VirginiaMiddleton.ca

At 7:35 p.m., my husband Matt and I fly home to St. John’s for the holidays.

I’ll attempt a few updates while there, but will confess right now that I may be a little slack over the next two weeks as we haven’t been home since June and there are a lot of friends and family to visit.

Happy holidays Internets!
Virginia

The past few days have left me with a mild bout of writer’s block and while I have a few drafts in the works, I popped over to Livejournal and accessed some suggestions for blog/journal entries.

Here’s what we have…

If  you could keep only one of your five senses – taste, touch, smell, sight, or hearing – which would you choose and why?

Personally, this is a really tough question! My initial thought is “Sight. I’m 100% sure about that”, but after reading them over, the thought of losing touch is also really bothersome. Not being able to feel the touch of another person, to sense the wind whipping past you, and losing the warmth felt from a burning campfire – no thank you!

I guess my initial preference for sight is that as someone who wears glasses and doesn’t have the best vision on a good day, the idea of losing my ability to see is really terrifying. Not being able to see my surroundings really strikes a cord with me.
Morbid Moment: Whenever I pass on/expire/cease living (Monty Python reference!), I hope it’s possible to donate my eyes to someone who can still use them (why be greedy when someone else can benefit?).

Now it’s time for a confession – I LOVE food. It’s not a secret and the way I see it, the more garlic in a dish the better! But if I lost my sense to taste or smell, that would be terrible! Horrifying!! Now that I think about it, if I lost taste and touch at the same time, could I even eat?!?! Gnawing on your tongue doesn’t count as a meal…

Losing the ability to hear would of course be very unpleasant and not something I’m eager to experience. I’m a talker; I’ll admit (no confession needed there!). Not being able to hear other people or even hear what I’m saying (to help ensure I make sense) would really put a damper on my ability to communicate! It wouldn’t snuff it out completely of course (lots of people are unable to hear), but I’m embarrassingly bad at reading lips, so it would be interesting to say the least… there’d be a lot of “what?” and “no that’s not what I said…” I’m also a music lover and while country music really isn’t my thing, I’m happy to listen to just about anything else. I find listening to music to be calming, energizing and a great way to get motivated.

I’m really starting to believe that this was a trick question!! Doesn’t the sense of touch pretty much impacts all of the senses if it’s gone (with only  sight, would you still be able to blink?!). Mayby I’m over thinking this…

At the end of the day, I still feel strongly about sight, but am left feeling that I really take my five senses for granted…

How would you answer the question above? What sense (if given a choice) could you simply not live without?

As mentioned in my previous post, as time allows, I will post an expanded version of my Friday Fives.

Here are some additional details to my December 4 Friday Five…

1. Enjoy family traditions

This is something I could talk and write about all day and night and there would never be enough time to cover everything. Christmas and the holidays have always been a big deal in my family and I’ve dug up two videos that can help visualize what it’s like for us. Every year, relatives from both my Mom’s and Dad’s families get together to celebrate this special time of year.

There are often sing-alongs, lots of food and many laughs. Click on the videos twice to see their YouTube details.

 

 

2. See the Christmas lights in those hidden pockets of the city

Do you have any idea how intense the Christmas decorating is in St. John’s and the surrounding communities?!

There are houses that are pretty much covered from top to bottom with lights and colours. I’ll try to get some photos and video footage this year to really show how crazy and awesome it can be.

 

 

3. Have an annual dinner with friends from high school

It may seem odd to a lot of people, but most of my friends back in St. John’s have been my closest and dearest friends since High School (even Junior High and Elementary School for some!). Amongst a few of us is a tradition to get together on December 23rd. We normally have a potluck, but this year we’re going out for dinner. We have a blast and it’s a great tradition that will hopefully continue for many more years.

 4. Spend time with my parents and immediate family

I have a lot of family and friends in St. John’s and it isn’t always possible to see EVERYONE in 10 short days.

It has literally been a year and half since I last saw my brother, sister-in-law and two adorable nieces! We’re all pretty excited that we’re all home for Christmas this year and being able to spend time with them and my parents is going to be so great!

This photo was taken in St. John’s Airport back in either 2006 or 2007 just before my husband Matt and I returned to Toronto.

 

5. RELAX

Going home is always fun, but relaxing isn’t always something that happens easily. With so many friends and family to see and things to do – it can leave you exhausted and a bit dizzy by the end of it all. My poor husband is used to a much quieter Christmas and he’s a real trooper to keep up with me and the fast pace of it all.

This holiday season, I hope to read more, work on some knitting and make sure I feel rested when returning to work on January 4th.

 

 

So those are my hopes for the holidays. What are your plans? Did any of the above seem familiar to you? Do you have certain traditions or “must haves” that really make this season magical for you?

Going forward, I’m planning to try and do a semi-regular “Friday Five” where I’ll take a topic and list five views, opinions or simply list five things about the topic.

I’ll keep these entries relatively short where possible, but also aim to make them entertaining.

Friday Five – Things I want to do while in St. John’s over the holidays

1. Enjoy family traditions
2. See the Christmas lights in those hidden pockets of the city
3. Have an annual dinner with friends from high school
4. Spend time with my parents and immediate family
5. RELAX

This is a rather crazy week for me, so I’ll try to give an expanded update (with photo!) to detail each point a little more.

Two weeks ago (November 15 – 21, 2009) was National Bullying Awareness Week.

Bullying is a concern for kids, teens and even adults every single day. And while it’s important to talk about it during the other 51 weeks of the year, having a week dedicated to talking about this problem is something I strongly encourage.

On a positive note, there were a lot of great news stories, blog entries and media coverage that talked about bullying and cyber-bullying. In fact, the Toronto Star and ParentCentral.ca covered a great story on cyber-bullying.

What really upsets, angers and saddens me is that during that same week of awareness, November 20 is unofficially known as National Kick a Ginger Day. It stems from a South Park episode that was in 2005.

Throughout North America, there are  reports that students in uban, remote and rural communities participated in Kick a Ginger Day. I heard about it last Monday and as someone who was bullied in junior high, thought, “Enough is enough; I have something to say about this.”

So what are your thoughts on bullying and Kick a Ginger Day? Is it just a silly joke that we’re taking too seriously? Should we expel and publicly punish anyone promoting this targeting tactic? Is there somewhere we can meet in the middle?

For me, bullying is wrong. Plain and simple.