Lise's Ramblings

For more than a week now, whenever my phone would ring, I’d shriek “Has the baby arrived?” Then, I’d dash to see if call display showed a number from my mom or either of my sisters.   Yesterday, THE call came in. My brother-in-law phoned to announce that my youngest sister delivered another healthy niece. Yay! Bienvenue au monde, ma petite nièce, sobrina, nipote, systerdotter, neptem…[I’m researching how to say niece in other languages, at least until this infant has her own name.   :)  ] I’m thrilled that the proud parents could experience a safe, home birth with the help of their gifted midwife, Jackie. Best of all, my niece has entered a world of love. The day she arrived, she was surrounded by her incredible parents, an adorable sister, a beaming grandmother and the doting Howard. And that’s the people who happened to be under the same roof. Love was showered on her at a distance by her aunties and uncles from Vancouver, Ottawa and Charlottet...

On December 24 th , I witnessed a three-year-old girl in the throes of pre-Christmas jitters well after her bedtime. She understood Santa only visits children who are fast asleep, but she was too excited to settle down for the night. Miss Emma exhausted nearly every trick in the book as she tried to get us adults to humour her efforts to stay up. Do you recall your childhood anticipation of Christmas morning? Presents aside, think back to how eager you were as you tapped your toes and waited for loved ones who were traveling during the holidays. Do you remember the rush you felt as they pulled into the driveway or as you spotted them in the airport or train station? That eagerness tends to fade as we grow up, but I know a few elf-like grown-ups who still embrace Christmas with the enthusiasm of a preschooler. Saint Nicholas may not deliver everything their hearts desire, but those believers are children at heart, so they retain both the magic and romance of Christmas. ...

Sweet Makayla pours tea What a diminutive word for an amazing beverage steeped in history. Tea spans classes, cultures, tastes, languages and generations. How many drinks can you name that: date back to the first millennium BC? are derived from such diverse sources? involve incredibly varied customs and ceremonies? taste great either hot or cold? are prepared in special rituals around the world? serve medicinal purposes, warm the body and the heart, and soothe troubled spirits? are as equally suited to quiet, private moments as to grand occasions?  brewed trade wars, came to symbolise a pivotal moment in the American Revolution, was considered an essential ration and morale booster for soldiers? are considered fit for children, convicts, royalty and everyone in between? bring people together for an excuse to sample goodies, chatter, gossip, work, relax, and more? are poured from silver tea services, brown betties, china, wood, stainless st...

Choices galore. Casting my eyes on a  slew of new-to-me books promises hours of future enjoyment. A sampling of my reading selections from the Christmas loot. Sure, ebooks are convenient, but they’ll never give me the same rush as spotting a physical stack of as-of-yet unread books.       AWESOME!

Playful. Informative. Refreshing. Brand power. That’s how I would describe the doodles that appear on Google’s home page. The varied illustrations have honoured countries, individuals, special days and moments in history. Early doodles, which date back to 1998, merely spelled the name Google with a sprinkling of decorative details. Now, doodles range from works of art to multimedia celebrations (e.g., the Les Paul guitar you can strum with your cursor). One of the most wildly popular doodles appeared on May 21, 2010, when Google commemorated PAC-MAN’s 30 th anniversary with an interactive doodle encouraging people to play the retro video game. Last week, I was pleased to see that Google launched an official archive for its doodles: http://www.google.com/doodles/finder . Now if only Google would let me embed selected doodles for your viewing pleasure. Instead, the best I can do is provide you with links to my favourite doodles of 2011: February 8 : Jules Verne’s...

It’s odd that most of the Christmas classics tend to be ones filmed back in the 1940s through to the late 1960s. Here are some examples of the major ones: ·           Holiday Inn (1942) ·           It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) ·           Miracle on 34 th Street (1947) ·           Scrooge (1951) ·           White Christmas (1954) ·           Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) ·           The Sound of Music (1965) ·           A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) ·           How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) ·       ...

I’ve blogged about traditions relating to Easter and birthdays , but never about those from the most festive time of year. Growing up in my family, Christmas was about so much more than gifts. Now ours wasn’t a Grinch-like existence. There were presents. I’m not saying, “it came without ribbons…it came without tags…it came without packages, boxes or bags!” It's just that "Maybe Christmas...doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps... means a little bit more."  Years later, I was thrilled to meet Canada's Prima Ballerina while volunteering at a Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation fundraiser at the National Arts Centre.    I can tell you that a few gifts stood apart; however, my strongest positive Christmas associations are that the season was marked by family visits and our festive rituals. There were many, but four traditions stand out clearest in my mind and heart. Attending the Christmas pantomime. Year after year, we would get d...

Parents connect with us in a way that goes beyond a mere relationship. They’re part of our identity and help shape us through our formative years and beyond. Parents often say that until they had children of their own they didn’t know the depths of love and hadn’t experienced their true capacity to love. I believe it, because I’ve seen family and friends who transformed when they welcomed daughters and sons into the world. Sleeplessness and worries couldn’t shroud their love. Plus, as our parents’ children, we sense that love first hand. We see love in their eyes and actions. We hear it in their words. We feel it in their embraces. We rely on that love. We believe in that love. This past week, it was heart-wrenching to witness friends grieving the loss of a beloved parent. One friend’s elderly mother died last week after suffering from chronic illness. A second friend, whose dad died of a sudden heart attack when she was young, struggled with the anniversary of his death. ...

 Image credit: The Globe and Mail  On Wednesday, I received a digital version of The Globe and Mail 's 1911 Christmas edition. Based on that edition, you wouldn't know that the world was undergoing technological, artistic, business and political change. The year 1911 marked: a shift in Canadian politics as Sir Robert Borden replaced Sir Wilfred Laurier;  the Mona Lisa's theft from the Louvre; the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in Westminister Abbey;  Mexican revolutions; a U.S. antitrust ruling against oil baron and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil prompts the company to divide into 34 companies and results in increased profits; Louis Chevrolet and William C. Durant founding Chevrolet; Nobel Laureate Ernest Rutherford's major advances with atoms; the acquisition of Hollerith Tabulating Machine Company (its new parent company would eventually brand itself IBM); the death of Jo...

I love it when I find purse hooks on washroom doors or walls. That's right, there's no need to set a purse on the floor (yuck), balance it on the hard-cover toilet paper dispenser or sling it across your shoulder and hope it doesn't touch anything. Designers already work with architects to plan washrooms with many other ways to avoid icky surfaces. There are energy-efficient lights that turn off when no one is around. Sensors automatically flush toilets, pump soap, turn on taps and power up hand dryers. Wall-mounted containers even dispense anti-bacterial solution when you pass a hand beneath them. So why is it that when you try to leave the washroom you face a door handle you know has been touched by people who skipped the hand-cleaning stations? Nasty! Instead of a germ-riddled door handle, it's great when bathrooms have a labyrinth-like entrance. As an added bonus, when you're in a long queue waiting for a stall to free up, you don't have to worry a...

Back in 2010, I blogged about the healthy foods I enjoy at this time of year: clementines and pomegranates . But the foods we associate most with Christmas tend to be ones we wouldn’t dream of consuming outside of December. Even if we combined all the high-calorie foods from Easter, Val entine’s, Hallowe’en and Thanksgiving, we wouldn’t even come close to the sinful totals we rack up at Christmas. Why? Because resistance is futile. Our senses get bombarded by enticing sights, smells and tastes of the season. Advertisers tease us. Parties lure us with all sorts of temptations. Store shelves and bake sale tables are heaped with choices. Even our own family traditions drive us to get baking. Beyond the yumminess factor, I’m guessing that we’re compelled to devour and guzzle more than our fair share because of the scarcity threat. Let’s face it, we know that if we don’t grab them while the going’s good, then we’ll have to wait another year before the following “food groups...

Dr. William Glasser, a famous psychiatrist, asserts that people are “driven by genetics to satisfy five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom and fun.” His math adds up to five, because he counts love and belonging as a single need. Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche and son of a former Governor General of Canada, disagrees. He contends that that need to belong runs far “deeper than the need to be loved.” As children, one of the worst threats a classmate could fling at you ran something along these lines: “Oh yeah, well you’re not invited to my birthday party.” The danger wasn’t that you’d miss out on cake. No, it was that you’d be excluded. Inclusion was important then and the same holds true for us as adults. Grown ups may not lose sleep about birthday parties, but we go to great lengths to feel accepted by members of social clubs, families, professional associations, sports teams, churches, unions, classes, sororities/fraternities, volunteer groups, guil...

Children pick up languages with such ease while the rest of us struggle to learn languages in adulthood. We take great pains to pronounce letter combos in different ways, write special symbols and characters, memorize new grammar structure, train our ear and brain to decipher new languages, and generally decode the new language.  Our reasons for pursuing a new language may vary (e.g., access to more jobs, ability to communicate with someone in particular, convenience when traveling abroad, a reason to meet new people), but one thing we all share is the desire to reach that point when another language makes sense without effort. That crucial point might be when you realize you’re reading without looking up every second word. Or, maybe it’s the first time you listen to someone and realize that you understood every spoken word without consciously translating what was said. And the sweetest one of all is when you get up the courage to use your new language in a co...