This is not a Christmas zombie

My youngest son's favorite holiday is Halloween. When it's his birthday, he wants a Halloween birthday party. Now that it's the Christmas season, his artwork continues to reflect Halloween-ish themes with nary a baby Jesus, or a reindeer, to be seen.

Both of my sons are amazing with a pencil. Archie started drawing at about 5 years of old and hasn't stopped yet. If he's on the computer or watching a movie, it'll be with a pencil and paper at hand. He's been able to develop tremendous detail in his drawings and has moved on from simple figures to more complex scenes.

The work with a pencil has created a wonderful calligraphic touch in his printing. If we still call the talent of wielding a pencil "penmanship," then I can say that Archie's penmanship is quite lovely.

Angus, who started drawing at the same time as his brother, was three when he chose the pencil over the crayon. Now, as well as his interest and talent in drawing characters, Angus enjoys adding flourishes wherever he can. His homework has elaborate colour schemes and sketches of scenarios depicting what a good student ought to do.

Drawing is a wonderful interest, and one that has come in useful many times that I can tell. That this simple passtime will occupy both of my boys for hours on end is a blessing for the sons - and, for the mother who's taken them to so many (boring) meetings.

You'd like to know how to make a moist, chewy cookie?

Lots of people ask me how to make a better cookie - actually, they usually ask me how to make a good cookie. Like my grandmother, I'm loath to give away my secrets. Being as it's Christmas, and I seem to be in the giving mood, I will tell you this today: most people over bake their cookies.

Maybe you say, "the definition of 'over baked' depends on what kind of texture you prefer." Let me answer with a question: do you prefer dry and crumbly, or moist and chewy when it comes to cookies? If it's the first, then there's no hope for you.

OK. I'll agree that dry cookies have their place. If you intend to make your cookie for dipping in a beverage, then by all means cook it 'til it's hard as tack. Go for it if you're making tea cookies; and for biscotti, you'll be forced in this direction by double baking. Otherwise, please be kind to your cookie; take it out of the oven once it's set. You can say I'm fussy, and you'd be right. But, I have not met anyone who prefers an over baked crumb to one that is moist and soft.

Another benefit to properly cooked cookies is that they'll probably taste great for several days. I wouldn't know, because perfectly done cookies don't last in my house. (My cookie errors, as if to prove my point, stay around for weeks... and they do not improve with age.)

How will you know when your cookie is set? Well, dear, that comes with practice. (Again, channeling a relative, this time my own dear mother.) There are a few techniques you can employ while doing your homework on this. First up, if you're following a recipe, then it is probably telling you to leave the cookies in until they are overdone. You may think, "Why, Ms. Char, would anyone purposefully tell me to overcook my food?" In this case, I remind you of the way in which vegetables were cooked just a generation ago. By 2008 , most of us know that broccoli should be green and carrots should be orange. But, this bit of insight was hard-won. Overcooking is sometimes just a bad habit; the good news is that it's one you can change!

If your recipe says to bake cookies for 9-11 minutes, they may very well be ready by 8 minutes in, and almost certainly will be set by 9 minutes.

Another trick to try when gaging the done-ness of your baking is to pay attention. This should be written in every cookbook as "common wisdom." Alas, wisdom being not so common at all, you'll be ahead of the pack if you just watch what you have in the oven. You need to look at the cookies near the end of their baking. A little bit of golden-glow on the edges is fine; anything more and you're in crispy-cracker realm.

The final tidbit I'll let you in on is not to rush the transfer of the cookies. Cookies that are not overcooked need a few extra moments to gather themselves together before they go out into the world. The requisite one minute on the cookie tray is not enough. These gems actually have to begin cooling right on the baking tray.

The cookies themselves will communicate with you when they are not ready to be transfered to a cooling rack. If you pick up the cookie when it's not ready, you'll hear a little cookie voice saying, "I'm falling," and it will be falling apart making it very difficult to transfer. Get yourself a good set of 2 or 3 cookie baking trays - hey, Christmas is coming! - so that you can bake another tray while this one is cooling. If you time your work well, you should be just moving the last of the cookies from your first tray to the cooling rack when the second tray is ready to come out.

Okay, I'll admit that I've only given you a part of the good cookie baking secrets that I've garnered in years of baking at home and in pro kitchens. I'm just not ready to divulge everything at once.

Happy baking!

Festive Holiday Season

I find myself in the enviable position of having all sorts of parties and get-togethers this season. Last Christmas, I had the same ones. But, this year I'm so happy to have these festivities since there are all sorts of workplaces that have canned the usual holiday bash.

My workplace is on the crowded economic downhill ski slope. If there was talk about nixing the apres ski nosh, however, I wasn't privy to it. We did an afternoon tea, which was not so different than what we did last year.


My friend Harmony, on the other hand, who works for one of those pharmaceutical research facilities, had her office's Christmas party completely cancelled. It's not a very festive thing to do, and - here's one for the bottom line - it doesn't bolster the morale at all. I think this is typical of her company though, since in a regular year they don't even bother to allow employees to invite a date to the party (not even if they are spouses).


My volunteer org - the Saint Lazare Medical Response Unit - never invites spouses to the holiday party, either. Somehow, this doesn't bother me a bit. It's a different kettle of fish when you're vounteering. This thinking applies to the little company where I work, Picture This Productions, too. When the company is big, and so is the party, spouses ought to be invited along.

On the third hand, when the company brass offers you the choice between firing 10 employees and a Holiday party, what would you say, "Hmmm. Who is it that will get fired?"

What if the company has already laid off employees? It's kind of depressing to go to a party afterwards, and think of all the money they're spending on decorations alone let alone your fifth cosmopolitan.

In this situation, my advice is to just drink your troubles away.

That's what I planned to do at my partner's Christmas shindig. His financial services company always has the most lavish party of my holiday season. Black tie, shiny dress, five course meal. The concession this year - that we don't get to stay in a hotel room on the company's tab afterwards - was actually made due to a change of venue. The recession came after the party was already planned.

If I drink too much at this office party, and make an arse of myself, at least they can't put me up next on the chopping block.

Update: Unfortunately, I missed the party due to a bout of gastro. I promise to hold onto my plan for next year, though, so long as Rob still has a job.

The Inlaws Arrive, Bringing Dinner With Them

My parents-in-law arrived yesterday for the holiday break. They've been coming to our place every year since the kids were born, so this would be their ninth holiday season here. (Hey, we'll have to have a big party next year to celebrate their tenth!)

Butch and Margie, who are always extremely well organized, arrived with their dinner - and ours - already prepared. And, it wasn't sandwiches. No, it was Nova Scotia delicacies: lobster and roast bison. Both of these were already cooked, so all we had to do was provide the side dishes.



It's typical to have a side salad with lobster, potato salad being the more likely candidate. In this case we had two traditional creamy potato salads and a garden salad. For a more formal dinner, we'd have hot sides. But, for visitors just arriving and bringing their dinner with them, this was a lovely feast and a great holiday season meal.

Milton the warm-hearted snowman

Last night, I had quite a treat. The family went to see Archie's school Christmas concert. Now, every year I've gone to the concerts, and every year they are lovely. At least, I think they are. The thing of it is - I realize now - I've never actually gotten to pay attention to one.

Last night, Angus sat on Daddy's lap. I went to the back of the room to take pictures and watched the entire concert from that vantage point.

Aside: The fact that I had a black eye - a story for another day - and that Rob and I weren't sitting together was likely fodder for a bit of gossip...

From the back of the room, I was able to pay attention and, for the first time, follow the elaborate story and songs that my son and his classmates worked on for the last two months. It was beautiful!

Well done, son!

My Beloved First Responders

I've been a member of the Saint Lazare Medical Response Unit since its early days. I wanted to join in 2003, when they announced that there was going to be a first responder service in Saint Laz. At that time, Angus was just a babe in arms and Archie needed his Mama to take him on walks to the park.

It was in late 2003 - December 6, to be exact - that the service officially began providing emergency medical first response. The next year I joined what was to be for me a true commitment and an incomparable experience.

Last Thursday, we celebrated the service's fifth anniversary with a wine and cheese reception. Since I'm the PR person for the service, it was more or less my gig. That's exactly how I want it: I love the logistics, planning, and just all the behind-the-scenes details that need to be taken care of. Actually, I think what I love just as much is the superb feeling when all of those details are handled and the event goes as well as this one did. All of our team members were shining at just the right time. It's an exhilarating feeling.


Another feeling that can't be beat is meeting someone whose life you had a hand in saving. It actually happens rarely for first responders, since our job is in those first few minutes of a crisis. We rarely even find out what happened to a patient we treated. But, one of our cardiac arrest patients came to our little reception to say, "Thank you," to the people who were there on his emergency.

It truly is a privilege to serve.

Decorating Tree: Not a Religious Experience

Everyone I work with is Jewish. That's given me a chance to find out that I really, really like gefilte fish and that Hanukkah isn't that important of a holiday. I've enjoyed what small bits of Jewish culture I've been able to gleen from these folks. Somehow, the bunch I ended up working with, while Jewish, are not at all religious. That means that, while they're strong on history, and reliable on culture, they're a bit sketchy on traditions of the faith.

I'm more likely to know when it's a Jewish holiday than Maureen or David. Andrea will usually know that there is a holiday coming up, but not necessarily its import or its exact date. To be fair, although I am culturally Christian, I couldn't tell you when the third Sunday of the Advent is, or what it is, for that matter. I know that the Feast of the Assumption is on the 15th of August - but, I know that because it's also the day Acadians celebrate our so-called national holiday. Since I'm the one in my office who communicates with our clients, that's the reason that I have to keep track of the Jewish and Christian holidays.

My workmates seem to enjoy having a Christian who loves Christmas in their midst. This year, Maureen told me when she bought decorations "for me." Andrea has been playing Christmas music at every chance, and she timidly offered her help - as long as I would tell her what to do - when I was putting up the office xmas tree. We did a nice collaborative tree - or so we thought. It wasn't until David and Maureen's kids pitched in to put the finishing touches on that tree that our office got a warm, cozy 'holiday' spirit.

Some people are into holiday traditions, and some, well... after two years, I'm still waiting for my mates to set up a menora.

Kids and Christmas

The kids had an opportunity to sit on Santa's lap last weekend. It was the annual Investors' Group kids Christmas party. This year, they were both truly looking forward to it.


After waiting through all the kids from 0 to 5 years old, Angus had to go to the washroom just as Santa began calling up the six-year olds. Run to the washroom; run back to the Santa room. As we're zipping down the hall we hear, "Angus MacIsaac Vacon," and Angus rounds the corner, zig-zags through the room, bounding up onto Santa's lap. Perfect!


Archie tells me he didn't get a chance to tell Santa what he wanted, but he has since written a note to Santa outlining the three Metroid video games (in order of preference) that would really make his Christmas complete.

Christmas is my favourite time of the year. Watching the kids get excited adds now to my own pleasure in this season. Sure, their zeal is largely centred on presents; so was mine when I was their age. What I didn't realize then is that it is - and really always was - about the whole Christmas season. It's the family, and the baking, the decorations, and the time off to enjoy it all that keeps Christmastime full of wonder.

All the same, here's hoping the old guy delivers!

Today I'll start a blog

The drive in this a.m. was slower and later than usual. We had a snow and ice storm yesterday, and it was just getting cleaned up this morning. So, I had lots of time to tune in to the radio on my later than usual a.m. drive.

I've been listening to the new CBC Radio 2, but opted for Radio One today (yes, the CBC spells out the 'one' but not the '2'). Surprise! There's new programming on 2, too. Nora Young, hosting a show called Spark, was wrapping on ongoing series with a blogging expert.

Now, these tech/media segments usually leave me feeling cold. And, old. I only this week realized that an i-phone and an i-pod touch are two different things. I'm behind the times, yet I still want to be in the know - a frustrating mix that is sometimes exacerbated by these techie know-it-alls coming from my old fashioned radio. Mediating this, however: Nora Young. I can't get enough of her.

Her guest, Merlin Mann, the blogging guy, summed up his truly enlightened thoughts on blogging by encouraging everyone just to try it.

So, I am.