First Christmas

Oi! Is it December 26th already?!

This was technically my first Christmas in my Hintonburg home as last year I was living the pura vida in Costa Rica. As much fun as that trip was, I'm a bit of a traditionalist and there are certain things I like to do every holiday season to make it a real Christmas.

1. Go to an early Christmas eve mass at our local church.

My lil' church does a good job of combining a dash of spirituality with a sprinkle of Christmas magic. It's fun for Margot because much of the service is  a mini Christmas pageant with kids acting* out the parts (Margot has been everything from a sheep to a Shepard to the star of the show himself: baby Jesus!).

2. Watching Christmas TV shows.

Watching Frosty the Snowman on Christmas Eve

Technically this is more of a month-of-December-thing but when I was a kid I loved watching Christmas TV shows. Loved 'em. Every night at around 7 or 7:30 pm there was always something fun to watch, whether it was Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, the Little Drummer Boy or Mickey's Christmas Carol. The month of December was just amazing for TV if you were a kid. Even nowadays, with a bazillion TV shows available at the touch of a button, there is still something extra fun about watching Christmas specials.

3. Reading The night before Christmas.

Reading The night before Christmas on Christmas Eve is something I grew up with. It was a nice way to end Christmas Eve and left me anticipating the morning. I'm trying to continue the tradition with Margot.

4. Opening Gifts on Christmas morning.

Margot's enthusiastic laughter says it all!

5. Seeing family for a Christmas dinner.

It took a bit of Christmas magic to seat 10 people in our dining room

This one is a bit tricky as Glosette Girl and I take turns every year driving up to see my family near Toronto or staying in Ottawa. This year it was her family's turn and we hosted dinner at our house. After tucking into some turkey and cake we had lots of fun playing Werewolves and Villagers (such a Christmas-sounding game!). Super fun!

6. Finally, we always do something outdoorsy. Normally Glosette Girl, Margot and I try and go for a Christmas walk but this year it was just too damn cold. Even Canadians have their limits! So we decided on a short Boxing Day skate at the nearby experimental farm. We were the first customers at this skating rink for the season!

It was still incredibly cold but at least our hearts were pumping.

Ahh. So much stuff crammed into one season. I can't wait to do everything again next year. Merry Christmas from Tough Cookies - Hintonburg Style!

* It's completely relaxed and impromptu. Acting means showing up and not wandering off stage.

Absinthe

2017 is slowly but surely winding down and all the "lasts" are coming out of the woodwork. This is my last work week before the Christmas shutdown as well as Margot's last school week. A couple of weeks ago I had a last 2017 pub night with my boys and this past weekend was probably the last time Glosette Girl and I will hit up a restaurant sans Margot before the new year.

But we are going out with resto-style!

Our restaurant of choice this Sunday was Absinthe, which is a local haunt in Wellington West.

The friends? D & E, the coolest cats this side of Centrepointe.

Centrepointe pride!

The food? Well we started on the savory side of things with a selection of three local cheeses.

After that, Glosette Girl felt she needed some seafood love and tried the poached peanut crusted cod, which is served in coconut shrimp broth, along with baby bok choy, fresh herb salad, and crispy shallots.

Margot doesn't like seafood so Glosette Girl usually goes for that option when we go out

I'm normally a carnivore but was feeling veggie friendly that day and tried the home made ravoili with...um...some really yummy things that I forgot to write down.

Saint hubert? Mets-en!

Finally, we ended our meal by sharing a dessert sample of chocolate fondant, lemon tart, profiterole (so good!), and crème brûlée. 

Sorry - no photo! I know, I know, not my best meal review!  

But, trust me, overall it was a nice experience. Not just because of the great conversation with D & E but because our waitress/hostess did a nice job of periodically checking in, keeping our water and wine glasses topped up and the food coming at a good pace. Actually one of the most impressive things I saw her do was turn customers away even though there were a few empty tables. It turns out that two servers had failed to come in for their shifts that night and rather than seat customers she knew the restaurant couldn't handle and compromise the quality of everyone's meal she made a judgement call to focus on the customers (like us) who had made reservations.

You don't see that too often!

Anyways, cheers to gutsy calls, friends who go out on school nights,  and the babysitters who let that happen (thanks TM!)

Me thinks the lady likes me

Island Stillness

The stillness of the forest. Crunching new fallen snow with your boots. Crisp winter air. Simple pleasures are everywhere.

Last Friday there was almost no snow. Now it sits several inches deep. Winter is here in Ottawa in spirit even if technically* it hasn't arrived yet.

The change in weather was the perfect excuse to go for a walk with my visiting family, R, N and A in nearby Morris Island Conservation Area, one of my favourite places for a walk within an hour's drive of my house (the rough amount of time I'm willing to drive for a casual day trip) .

I love Morris Island because it's essentially true nature, not semi-nature like the greenbelt that surrounds Ottawa. Don't get me wrong, semi-nature has its place too but sometimes it's nice to know to your miles from anyone and the realm you are walking isn't quite tamed yet.

Margot and A technically didn't walk the whole route. They hopped on the Dada express for about half the trail. I didn't mind.

Children's Laughter is also a natural forest noise

We came, we walked, we appreciated and we left nothing but our footprints (or toboggan prints).

*Winter starts on December 21st

The Magic of the Aylmer Christmas Parade

I love small town Christmas parades! They are innocent, a tad hokey, and magical all at the same time.

Where else do firetruck, police cars and other government vehicles get to blaze their lights and sirens - noise bylaws be damned? Where else are brightly coloured semi trucks considered parade floats? Where else do Scouts, Sea Cadets, Brownies and other local children's groups get to march shoulder-to-shoulder with adults?

Watching with Dada

The small town Christmas parade that I always make a point of seeing year after year is the one in nearby Aylmer, Quebec. It's especially nice as it's held at night, which gives it an extra dose of magic.

Glosette Girl, Margot and I tried the much-bigger Ottawa Christmas parade one year but...it just wasn't the same. The floats were too fancy. Too sophisticated. No! No! No! Give me an honest amateur work over  your professional-high-falutin-floats any day of the year.

We usually go with Les Cousins and this year was no exception. They had tons of fun, and watched with excited eyes as the spectacle rolled by.

Les Cousins and the Big Red Fire Truck

Glosette Girl got to see her favourite part of the parade too: the marjorettes (girls throwing batons in the air and catching them). Every year, deep in her heart, she dreams that one of the marjorettes trips and falls and the leader of the troop cries out "She's hurt! Oh No! Who will take the place of  our fallen sister?" to which Glosette Girl responds "I will!" and joyfully steps in.

Glosette Girl's dream job

And of course we got to see the big man himself, Mr. S. Claus. Seeing him at the end of the parade always caps off the evening. It's wonderful for Margot and makes me feel like a kid again. It's Christmas!

The Grande Finale!

Auto Shoppe

I once wrote that Hintonburg has a lot of barber shops. That's true.

And another time I wrote that it has a lot of ice cream stores. Also true.

But there is yet another type of store this area has in spades.... auto repair shops!

GROAN! Auto Repair Shops?! Where are the cute photos of Margot I can hear some of you thinking! Well hear me out! This is part of our little life here in Hintonburg.  And within 3 minutes walk of our house there are three of 'em. One is literally at the end of our street. Walk a little further and you find more garages.

Lots of vehicles

 They are a sign that this is still a working neighbourhood not a gentrified fantasy world like Westboro or the Glebe or a tourist zone like the Market.  People work here. People commute from here. And people drive from here. And some of those people take their cars to one of the auto repair shops.

Like us. This past weekend the heavens poured a small pile of snow on us and we decided it was time to put on the ol' winter tires (is this a purely Canadian tradition? Do people in Norway or Sweden put on winter tires every year?). So we dropped ours off at Jim Dickenson Auto Repair. Jim. Dickenson. If that isn't a proper auto repair sounding name I don't know what is!

Jim's shop

Having a repair shop within walking distance of your home is actually super convenient. These types of stores in Canada are often situated in massive parking lot deserts in the middle of nowhere, which forces you to stick around until the repairs are done.

But, honestly, I  have trouble imagining these shops will be around for many more years. The land they are sitting on must be worth a fortune. How tempting that must be for the owner to sell...and then "poof!" a new condo building...with probably a barber shop or ice cream store at the bottom! Oh well. Enjoy it while it lasts and then who knows. Maybe in a few years we'll all be in self-driving cars.

What do you think Margot?

More ice cream? Must be Wednesday!

Yeah. There's the Margot snap!

Daddy Daughter Wednesday Dates

Every Wednesday the past few weeks Glosette Girl has been in drama rehearsal for a play she's working on. And that means every Wednesday it's just Margot and me!

So does that mean it's time to do homework and take a bath?

No! It's time to go on a daddy-daughter-date!

Two weeks ago we visited Stella Luna. We almost had the whole place to ourselves and it was quite relaxing. Even though it's tuques and mittens weather Margot enjoyed a fat ice cream cone.

The day you eat ice cream wearing a tuque is the day you realize you're still young at heart

 I stuck to a big ol' fat cup of hot chocolate (really good by the way!) 

Really yummy

Last week we tried a coffee shop (Bridgehead). It was quite busy - full of people plugging away on their computers or reading newspapers (Question: do you think people who go to coffee shops are working, people watching or both? I've always wondered...)

 
I don't actually drink coffee so what did I get?

Why hot chocolate of course! Unfortunately it was a hot chocolate fail :( Too watery - yuck! At least Margot liked the cookies she got.

That girl in the back isn't actually working. She's spying!

Finally, tonight, we visited the Royal Oak, a nearby pub, for a late night (6:30 pm) plate of na-na-na NACHOS!

 
It's the loudest place we've visited yet with music and boisterous conversations.  Margot got into the rock-and-roll spirit.

What fun it is to be a dad on the town with your little girl! Maybe not the most responsible thing to do. But, seriously, what fun!

Bread by Us? ...Femme Focaccia!

I love having "locals". Local video store. Local library. Local school. It's just more human!

Bread by Us is our local bakery in Hintonburg.

I hit it up on a semi-regular basis.  Glosette Girl goes there so often the staff there associate her with her regular order: focaccia bread!

Femme Focaccia basking in the sun of her purchase

My favourite baked good? Their sourdough bread! It is amazing with a capital "ZING" and compliments soup perfectly! Pottage soup and sourdough bread...sooooo good....

But here's a tip: only go after 3 pm. If you go before 3 the bread is still too warm for the bakery to slice for you and for some bizarre reason that means it just doesn't taste as good. It's good...just not mmmm good! But be careful - if you go after 4 pm all the bread may be gone!

Kaiser Love

Of course, like most "local" stuff, the bread they sell is not as cheap as bread purchased at a grocery but you know what that means? It tastes like real bread!

The New Old History Museum

This past weekend was rainy.  Depressingly rainy. Depressingly November rainy - the type of rain that is so cold it almost falls as snow.  In other words, the perfect day to visit a museum (or stay home in your PJs and do laundry)

I haven't hit up Ottawa's Museum of History (formerly the Museum of Civilization) for a few years now. I used to go a lot when Margot was a toddler but lately we've focused more on hikes and activities than museums. But I'm glad we went.

They've really revamped the space to have a more modern feel and to emphasize Canada's aboriginal heritage. The "great hall" in the museum, which is full of totem poles and aboriginal art, has always been pretty cool.

Glosette Girl explains the Bill Reid sculpture

But the other showpiece of the museum, "the Canadian History Hall", now has a whole section devoted to pre-European contact whereas previously it previously much jumped from the Viking discovery of Newfoundland to the French and British colonists with little in between. It also presents the information in a more organic space and contains less hokey dioramas and more interactive multimedia displays.

This land is my land...

But really I think it was the way they presented aboriginal history that was the most impressive. It wasn't boring or preachy. It was interesting. Non-Canadians may not realize this but most non-aboriginal Canadians (at least in this part of the country) have practically no contact with aboriginal Canadians. So for many of us, this is new. Margot was certainty attentive as Glosette Girl explained the various panels and artifacts to her.

Anyways, we were so impressed we bought ourselves a museum pass. Great job History Museum curators!

Old House Problems

My house in Hintonburg is a little over 100 years old, which is pretty old for Canadian standards. It has lots of quirks...and more than a few problems to go along with them.

Oddly enough, if I was living in a new home every little problem would annoy me - a new home should be perfect. But this home literally has no completely straight walls or floors. Everywhere you look you can see some slight imperfection. Nothing is catastrophic but because there are so many little issues I don't mind any of them.

That said, there is a difference between problems affecting aesthetics and those affecting functionality. The former is no big deal but the latter can be downright annoying. And the worst is when it feels like everything is breaking at the same time. Just this week, for example, my garage door started jamming up, my kitchen sink stopped working and my freezer started leaking! Argh, there's only so much a man can take! Amazingly enough though, I was able to fix all three issues without too much fuss.

First, the sink. It turns out the screw in the middle of the sink was just loose. I tightened that up and now the sink drains fine.

Second, the garage door. Again, all it required was for me to tighten some bolts in the door. It's now back to its pre-jamming-but-rickety-old self.

Marshmallow keeping an eye on my work

Finally, the leaky freezer (which is part of the fridge). For weeks now my freezer has been occasionally leaking water and I had no idea why. It turns out there's a hole in the back of the fridge where water drains into and that was frozen over. So that had to be de-thawed and a little rubber piece that allows the water to drain had to be cleaned out.

A blow dryer is a legitimate tool

My hands have the scars to show for all this work but still it feels good that I was able to fix all these problems myself.* Who knew I could become such a handyman?!

Band-aids - proof of battle damage

* I can't take full credit for fixing the freezer issue. My good friend D noticed the problem and sent me a youtube video that showed me how to fix the problem.

Serendipitous Brownies

Do you ever wonder in awe at some of the serendipitous moments that pop up in life now and again?

One moment you may be attending a Brownie sing-along with your daughter and a few hundred other eager little girls on Parliament Hill and then, before you know it, you realize that your Brownie event has been crashed by a motley crew of pop and rock fans singing an impromptu memorial to Gord Downie, the late lead singer of the Tragically Hip!

Don't miss that sing-along Margot!

It wasn't supposed to happen this way but poor ol' Gord just happened to die the day that the sing-along was scheduled. Fortunately (for the Hip groupies as it's hard to compete with hundreds of little girls singing campfire songs) the two events didn't quite overlap. The Brownie event ended at 7:30 pm, which is just when the Tragically Hip tribute started to get rolling.

"Down by the bay where the watermelons grow...."

The nice thing about the whole experience was that the two groups actually merged for one song, a rousing rendition of "Oh Canada".

Singing Oh Canada on Parliament Hill as a tribute to Gord Downie - it doesn't get much more Canadian than that!

Just your typical Wednesday night in the nation's capital!

Gatineau Park by the Back Door

Glosette Girl and I used to go for walks in Gatineau Park all the time when we lived on the Quebec side of the border. The park is huge (361 square kilometeres) with many day use and over night trails.

I made it my mission to try all the day-use ones. Some are gentle. Some are rough and tumble. And some have historical plaques or sites. Personally, I just like walking in the woods. It's so peaceful!

Paradoxically, around this time of year, when the leaves are changing colour and many would say the park is at its most beautiful, accessing the park can be a bit of a pain it the butt. There are just too many tourists descending on the same few trails and lookouts hoping to snap their photo of "Canadiana".

The standard tourist route is to take the main road through the park, the Champlain Parkway, and stop at a few of the lookouts and maybe do a short hike (probably Pink lake) on the way up to the Champlain lookout, which overlooks Ottawa. It's a nice route but again the swarms of tourists take away from the experience.

Recently though, I discovered a new trail on the  north eastern edge of the park: Brown Cabin Trail.

Orange + yellow leaves = fall. Actually its been so mild there's still a lot of green...

Think of the park as a wedge. Most people drive up the middle to the lookout. To access the Brown Cabin trail you have to drive around the wedge, up Highway 5, and stop just before you get to the pretty village of Wakefield (side note - if Glosette Girl and I hadn't decided to become urbanistas we probably would have ended up here. Haha I probably would be walking around in mud splattered overalls after a day of harvesting up my organic crops right about now).

It's only just over 30 minutes from our house to get to the trail head, which is amazingly short amount of time to get to an a trail in an almost wild trail like this one. Plus, we were practically all alone! 

Showing off the latest in wood walking styles

Singing about Star Wars in the woods

The hike itself was two hours (6 km) roundtrip at Margot-speed. And there is a 4-season cabin with a wood burning fireplace you can rent in the middle to boot! Hmmm I may have to try that this winter...

Thankgiving Thanks

Things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving:

1. The local population of monkeys

They did this like 10 times

 2. Star Wars aficionados

A new generation of fandom is born!

3. mmmmm....Thanksgiving meat! (with apologies to all the vegetarians out there)

4. Playgrounds with turrets. Actually anything with turrets is pretty cool in my books. 

Unfortunately this playground is in Toronto. Boo! So far!

 5. Finding time for family

Piano Man

Here at Tough Cookies Hintonburg Style we don't rest on our laurels. No siree Bob!

If Margot does after school activities, the parents have to do do something too. So what does that mean exactly? Well it means that every Monday from 6:30-7 pm I now have Piano lessons.

Yes, stay tuned friends because a new virtuso is coming into the world!

Soon, soon I promise you, I will make hearts soar like an eagle and eyes water like Niagara Falls as I play the most dashing, most daring, most tricked out version of "Merry Had a Little Lamb" that has ever graced this fair and gentle land. "Simon Glen Parham Gould" - has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

Actually I just thought it would be fun to pick up a new hobby. Margot is at Brownies every Monday and it's the perfect time to skip across the street to where my piano teacher lives and grab half-an-hour for a quick lesson before scooting home for some practice on my bad boy:

OK, maybe that's not my normal piano (snapped this photo at a super cool event over the weekend). It's still fun to pick up something new though. The last hobby I took up was bird watching and that was...7 years ago maybe? I even blogged about it at the time. This feels different though. It's one thing to snap photos of birds now and again. It's another thing to pick up something that requires daily practice, discipline and finesse.

Its fun though. My job is very stressful and always in the back of my mind. But when I'm playing piano I have to be in the moment so I forget all about that. If nothing else it's worth it just for that!