature reserves, maybe even some caribou. If we were rich we'd stay in the ice hotel, unfortunately that will be an unfulfilled silly wish of mine.

Maybe I will start training for the Santa world games 2010.

how to scratch an itch?

Weird dormant jet lag surfaced last night after almost a week; awake from 12 a.m. to 4 a.m., dreaming up all kinds of schemes, planting gardens in my mind.

Something I have noted about our neighborhood. For all the gardening going on, very little food is grown. Even the local market in the square I am unsure of -- farm-fresh looking foods mixed in with oranges from Spain and kiwis from New Zealand. I know our soil isn't the best -- shallow, sandy, stony -- but people produce beautiful flower gardens each year. Last spring I spent so many hours digging and fixing and starting I ran out of energy to till up the ground for the actual vegetable garden. I will not be deterred this spring, even if I have to pay someone to dig for me, seeing that by mid-April I will be 40 weeks pregnant and a whale of a woman.

Last night I was considering greenhouse and chicken coop, but that just going too far too early. Start with the veggies. Check out National Geographic's fun little online guide for tips for house and home. Knowing how energy and resources are wasted on food production makes you want to get your greenhouse and winter lettuce growing immediately. And about that chicken coop!

Read: The Green Guide

whale bones

I am waiting for my chicken noodle soup to heat and trying to avoid thinking of the rumbling grumbling hunger in my belly. Munching on crackers to take the edge off. Sitting on our hideously uncomfortable kitchen chair--Ikea computer desk combination and twisting constantly to stretch away lower back pain. A fine Tuesday midday!

Since summer I have been swept up and driven by things out of my control. Just now I am starting to feel as if I have set down somewhere solid and feeling more "together" and capable. But with things as they are: new things, primal things, emotional things, strange things, maternal things, when I cannot help this strange ancient transformation, when one moment I feel insane and the next so practical.

Now I try to absorb Swedish and prepare for a trip to Calgary next week. I drink tea that leaves a skim on my teeth and contemplate the rich smells of fall -- farm, leaves, wet, and woodsmoke. Listen to music and think about homemade soup.