The Cruise

Our first cruise was really fun. If only the sun had come out more it would have been perfect. We were upgraded because my inlaws had cruised with Carnival before. That was nice because we got a window. day one we sat out at sea. Kinda weird, but fine for relaxing. Day 2 we went to Catalina island. I'd go back there. I love little islands. it was mountainous and totally beautiful. We did a very entertaining kayak. Day 3 was Ensenada Mexico. We did a really enjoyable wine tour. Who knew Mexico had wineries? we caught an organic place and an industrial place. Both enjoyable. Then Day 4 back in San Diego. Nice.

San Diego Little Italy

When we first arrived in San Diego (after what was my first pleasant experience with Air Canada in many weeks) we had no idea how close the airport is to town. Not only is it close, but the planes practically touch the top of the homes at one end of Little Italy, where we were staying. We loved Little Italy here in San Diego. There are chairs and tables for sitting everywhere, on all the street corner enticing you to stay and enjoy the sun.

Christmas with the Alway's - the Dogs

The Alway hounds really enjoyd Mom's present to them - rawhide bones.

Christmas with the Alway's - the Cats

This tabby cat is resting on Mom's Christmas pillow present. He really appreciates hand work.


This is a bug jar. No real bugs were harmed for the entertainment of these cats.

Christmas Eve

This is one of my favourite evenings all year. The longest night is past, the lights are lit, the tree is sparkling and the best food of the holiday is still ahead. Here in the Yukon a gentle snow has started to fall whch is just the icing on the cake for me. Joy to you all, eat and make merry.

"Erase"

I realized today when I was writing to someone for a new copy of something I'd deleted that the word 'erase' has fallen from my vocabulary. Delete has now almost compeltly replaced the synonamous erase... A teacher told me recently that children aren't even taught how to write in school now, only to print. Signs of age on my birthday...

Christmas Reading

When I was a child my father read the Lord of the Rings every Christmas. Each year he found something new. My own ambitions are shorter, perhaps indicative of the rushed pace of our modern world. The last few years I've read and re-read Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence. Each of the five novellas are part of the same imaginary world, and each has at least one character from the other. The setting is an idealized England sometime in the early 1960s. THe books fall in that category of what used to be called Junior Fiction; the step between children's picture books and adult fiction. The joy of them to me is the immidate transportation into the world of the children who are the protaganists, I am with them as they adventure and discover with the collusion of a few of the in the know adults.


What do you read at Christmas?