Blocked and Scared
I cannot write what I was going to write.
So, I give you a gift instead to end the year 
Go see the amazing literary tattoos at http://www.contrariwise.org/.
Happy Holidays
Just a quick post to wish everyone joy, fun, and time off as the year comes to an end. See you next week. 
An Early Solstice Post
I am watching the Grinch; the orginal, the best, and will answer the following Christmas meme from Words from a Bohemian Mom at http://bohemiansinglemom.blogspot.com. The clipart is also from her site.
1. Do you celebrate Christmas? Yule? Winter’s Solstice? Hanukkah? All of them?
I primarily celebrate the Solstice. I celebrate Christmas with my biological family to honour their traditions. I celebrate the Orthodox Christmas in January because of where I work.
2. Name your favourite X-mas movie.
My favorite holiday movie is The Nightmare before Christmas and I always watch parts of It’s A Wonderful Life when I catch it on TV.
3. Your best X-mas present ever?
My baby doll. Her name is Marie (which is my middle name). I was around three when I got her. I don’t remember that Christmas but I have a picture and the look on that little girl’s face says it all. She got exactly what she needed. Marie sleeps in my living room, in the cradle my grandfather (my mom’s dad) made for her, and she stills has the two outfits she came with. My nephew had fun dressing and undressing her this summer when he spent a day at my (mostly) toy-free home.
4. Do you bake cookies? Or buy them?
The Grinch is stealing the last can of who hash and lying to little Cyndi Lou Who, who is not more than two – which is why the recent movie didn’t work for me. Cyndi Lou Who was too old!
I bake cookies. Mostly from scratch, but also from a tube. I bought frozen tubes of cookie dough when a co-worker was doing a fundraiser. When I am at my mom’s next week, I will bake about four batches of chocolate chip cookies, six dozen each. I will freeze them so that she has a steady supply of cookies and this will get the cookie making urge out of my system until Easter.
5. How old were you when you stopped believing in Santa?
I’m not sure I ever really believed. I don’t remember writing letters to Santa though there were presents from him under our tree. We were poor; I think I knew I couldn’t ever ask for what I really wanted. Especially if it were expensive. (I want someone to give me books, or the library like the one the Beast gave to Belle).
6. Your favourite X-mas food?
Mashed potatoes and gravy. I can’t make gravy. If I could I would have it every day!
7. Your favourite holiday tradition?
Watching the Grinch. Which I own on VHS, so I could watch it anytime but I like to wait until it is on CBC. This year I couldn’t wait so I watched my tape on Saturday, followed by The Nightmare Before Christmas, and now tonight the Grinch is on CBC. So twice in three days. Yeah!
8. Giving gifts or getting them?
I don’t really do either. I don’t need anything and all my sibling restrict their gift giving to immediate family. I stopped buying presents, except for my parents, years ago. I do send my youngest nephew something small, by snail mail, about every month and if I see something I think the bigger ones, including my siblings, would like I send it, when I find it, during the year, if I have the money.
I tag….anyone who would like to participate. Leave me or the Boho Mom a link in our comments.
Thanks. I may or may not blog next week, it depends if I can get internet. If not, I’ll blog around the 28th or 29th. Happy Holidays whatever you may celebrate.
Remembering
Today is the day I decided to go back to school. It was nineteen years ago, about this time of day (6:00 pm on a Wednesday). I came home from my job as a child-care provider and turned on the news.
The lead story was, of course, the l’Ecole Polytechnique massacre in Montreal. For those of you who don’t remember – this was the shooting of fourteen women who were targeted because they were women. The gunman choose to shoot and kill women for the audacity of getting into a school he could not. This infuriated me.
I had been thinking about going back to school and it was this that galvanized my being. That anyone had the audacity to kill women just because they were trying to get educated saddened me. It ate at my soul.
Wednesday, December 6, 1989. This is the day that I decided to go back to school; to go to university; to get a BA and eventually, a MLIS. This is the day that educated me.
Merci. Je me souviens … Geneviève Bergeron, 21; Hélène Colgan, 23; Nathalie Croteau, 23; Barbara Daigneault, 22; Anne-Marie Edward, 21; Maud Haviernick, 29; Barbara Klucznik Widajewicz, 31; Maryse Laganière, 25; Maryse Leclair, 23; Anne-Marie Lemay, 27; Sonia Pelletier, 23; Michèle Richard, 21; Annie St-Arneault, 23; Annie Turcotte, 21.
gigi (not necessarily)
