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Lester's Okanagan Blog
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Angela's Christmas Concert |
| Canadian Spirit Newsletter February 2008 Newsletter No. 3 Wow, Christmas just flew by and it is already a month into 2008. I hope everyone had a great time during the holiday season. We had a lot of fun celebrating our first Christmas here in Penticton. For Atsuko and the kids it was their first Canadian Christmas and I haven’t celebrated a Christmas in Canada since 1988 so I almost forgot what it was like! The first visible signs of Christmas were the store decorations which started to appear around late November. This also happens in Japan so it wasn’t much of a reverse culture shock for me. However, what really caught me off guard were the Christmas lights and decorations outside people’s homes! I forgot how much Canadians get into plastering their homes with endless strings of coloured lights running along the sides, walls, and roofs – basically anywhere and everywhere. An even bigger surprise were the huge lawn decorations! I remember people would sometimes put fake Santas on their roofs but I wasn’t prepared for the huge plastic snowmen, reindeer, elves, nativity scenes, you name it all over their front lawns. A couple of times we drove around at night marvelling over the time and effort people spent decorating their homes. Popular topics of conversation in early December centered around: the arduous task of putting up the lights, which lights were the best, where you could buy the cheapest lights, how many lights to put up, when to turn them on and off, and other strategies of light decorating! It was a new side of Christmas I had never experienced before and I was impressed with the planning and effort people took to make their houses capture the Christmas holiday mood. Another surprise was the school Christmas concert. When I was a kid the only thing we would do for our Christmas concerts was sing 3 Christmas Carols in front of our parents in the school gym. We would come on stage, stand in 3 rows (first row on the stage floor, second row kneeling on a long bench, and third row standing on a long bench – giving it a 3 tiered sort of look!), quickly sing our 3 songs and wave at our parents, and then leave. Each grade would take their turn and it would be all over in about an hour or so. Well, Christmas concerts certainly have changed! We received a newsletter in early December announcing Angela’s Christmas concert would be a combination of the grades 3, 4, and 5 classes and it would be held at the Cleland Theatre in Penticton. Not one but two concerts would be held – one in the morning and one in the evening. The reason for this is the Christmas concert is so popular they cannot fit all the parents and relatives into the theatre so 2 shows had to be held. The seating capacity at the theatre is about 500 so they expected about 1,000 people to show up for the 2 shows! The Christmas concert was an amazing production with singing, dancing, flashing lights, wild sound effects, you name it. It was something right out of a Broadway musical and Atsuko and I were so blown away! I look back on my Christmas concerts in shame now! The title of the play was “The Legend of Polar Mountain” and it was a winter musical about 2 Inuit children who get lost in a snowstorm and their magical journey back to their village. It is a wonderful story with an excellent musical score. I cannot imagine how much time and effort it took to put on such a production but they pulled it off magnificently. Atsuko was actually moved to tears in a few spots and thoroughly enjoyed herself. I cannot wait to see what they do next year! I also forgot how much Canadians get into the “Christmas gift-buying spirit” during the holiday season. The stores and malls were absolutely jam-packed with shoppers, and people were going nuts buying anything and everything they could get their hands on. According to Scotiabank, Canadians spent an average of $907 on Christmas gifts and VISA Canada estimated Canadians spent around $23 billion doing their Christmas shopping. That is a lot of money!! Atsuko and I are both very non-materialistic, careful spenders and together we spent around $200 on Christmas gifts which we thought was more than enough - $1,600 less than average! I prefer spending time with family and friends rather than spending money on gifts during the holiday season. For me, time is far more valuable than money. We took the kids tobogganing about 3 times with family and friends, and it was so much fun! It was wonderful being out in the woods in the snow and sliding down the hills and I will never forget it. We also had a fantastic Christmas dinner at a friend’s house with a total of 15 of us at the table. It was a chance to catch up on what had been happening in everyone’s life and an opportunity to meet new people and hear all about their tales of adventure. Christmas is a very special time but a time for great experiences, getting close to people, and lifelong memories rather than a time for shopping. Am I alone in this way of thinking – I hope not! Winter has been a very special time for Atsuko. It has been a lot of “firsts” for her: first time on a toboggan, first time at a ski resort, first time with temperatures below 0, and first time seeing big horn sheep and a moose with her calf! I want to take her cross country skiing and snowshoeing too but maybe this will be a bit too much for a first winter in Canada (maybe next year?). I have a cousin who has a ski cabin on Mount Baldy Ski Resort which is about a 90 minute drive south of Penticton. We went up there in late December and again last week, and it is a beautiful part of the Okanagan Valley. The roads are very well maintained so there is no problem driving, and the surrounding countryside is absolutely gorgeous. The resort is small compared to the other large ski resorts in the Okanagan but this also means skiers and snowboarders can zoom down the runs to their heart’s content all day long without ever having wait in line at the lifts. The views from the top of the hill to the valley below are breathtaking – a very special place indeed. If all goes according to plan we will be spending the night at the ski cabin sometime soon which should be a lot of fun. Lester’s Okanagan Blog Here is a link to the Blog (complete with photos) to keep track of what has been happening to us in the Okanagan. In the January 2008 Blog you can read about: -Christmas in Penticton -Mt. Baldy Ski Resort -Penticton Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Meeting -Cross Country Skiing at Nickel Plate Nordic Centre -More Impressions of Life in the Okanagan http://www.canadianspiritservices.com/blog4-e.htm Atsuko’s Blog Here is a link to the latest instalment of Atsuko’s Blog (written in Japanese) http://www.canadianspiritservices.com/blog3-j.htm I will be in Osaka and Kobe from February 20 to March 2 to promote our business, and I would love to see as many of you as possible. If you have time let’s get together for a coffee (or a cool drink – I miss Japanese beer and sake so much!). |
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Angela's Christmas Concert |
Angela's Christmas Concert |
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