Opinion

Hello folks. Well, Christmas is almost here and I want to take a moment to wish everyone a happy and joyful holiday season. This year, the celebration will be a little different.

'Tis the holiday season, that magical, crazy, mixed-up time of year when the world, at least in some countries seems to pause in celebration – yet we end up scurrying at work and home more than ever. The season of course is changing for Canadians.

My wife Mahli and I watched a Christmas movie the other night. I’m a sucker for a good Christmas movie. And there was this scene at the end where the family was just sitting around the living room, telling stories, enjoying each other’s company.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Pattie Janzen is a registered nurse/sonographer who currently works in Yorkton, SK. She has three children, three ‘kids-in-law’ and 10 grandkids. Janzen likes to see the humour in the world around her and sometimes writes about it.

I’m seven years old. It’s Christmas morning, 1992. My brothers and I are too giddy for our own good, feeling like…well, kids on Christmas morning.

“Well, it looks like it will be him and me around the tree,” the woman said pointing to her husband with a smile. “We’ve done it before, we can do it again,” she explained as we talked about Christmas plans.

It is that time of year when thoughts turn to scratching names off seasonal gift lists. Typically, the older one is, the more challenging it is to buy them gifts, simply based on them having a home full of things accumulated over years and years.

I’m all tangled up, but not in Christmas lights. In information and misinformation. In wondering how my Christian faith intersects with the point of a needle. A vaccination needle.

Gardeners, we’re just days away from the winter solstice. For gardeners, even though it marks the first day of winter officially, it also marks the shortest day of the year. The solstice happens around 4:00 AM on Monday, December 21.

While novels are a great diversion, there are times when you only have a few minutes, or your focus is fleeting, when short stories are just the ticket.