In 1969 our family moved from Ontario to Quebec and our parents decided it was time to buy our first home. Up until then we had always lived in PMQ’s (Private Military Quarters) on various military bases. The only time we had lived off base was at the very beginning, when I was a baby. We lived somewhere near Merville, France, where my sister was born. At that time we were actually renting a trailer.
Our new house was an interesting specimen. It cost all of $9,000, had no basement other than dirt, and used to serve as the local school a long time beforehand. Our parent’s bedroom was on the main floor and us kids took over the upstairs. We had three bedrooms and one “spare room” as we called it. It was an open area just by the stairs.
The second floor was most unusual because it had three attics. The roof was very steep so we had an attic running the length of both sides of the house, and one big attic above our rooms. I remember the only kind of insulation this attic had in it was wood chips. For some reason our parents thought it was ok to scoop some of this up to use for our pet hamsters every time we cleaned their cages. Dad must have replaced it with proper insulation when he renovated the place and sold it years later.
The side attics were the best. The east attic had it’s entrance in the spare room. The west attic door was in Jeff and Michel’s room. We knew there was a train set somewhere and I soon discovered it was accessed through their room. I remember hinting and suggesting that Dad set it up for us sometime. But I don’t ever remember being successful with that.
Instead, one Christmas Dad started giving Tyco train set pieces to my three brothers. As a couple of years passed and more pieces had been bought, he eventually set up this large piece of plywood with a permanent track arrangement. It was fun to watch the boys play with their trains.
Last year, after opening our Christmas gifts at home, our family travelled to Wainwright to be with my brother Jeff’s family. Lo and behold he had his own train track set up under their Christmas tree. He was all ready to show us what he had put together. It brought back sweet memories of a time long past.
This year I decided I might as well buy our own train set. Why not? So I went in search of the best one I could find. I didn’t want to spend too much on this experiment because we have five daughters and I wasn’t sure that they would think this was a good idea. I was surprised to find that Canadian Tire, Zellers, Wal-Mart and Superstore all had economical Christmas train sets this year. I had never noticed them before.
I purchased two different sets and at our next Family Home Evening we let Karren and Jami, our youngest, choose which one they liked best. One of them could actually be set up in a Christmas tree, above ground, but alas it was not the chosen one. The girls preferred the Zellers version that includes six cars and Santa sliding up and down a plastic snowy hill that is mounted on one of the cars. Two of the cars are open so the girls have placed two of our small wrapped gifts inside to run around the track.
At Wal-Mart I found a nice little ceramic gazebo with tiny double A battery-powered Christmas lights. I added a ceramic bridge, two little white picket fence sections, four tiny evergreen trees and another double A battery-powered street lamp. It’s not the nicest set-up out there but it’s still fun to fiddle with. Today I added eight little coloured pom poms that the girls had made into imaginary hamsters, googly eyes and tiny pom pom feet included. Now they get to go on a train ride with everything else.
The only change I had to make to the train set was to disconnect the Christmas music on the engine car. It was nice to start with but just too annoying to listen to all day when the girls are playing with the train. It took some doing. I had to take the engine apart to find the wires that needed clipping. We can play real Christmas music on the stereo instead.
There are a lot of neat things about the Christmas Season. I enjoy re-living childhood memories, the gift giving and receiving, and people around the world focusing more on peace, love and compassion towards others. This season most definitely brings out the best in us.
I found an intriguing observation in an article I was reading just the other day. Its truthfulness is embraced in the birth and message of the Christ child. "Happiness is still more contagious than sadness, it spreads a lot more quickly and everybody is in a position to give it to anybody." - Beth Palmer
Handel's Messiah:
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
CHORUS
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Merry Christmas to one and all!
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