Welcome to 2007

We don't usually go out to parties or church services on New Year's Eve; we usually have a just-us party here. Often it's a theme; last year we had a Narnia party. This year there was no real theme, but we did have a fun menu of things that we usually walk right by at the grocery store. Frozen fried rice and eggrolls, frozen chicken wings, pretzels, fishie crackers, carrot sticks, banana chips, sparkly cranberry juice in wine glasses, and Vachon Jos. Louis cakes. Then we lit our Christmas candle, finished reading Henry Van Dyke's story The Other Wiseman (it took us four nights), and read the last chapter of Revelation and the 150th Psalm. Grandpa Squirrel arrived for ping pong (we are lucky enough to have a table in the garage), and the younger Squirrelings and I watched some of It's a Wonderful Life before they want off to bed. Mr. Fixit, the Apprentice and I stayed up till midnight talking about budgets (Mr. Fixit always does a family accounting at year's end) and watching The Musgrave Ritual, and then a few minutes of Happy New Year's, pouring rain and fireworks from Niagara Falls.

Another neglected Christmas classic

There are all kinds of books that are great reading for the Christmas season and don't have the word Christmas in the title. They don't get shelved with the library's Christmas books, but they're great for digging out at this time of year. One that we discovered this year is Michael Bond's More About Paddington. This book follows Paddington Bear through the last part of his first year at the Browns' house, and includes his fireworks party on Guy Fawkes Day (fireworks + bonfire + Paddington = disaster), Christmas shopping at a Large Snooty Store (revolving door + clothesline + Paddington = just-missed disaster), and Christmas Day with his new family and friends.

Who was it (in one of the Anne books?) that said Dickens always made her hungry? Paddington books always make me want a mug of cocoa and a marmalade sandwich. Oh, I found it--Anne of the Island again.

"That's a book that always makes me hungry," said Phil. "There's so much good eating in it. The characters seem always to be reveling on ham and eggs and milk punch. I generally go on a cupboard rummage after reading Pickwick. The mere thought reminds me that I'm starving. Is there any tidbit in the pantry, Queen Anne?"

(Be careful what edition of Paddington you buy, though, because it looks like there's a revised edition out there, and who knows what's gone missing from the original.)