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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.

Another year older
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!

Bentley
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

Love, laughter, fun and frolic, the fast, fun and somewhat late look into the week that was week 32 in the Carr household.

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Late
With such a busy week, the normally Friday posting of all events Carr is, for this week, posted on Sunday and with the extra couple of days, I can squeeze in a couple of extra stories as well. This was going to be a 3 party weekend, but one was moved to next year and in retrospect, that is a good thing because the Friday and Saturday gatherings turned into much later events then we might have thought. For party details and all that is safe to print, see “Friday” and “Saturday” below!

Sunday Love
41 people gathered in a house in Brampton, under the impression they are there for a holiday celebration, a thought not hard to justify due to the time of year and given the newly fallen blanket of snow on the ground, but the truth is that the reason for the event is so much more then that. Exactly 5 years earlier two people met, started dating and over time fell in love so much so that on this day, in front of their children and all these witnesses they want to declare their love aloud and commit this love to one another for the rest of their lives.

The hosts’ disappear, unnoticed by most, only to re-appear a short time later in an elegant black and white dress and a freshly pressed tux and smiles that light the room. “Did I miss something?” utters someone in the waiting crowd herded into the living room. “Can we have your attention please? 5 years ago we started dating and how we would like to take this relationship to the next level so we are happy announce that we are getting married, and you are all invited because we are going to do it NOW!” Hugs and kisses abound and some tears of joy as well, and then the man thought to be an old work friend is now introduced as the wedding official. He presents the marriage licence and vows from his shirt pocket and just like that we are in the middle of a real, elegant, simple and romantic wedding ceremony that I will remember for a long time. Lovely is, bearing witness to love!

Our heartfelt congratulations to our friends Lisa & Luba on their blessed union and best wishes to their four lovely children for this new found family unit they find themselves in. May the next chapter in your lives be filled with mutual admiration, smiles and the same love always that I saw today in your eyes.

Thursday
On Thursday night, the girls’ school held their yearly Advent Mass at the church and it was nice to get together with so many families from our community. Our school as noted by our school trustee in attendance involves so many of the families in the actual service and it that makes for a very nice service. The girls decorated two ornaments for the “Jessie Tree” and we got to place them on the tree after reading each of the items’ meanings. This is our third year doing it and it was fun. Nathalie helped out with the food after the service and we all pitched in to get the church hall cleaned at the end of the event.

Friday
It was nice to be able to attend the Friday awards celebration at the girls’ school and especially nice because one award had a Carr girl name on it! Congratulations to Jordyn on her Personal Growth Achievement Certificate this school term. You have worked very hard and we are so very proud of all that you have achieved. A special note to Julia also, that the award you where recognized for a couple of weeks ago, will be given out next term and we look forward to that ceremony as well. It is nice to see that others feel as strong about how great our kids are as we do!

Friday night
Every year the most energized and eclectic group of people I have ever met, get together and have a holiday celebration in a small house in downtown Toronto and I so look forward to the event every year. Organized by the home owners, M&M, who are two of my work colleagues and although we missed last year due to bad weather, we have been regulars for the last 4 years or so. To add yet another dimension to the event for us this year, we went without the kids, due to the birthday sleepover they went to. Hanging out past 11:00 for the first time ever, in fact closing the joint after 2:00AM meant that we drove a couple of the last stranglers’ home. We sure had fun!

Saturday night
Another night out, this one at the Beach house and another late night, but with great food and great company, and some fun games, the tired drive home was so worth it. Thanks to Coco, for a wonderful complete turkey dinner (we are told her first?) and for Jeff for keeping the drinks topped up and thanks so much for the Christmas gift that makes lots of noise. We can’t wait to repay the favour in the future when you have children.

In closing
I understand the science of time and that there is a finite number of seconds in a minute, and so many minutes in an hour and so many hours in a day and so on. I get that you can’t actually speed or slow it down no matter how much you might like to, but what I don’t understand is why it is that it just seems that time is flying by these days more then before. It is not just me feeling this way either. Several conversations this week with a bunch of different people, all found there way to the topic of time and the fact that it is already near the end of December and we are all amazed how quick it has snuck up on us. I suppose kids, age and a good life contribute to the effect of seeming to speed up the world clock and I guess with the bad weather on the way I should be happy to get it over faster, even if it only just seems that way, but the fact is that as I write this, I have only 5 days left in my 41st year and hiding around the corner is the start of the next year for all.

Thanks for reading and have a great and safe week!
Jim

One size fits all, a good lesson and I am just saying, words and wisdom from the week 31 Carr family blog with a just a light snow covering.

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Wrong Size
Last Sunday the reason we had to race back to Mississauga from our Christmas shopping trip in the US was to get the girls to a skating party to celebrate Julia’s little friends birthday. With an excitement and smiles, the girls dawned their skates, and with trepidation and a smirk, I laced mine as well. The trepidation from the fact that in the last maybe 20 years, I had only been on ice skates for about 15 or 20 minutes, and these 40-year-old bones are fragile after all. Julia made it to a “two-fall” count and a little over 15 feet and called it a day but Jordyn lasted a lot longer, making a whole bunch of trips around the rink escorted by the guy with the shooting pain in his feet. I think in the end, we settled on the idea of lessons for both and perhaps some new skates for daddy that hopefully will be the right size.

Classroom
It has been a very long time since I was officially a student, but this week I have the pleasure of saying I actually learned something in school. At the end of any semester, especially the fall semester, the energy and camaraderie in the room is something to behold and Thursday during the practical radio tests I give all my first semester students, I took a moment to watch, listen and think about the tests from the past. This group, not much different from those over the last 16 years of teaching, in a few short minutes reminded me why I love teaching so much just by singing and dancing and having fun in the classroom. Yes, I get a lot out of teaching, in the sense of an awareness of skill in my trade, but I was reminded this week, if you ever want to feel good about aging, do yourself a favor and spend some time with those younger then you.

On Friday, I got to test this theory even more, by spending the day at the girl’s school, recording the primary kids for their Christmas Music CD. I had a blast and will hopefully have the CD mastered and ready to go for next week, but what spending the day with more then 150 kids under 8 reminded me is that you need to remember that at some point in your life, perhaps way back in grade 3 or 4, you where fearless and joy was simply making your best friend laugh with only a funny face. I think all too often, we forget to have fun, and my lesson this week is to try to do just that.

I am just saying
I am not proud of it, but sometimes I loose it. In the car with the girls, I listened to them arguing about what drives me the most crazy. Comparing who got what, and playing the “well you got this and you got that game” and I lost it. “Stop it girls, you know I don’t like you fighting over or comparing what you have with each other. It was the gift bag from the skating party that was the subject of the discussion and on it went. “STOP it, what did I get? I drove you all the way to the party; I paid for your skates. I was the one who went all the way around the rink with you and held you up and brushed you off, and what did I get? How does that sound? WHAT DID I GET? Julia puts up an imaginary hand and is looking for a chance to jump, and finally fits in “Daddy, I am just saying, but you could have had a hot chocolate, they had lots there”. If I only had known!

Lawyers
Last week, I posted a video of Julia on Youtube, and featured it in my blog, but never mentioned it to the kids. That is until, a trip home from the sitters this week. “So Julia, I posted that video of you singing on the Internet, and talked about it in my blog last week. Jordyn in her best “Agent to the Stars voice says; “Daddy, you should have asked her permission before you did that.” I guess you are right, Jordyn, so what would you have said Julia if I asked to use your video? Without a hesitation, she says “NO!” Great, now I have some kind of diva lawsuit on my hands, but as long as neither of them can spell “Lawyer” I guess I am safe (for now). Let’s hope that no one comes up with some kind of first-amendment violation by blogging about my family and friends.

Birthday, Birthday
Next to April and May, the busiest months around these parts as far as birthdays go, are November and December. My Dad, my sister-in-law, my nephew, my aunt and of course my twin sister (and me!). So this week, I wanted to say a big happy birthday to my little buddy Colby for turning 6 years old. I hope you had a great day!

In closing
This week, Nathalie gets the last word. After a small disagreement, and the subsequent lets call it “discussion”, I do what any smart husband does, recognize the error of my way and apologize. “Sorry for being an ass” I say, but there is something to be said about jumping in with two feet and landing on that grenade. It sets you up just a little bit. I don’t think she meant her response to come out the way it did, but ouch just the same. “Sorry for being an ass, Nathalie”. “It’s ok Jim, you can’t help being what you are”. What does that mean?

Thanks for reading and have a great and safe week!
Jim