It is just a few days before Christmas and all through our space
we’ve got packages of face masks sitting all over the place.
We have paper masks and cloth masks and some made from bamboo
all designed to keep us safe and to catch germs from unstoppable a-choos.
They are adorned with owls, horses, poppies and logos to make us smile
as we go from shop to shop, supporting owners along Moose Jaw’s Golden Mile.
We did some of our shopping by buying gift cards through Golden West
knowing these local suppliers would be happy to see us and give us their best.
On a snowy day in October, ingredients were mixed for the Christmas cake
but then, horrors, the power went out, leaving two hours for the layers to bake.
We wondered if those expensive fruits and raisins and eight eggs would be wasted
but electricity was restored, baking proceeded and eventually cakes were tasted.
The family Christmas letter has been written, trying to keep it positive and upbeat
but news of diseases and ailments and car accidents has reduced it to a single sheet.
We have little to report except medical appointments and trips to the grocery store
and certainly our friends and relatives will be relieved we didn’t write any more.
Will our Christmas gathering be down to five members, with family from afar
or will the extras be rotated in the front, out the back or will they eat in the car?
Despite all the questions about this Christmas season and our celebrations
we will enjoy our street’s Nativity scene that every year gives us inspiration.
There will be Hallmark movies to watch, baking to be munched and enjoyed
and turkey parts, stuffing, vegetables, cake and yes, the diet will be destroyed.
Too soon the day will be over, thoughts will turn to another new year
with hope for the future as we raise some eggnog in a toast of good cheer.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, and you and also to you as well,
may good health and prosperity be yours, and gatherings again would be so swell.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
And so there you have yet another attempt to find words that rhyme, that convey some idea of what’s happened and what might be expected in this truly unusual and tumultuous Christmas season.
Hopefully Santa Claus and his elves will bring some of the gifts that have been requested through social distancing measures and traditional letters. If he doesn’t, he has good reasons for he too has had to improvise in this pandemic crisis.
Improvisation has been well done in this community: local on-line shopping programs, drive-by Santa Claus parade and food bank collections, drive-through Nativity story translated into several languages, expanded toy drives, large donations to specialized organizations and charities, new contests for residential Christmas lighting, Christmas videos to replace traditional concerts and musical productions, pick-up and delivery of seasonal dinners, secret Santas and letters for seniors, extra cards to Canadian military personnel — all among the ways Moose Jaw and area residents have stepped up and come forward.
From our house to houses here and there, we wish you a lovely Christmas Day, even if the day is different and some of the traditions have been eliminated this year.
Call your family, phone your friends and be together in the many ways offered by technology. Attend a Christmas Eve service through virtual means, put on a CD of Christmas music, and poke those parcels that cannot be opened until Christmas morning.
It is still possible and desirable to truly remember the Reason for the Season.
Merry Christmas.
Joyce Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
