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Seniors Choice Newsmagazine
December 2006
- By Rudy Loeser -
"The best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft a-gley", wrote Robert Burns in his "Address to a Mouse".
Well, yes. Here I had thought that I would spend Christmas with a bottle of Scotland's finest and wallow in misery, thinking I had every right to do so, having bought a car which was advertised as "well maintained" and turned out to be anything but. Not only that, but the computer crashed, taking a lot of my favourite programs with it into that bottomless computer pit, and my health left something to be desired.
I'll be Scrooge this year, I thought. But, that scheme promptly "went a-gley". First of all, an invitation, complete with airline reservation, arrived, for Christmas with my Vancouver daughter's family. Next came a phone call from England, the youngest daughter announcing that she was coming. And then there was the e-mail from the yacht club, asking me to reprise my Santa Claus act for the annual Children's Christmas party. To top it off, the automobile started behaving as it was supposed to do. With all that, who could stay in a mood to play Scrooge? So much for sharing the Lagavulin with my favourite curmudgeons. Let that wait for Hogmanay, along with the songs of auld lang sine. What's more, I'll go to church for mass with the family and sing the hymns, and afterwards reminisce about Christmases past. Then there will be telephone calls to be made to the old country where Christmas day will have dawned and everything will be as it should be.
Christmas is a time when we can all reflect on the past, and be thankful for kindnesses we received, for love that was given and returned. For those of us whose memory holds reminiscences of Christmases in decades gone by, it is also a time of introspection and gratitude that we have made it this far and an invitation to count our blessings.
As for me, I'll be right in the midst of it because I'm the grandpa who makes and bakes the gingerbread house - from scratch - never mind that the grandchildren have grown up since that custom began. And I'll help with the decoration of the tree, which provides me with an opportunity to recount yet again that the custom of decorating an evergreen tree to celebrate Christmas came to North America with German settlers in the 17th century, along with much of the music of the holiday.
In the meantime, dear reader, it is my pleasure to join the entire staff of Seniors Choice Newsmagazine in wishing you all a very happy holiday and a Merry Christmas. |
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