I know I know I don't Blog anymore,,,

OK so this here blog has been a bit underused the last few months. I don't really have any specific reasons for this. I just don't seem to have a whole late to say lately. Perhaps I'm suffering from some writers block, who knows.

Some things that do make me want to write are of course the advent season we are about to enter. I love Christmas time. Even non Christians love Christmas for some reason; and don't give me that "its a holiday for everyone" stuff. Its not. It's a Christian holiday; partake if you want but don't pretend that its some new secular thing that everyone can do with out it having religious significance. It's Chirstmas,,,,come on people get with the program.

We also got out first big snowstorm here in Ottawa yesterday and the girls got their first snow day of the year. Hopefully the first of many more snow days to come. We have a never ending rack of drying mittens over every heater in our house right now, which I'm thinking must be obstructing the heat in some way. Oh well, must have dry mittens. Our children are amazing at completely engrossing themselves  in their snowy adventures. They come in an hour after we send them outside completely soaked and caked in snow up to their eyeballs usually to get either a fresh pair of mittens or a cup of hot chocolate.

With the snow came the first round of our endless driveway shovelling chore for the winter. What an ab workout that is. You snow blower owners are really missing out on some free workouts. Although I would guess that by spring I will still not be showing any signs of actual ab muscles on the surface. But they'll be there, just a couple inches down under a layer of insulation.

If you want my thoughts on Black Friday you can read them here. I feel the same way about the whole thing as last year.

That's it for now everyone. Happy Holidays!  

Welcome to Siberia,,,I mean Ottawa. 

 

Back from the Dark Side of the Moon

This week marked a very exciting moment for the Gideon family; On Wednesday Evie brought home her very first audition piece for a school play.  For those of you who don't know me very well, I consider myself an actor first and foremost.  I would say I am more of an actor than any of the positions I've held to make a living, my graduate degree qualifies me as a librarian/information scientist but I'm not sure that's my vocation in the true sense of the word - no my calling was as an actor.  It's an extension of the storytelling and writing aspect of my nature - the thing that I think I was best at.  I'm not sure it would still be the thing I'm best at now, it's been awhile since I put on a character and took command of a stage.  Nevertheless acting is in the blood.

My isoisa (great-grandfather) Theodore was an actor in Finland - supposedly quite a good one - who as I remember the story turned down an opportunity to study with a professional troupe in Helsinki (something along those lines).

Now the third generation is ready to give the stage a try.  To be sure I had no (direct) influence over Evie's decision to decide to audition.  It came as a complete surprise to me when she announced that she was trying out for a part in the play.  She seemed very excited and proud to show me the audition script and did quite well reading her part - she's Mosquito One.  I have promised her to help her rehearse her part this weekend and promised myself that I would restrain myself from over-coaching her.  I will definitely not talk to her about Stanislavski nor run her through any advanced techniques...I promise.  I will make sure we have fun together and encourage her to do her best...and I'll give her a pointer or two.  It's sooo nerve-wracking from the parent's perspective.  I don't think I appreciated the stress that it causes parents, sorry Mom and Dad.  

Theatre for me was the opportunity I needed to really bust out of my shell to find my voice and confidence, which have influenced everything that I have done since then.  Beyond the all important transferable skills that I still use today, I will never forget the feelings of being on stage or the high of stepping offstage after a near perfect performance.  There are precious few moments that can compare - in all sincerity I would rank the experience just slightly below a touch from God, falling in love and the birth of my girls.  

I didn't discover the theatre until grade 11; I'm glad Evie is testing the waters much earlier.  Whether she gets a part this time around or not, I hope she simply has fun with it.  I'm proud of my little girl even if she never wanted to have anything to do with theatre ever.  I'm happy and excited for her because maybe, just maybe she'll get bit by the acting bug and one day experience all the joy and excitement that I did through acting.  In the immediate future it just provides another bonding opportunity for the two of us; another opportunity to show her that I'm there for her and that the things she feels are important are therefore important to me, because she's important to me.

C'est L'halloween!!

Evie told me she wanted to be something scary this year!

Scary indeed!!

  

My little native...not much of a stretch, but darn cute!!

Not a hoppy beginning for Noli...but candy cured all blues!!

What about the prime directive!?  

Trick or treating?  Make it so!

Trick or Treat!!

Cap'n Cole spying out the next target!

   

All in all a howling good time! 

Our bounty!!

Harvest Time...One Last Time

Behold the last of the bounty taken from our garden for the season.  It was a season of learning and growth and I'm proud to say that our foray into slightly more serious gardening was a great success.  We had an abundance of tomatoes throughout the summer, in fact the tomato plants are still producing though I'm sorry to say that the cold through the night is getting the best of them.  Our Swiss chard, spinach, green beans, and radishes all produced for us providing fresh salads regularly.  Even our tiny little apple tree bore fruit which the squirrels enjoyed most of all.

There was a lot of work upfront and we did what was required throughout the season including pulling weeds, repairing the mesh to keep the critters off our food and of course watering the plants when the rain wasn't sufficient.  The main thing we did was to provide the space, opportunity and the little things needed for plants to thrive; then we took a step back and let the plants do what plants are prone to do - that is to grow and produce fruit.

There's a lesson in all of this...Hmmm...

Season of Thanks...and Food

Evie's Photography

Eight is Great

Today marks eight great years of marriage for my wife and I.  I promised my wife I wouldn't write anything too sappy...I tend to wax poetic and given the time and the right muse (which my wife always is for me) I could go on and on.  In fact last year I did go on and on to the point that my editor (my wife) told me to tone it down a little.

So I won't go into detail with how my heart brims with love for my wife and how our love continues to evolve and mature.  But I will say that I feel like the luckiest man alive because she agreed to marry a schmuck like me and together we make an awesome team.  It seems like we've packed a lot of livin' into the past 8 eight years and through every challenge we just grow closer together.

It's funny how the idea of romance changes.  I remember spending a lot of time, thought and effort to get things set-up just right...I'd worry about the details and the presents and would hope that everything would come together perfectly.  Now we are opportunistic romancers, that is we look to make the most of the little moments we can steal away from the daily routine to infuse with a little extraordinary romance.  Perhaps our romance is not as elaborate or indulgent as it used to be (I'm not sure it was ever too elaborate now that I think about it...it's less so now), but it's more deliberate, intentional and I'd argue more meaningful.

Take tonight for example, after school the girls had piano, then tutoring after which we sneaked in a little celebratory pizza that we wolfed down right before driving the girls to God's Little Princesses (the girls group at our church that our girls loooove) that overlapped with the church's board meeting that I attend.  Actually there was an hour down time between the time we dropped the girls off and the beginning of the board meeting so Lex and I with Miriam (our youngest) in tow took the moment to chillax at a cool lil' gelato and coffee shop.  Then Lex dropped me off, picked up the girls, took them home and put them to bed.  I got back home a little after nine at which point Lex and I were finally able to spend a couple of moments together, just the two of us.  Talk about romance!!

Rest assured we are planning on sneaking away at some point in the near future to have a proper anniversary dinner at a nice restaurant.  Evie recommended McDonald's, I was thinking I'd spring for something a little fancier like Hintonburger...just kidding, although I think both of us would be fine with Hintonburger (the best burger in Ottawa).  It won't happen today, it might not happen this week but we'll get out there eventually - that's life in the fast lane (I just had an image of Frank the Tank from Old School flash through my brain, "We got a nice little Saturday plan...I don't know if there'll be enough time!!").

But you know what?  I don't think I'd have it any other way.  That's the family we've built...the life we've created together that all started with just a couple of crazy kids in love.

Happy Anniversary my Love!!

Two crazy kids...in love.