Month: December 2021

What Did You Learn Today?

This week I have been learning something new every day: Monday I heard about a seiche (look it up), Tuesday I tried a new recipe of Beef Barley Soup, Wednesday my friend told me about her amigurumi (again, look it up), Thursday I learned about The Golden Key, and now today Friday, I heard a new Christmas song I’ve never heard before, “Dominick the Donkey.” Maybe this month I will focus on learning something new every day and consciously play tribute to it.

As a teacher, I often would review the day with my students with “What did we do today?” I wanted it fresh in their minds so that when their parents asked the same question, they would maybe have an answer instead of “Nothing.” My favourite radio station CHYM with Brady and Tara does the same thing at the end of their morning programming. “What did we learn today?” Brady asks. I like it because I get a short outline of what went on that morning as I usually don’t hear their whole program.

So, what did you learn today? Or, recently? Enjoy the song!

Memories of Christmases Past – A Story of Frogs

This morning I had a Facebook conversation with a writer friend, Carolyn Wilker. She had posted a picture and comment about her Christmas tree and its decorations. We ended up listing the variety of ornaments we had on our Christmas trees and shared a little bit about the stories behind them, as she said, “Stories of love on our Christmas trees.” I told her that there was a story for every decoration on my Christmas tree. Here’s one of them.

Between 2001 and 2010, Tom, an old high school friend who later became my husband, was a part of my life.When I first started dating my Tom, I noticed he had a small collection of frogs in his home. I began looking for other frogs to add to his collection and bought him a colourful, whimsical frog as a decoration for our first Christmas tree. So began a new tradition.

Each Christmas, a new shiny frog was added to the tree to celebrate another happy year together for us. Each one was unique and different and acted as a symbol of our love and time together.

After six years of love, we were married. Just before our fourth wedding anniversary, Tom was diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer. Seven months later, just before Christmas, the cancer took Tom’s life.

We had ten devoted years together. Ten frogs on the Christmas tree are a reminder every year of that fulfilling love that I shared with that wonderful man.