Birthdaybook, Bentley and a Lyrical look into the snow falling and way too much food, week 33 in the lives of the Carr family
Lyrical
“So this is Christmas,
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun”
I have always thought that John Lennon was singing directly to me with this song. OK I had thought the line was another year “older” not “over”, so I had thought it must to be that the magical, lyrical and musical genius was speaking directly to me because of my birthday and I have always been happy to answer the question too. “John, it is like this, this year I have tried to help others, I have tried to work hard, be honest with all who cross my path and generally, tried to make a difference each day.” What a disappointment a couple of years ago when I found out that I had the lyrics all wrong. Over NOT older, I mean so close but still wrong. Who knew?
It is not new to Nathalie and now the girls that I am very good a remembering songs and can identify most after just a couple of notes, but YES it is also known, I am not very good at remembering the correct lyrics, so I guess it is not that shocking that I got it wrong. For now, I will still use the time and the inspiration in the songs message to answer the year ending question, “What have you done?”, and will always hope that I have something good to say as the answer.
Trying to avoid being selfish, I will instead only talk about my twin sister’s birthday. On Christmas day, 4 decades ago (plus a year), in a little room in the Scarborough General Hospital, born unto James and Helen Carr the twins arrived in the morning. Yes, quite a bundle of joy for under the Christmas tree, a boy and a girl, born more then a month premature 12 minutes apart. Growing up a fraternal twin was to say the least interesting and throw in the fact that our birthday was forever tied in with another significant event, celebrated the world over, gives it just another bit of excitement.
For our family, Christmas Eve has always been the big, wide spread family get together and traditions such as these have been challenge over the last bunch of years with address changes, the addition of new family members and of course the arrival of kids. The one major change that has been the hardest for me to get used to, is the fact that my little sister has moved to Newfoundland with her family and is no longer here for the festivities.
Missing my little sister is something I have done a fair amount of over the last year or so, and being this is the second Christmas and Birthday we have not hugged in celebration of another year gone by, it was especially hard for me. It is early for resolutions, but I resolve to do a better job in 2010 of calling my little sis just to say hello, and do a better job at letting her know how much I miss her because I do. Happy Birthday Baney, I love you!
It’s no secret that my Mom loves Bentley and he loves her just as much. When he was a puppy and we had no kids, we always recognized and rewarded his continued love for us with a gift at Christmas. Needless to say, we stopped for the most part, after the arrival of the kids, but my Mom never did. Still to this day, 13 years later, every year under the tree, wrapped in paper is a package for Bentley. When it’s there, he knows it too. Can’t find his ball when he is playing, or a toy when it is lost, but arrive at the house with his gift under the tree for him and he circles and pokes and whines if we say “No”.
Christmas Eve was so funny with us sitting in the family room, in the glow of my sisters’ tree, with Bentleys gift tucked under a couple of other gifts near the back, and it starts. Sniff, sniff, sniff and poke. Finally we relent and let him pull it out, and just like a kid he starts tearing at the paper, looking for any free edges. In a couple of minutes, he has most of it apart and the stuffed Santa head is out and the object of his cruel obsession of removing the stuffing from anything that has it inside.
The line of the night though, came from Julia and her observations of the dismantling of the present. With only a small corner of the gift exposed, Julia asks “What is in it?”, and adds “Is it like a bone or toys or treats or something?” When no-one replies, with a smirk and an indignant tone she adds “It’s not like he is going to hear me, so what did he get?” and we just laughed, as the throws her hands up in the air she says “What, t’s not like he can hear us, he’s deaf!”
“Birthday”book
Thanks to the almost 50 people who have have sent me a birthday wishes and messages on Facebook, between Christmas Eve, and the big day itself. It seemed my phone was beeping off the hook with message notifications and I loved it. A good mix of old and new students, family and friends with well wishes and I just wanted to say a big thank you for making me feel like I am liked!
Proud Father
I am so very happy and proud of my eldest for the newly found skills she has acquired and for that matter mastered over the last couple of weeks. When it is happening, I am not always of the frame of mind to a) appreciate it and 2) remember it so I can acknowledge her achievements in the blog but tonight however, I am happy to report I can talk about her newly found skill firsthand. Jordyn our smart 10 year old little girl understands and uses, when appropriate the art of Sarcasm and it brings a tear to my eye!
In order to fully understand the situation, you have to first know that a couple of weeks ago, while attending the Christmas dinner at the Beach house, the Yamamoto’s gave us a Gingerbread sled kit. On that night the kids enjoyed putting a train version together, and other than the big mess left behind, it was a good exercise in junior engineering and I suppose on some level, baking. From the time we got home that night, with our very own kit, the girls have been asking for us to try it, but we kept saying “We will do it with your cousins at Christmas time”.
Well the kit made a trip to Caledon for Christmas Eve, and Whitby for Christmas day, and all the way back home now for boxing day, still unopened. Needless to say, Jordyn was just a little upset that we never got to it during our adventures the last couple of days and seeing it on the dinning room table caused her to say “Boy, I am sure glad we brought it with us to Grandma’s and Oma’s and never opened it” That’s my girl, kill them with wit!
In Closing
This year, the Carr girls made out very well from the big guy with everything on their list and more. The big item, guitars for each of them! I can say this that the girls are very happy and have already been parading around strumming and making noise. I look forward to teaching them and maybe one day making some music together. Couple that with the Keyboard from the Beaches, there is room for Nathalie in our family band too! How does that famous family band song go?
“I think I love you, so what are we so afraid of?”
Well I am not that scared, just a little worried!
Have a great and safe week, and see you next week for the year-end wrap-up blog.
Jim
I Love You with all of my heart! I miss you too! Happy Birthday Big Bro! xo