Well, I'm waiting for my butter to warm up so I can whip it into some fluffy
shortbread cookies to share with my pals at the pub. I thought I'd let you
know what's up in my corner of the world.
While the rest of Ontario has
been blanketed in a thick coating of white, my little town has escaped most
of it...I swear Kingston is in a bubble. Today (Sunday, December 12, 2010) the prediction of freezing
rain sent shivers down my spine. That is definitely my least favourite type
of precipitation. Especially when I have to go out in it. I played a tree
gig in Gananoque today.... maybe I should explain that.
My
favourite part of this season (other than the cookies) is the singing. So
long ago I started a playbook of carols and entertained the kids from the
Post Office at the annual party as an elf. Then a co-worker gave me a Hallowe'en costume she had worn of a Christmas tree.
Well, I started playing
all sorts of odd gigs with that. So private parties, outside venues and
company bashes in the London area were likely to find me, as a tree, playing
to the little cherubs before the fat man in red showed up. This has not
always been an easy crowd. What with a very picky eight-year-old picking up
on my 'oops' in the Grinch lyrics and correcting me on the spot. "Yes dear,
quite right dear, it is a greasy black peal, not and oily black peal, my
mistake, I promise I'll never make that mistake again." Or when the area in
front of where I set up my equipment becomes a zone for whirling dervishes
and wobbly little dumplings to collide.
I hand out bells on
pipecleaners in festive colours and invite the offspring of the company
rank-and-file to join in the band. Some come right up beside me and try to
take over the mic. Some parents abandon their charges and leave me with 60
to 100 wee ones all hopped up on sugar doughnuts and hot chocolate.
Security!?! Ah, I wouldn't miss it for the world. I get my kid fix for the
year and except for a few tears and the occasional sugar-induced melt down
most of the kids have almost as much fun as I do.
So today was the
Ludlow Tech Christmas bash in Gananoque. I've done this party for enough
years that the kids remember me and I look forward to seeing them again. The
girls in their princess dresses, the boys all scrubbed and wearing crisp new
shirts. This year there was a little one who must have just started walking
recently who had all the wobbly moves of Charlie Chaplin, swaying
precariously in front of me. Now how am I supposed to keep the guitar
chords, lyrics and melody going AND a straight face? Well, she wobbled until
her gigantic cranium's momentum won out and she landed squarely on her
ballooned out bottom. Before she could bellow her parental unit, who I could
have sworn wasn't watching, I swooped in and scooped her in a comforting
embrace and turned the possible howl into a giggle. Magic! Moms are
magic.
In St.Thomas I've been doing the Fantasy of Lights "Santa
Night" long enough that some of the original kids are now bringing their
kids. Sadly I won't be able to do that one this year for the first time
since I started. Last year one of the little guys mother said that when he
got out of school his first thought was about singing with the tree. Not
Santa or presents. His first and only thought was about being in my
band...
...and that's what Christmas is all about Charlie
Brown.