some authentic holiday spirit

As a non-Christian and a wary consumer, I don’t dote on December.  I have 

dreaded Christmas at times, ignored it at other times. Some yuletides I’ve

white-knuckled until the solstice and the return of the light.  That’s a big deal

for me.  I simply don’t like short cold days.  And today starts the seven days

of the year with the least daylight.

 

It looks like I’ll get off easy this time around.  We’re having warmer weather

than usual, rain rather than snow.  And I had a great weekend.  It helps im-

mensely to be in the right place with the right person.

 

Jude and I went to the mainland Saturday for a huge potluck sponsored by the

Filipino community of Campbell River.  There were about 300 people there, in

good spirits despite the storm and flooding that has killed hundreds on Minda-

nao Island in their homeland.

 

A variety of native dishes filled the serving tables.  Traditional dances in tradi-

tional dress were danced, such as this one:

Jude and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  We went into town early before the event to do 

a bit of shopping.  Not gift-buying, mind you.  Manly shopping at Home Hardware.

She needed some rubber crutch tips for a holiday project at the hospital.  I priced

composite decking for a summer endeavour.

 

Crutch tips secured, we still had some time before the potluck.  So we strolled

through downtown, checking out some of the specialty shops.  I actually liked

observing the bustle in the shops, since I didn’t have to engage in it.  And I even

appreciated looking at shiny new things, knowing that I didn’t have to buy any.

 

Sunday morning we went to a brunch/fund raiser at Quadra’s beloved Heriot

Bay Inn:

 

As always, the Inn put out a first rate buffet, including smoked salmon rotini and

these goodies:

 

While the sellout crowd feasted on the food, several story tellers nourished

our minds with tales ranging from the hilarious to the heartbreaking.  The

group Quadra Voce performed in the wassailing tradition:

 

Another group — Toelle, Christi and Andrea — sang a yuletide favourite of

mine, Crosby, Stills and Nash’s “Helplessy Hoping”.  And all that with this

in the background:

 

As soon as we got home, we went to visit our neighbours Carol and Robert and

their 14+-year-old dog Sage.  This will likely be Sage’s last Christmas, but she

was of good cheer.  Carol and Robert had just returned from a bird-watching

tour of Taiwan.  They regaled us with an account of massive rock slides caused

by torrential rains in the mountains there.

 

Carol served a wonderful Taiwanese oolong tea and I marginally helped 

Robert upgrade their A/V system by culling from a manual that he should

not put the Klipsch speakers too close to the fireplace.

 

On the drive there and back, we saw neighbours outside and chatted with

them briefly.  Each time we stopped the car in the road, a practice I draw

considerable comfort from.  It symbolizes to me that we’re in a community

with the perfect pace.

 

We got home at dusk.  Jude started a fire while I did a few quick outside

chores.  Slinkee was hyper from being in the house all day, so she and I

played a fast game of “Gimme That!”  She doesn’t grasp or honour the

rules of “Fetch”, but she does like this one-on-one version of “Keep Away”.

 

She has a three-foot-long section of thick, knotted rope that she considers

extremely valuable on occasion.  When I can catch her and wrest away the

rope, I fling it as far as I can.  We had to quit when it got so dark that my

flings were landing too close to her.  The LED’s in the headlamp I was

wearing reflected eerily in her eyes.

 

As we headed in, I realized that I’d had a perfect day, enhanced no doubt by

seasonal goodwill.