I should say, I haven't actually been to midnight mass since my uncle (who was a priest) passed about 10 years ago. Yet another benefit to being an interfaith mom (who doesn't really do much other than bake some gingerbread) at Christmas.

Also... My house is also currently full of flu + people switching up their SSRIs. Must be the time of year.

You may not want to hear this right now, but in 1989 the boy standing beside me in the Christmas choir barfed, and to this day, I cannot smell incense without the image of barfed up hot dogs and kraft dinner coming into my head.

You can tell how Team Coke I am that just the thought of drinking cola out of a blue can makes me think, "yuck."

I have three toys that my young adults unearthed that will be handed out tomorrow on our local Buy Nothing. Took me a minute to clean up and make sure all components were there, but I’ll be happy foe them to see some use.

It's not even the tariffs. Something happened in like 2018-2020, where US postal rates to Canada just became bizarre. Shipping on a single book became $40. And now we are also playing tariff roulette.

It's only $20 at Indigo (Canadian Barnes & Nobel), but Ebay prices are all like $60 or more when you factor in shipping. Sometime around 2018 shipping anything from the US just became ridiculously expensive.

Food that Really Schmecks by Edna Staebler is the Waterloo-famous Mennonite cookbook. Both Mom and I have several MCC cookbooks (More with Less etc…)

Mom does not have this one, but I guess I know what’s going in her stocking this year!

Which cookbook? Do I maybe know it? (Not Mennonite, but from Waterloo, ON, 3/5 grandparents spoke Plattdeutsch, and all their food is pretty much Mennonite food).

I also really recommend Vacances Essipit, it's run by the local Indigenous community. They run a great whale watching trip, and have some beautiful condos you can rent right on the ocean. vacancesessipit.com/en/condo-hot...

Tadoussac, Quebec is amazing. The freshwater Saguenay river meets the saltwater part of the St. Lawrence, which increases the food supply for the whales, we saw Humpbacks, Fin Whales, Minke Whales, Belugas, Harbour Porpoises. If you can, I really recommend the St. Lawrence Marine Park.

And like, Canada... We have extremely restricted arms sales and I believe 0 military aid to Israel. It's different when Israelis say this, or Americans or even diaspora Jews. I get how they see a connection. These are just liberal white suburb moms chanting slogans without thinking it through.

I’ve seen a fair number of “not in my name” posts from non-Jews here in Canada with no connection to Israel. I read it and think, “no one was saying it was in your name.” There are smarter ways to voice your opposition here in Canada.

Like, this is enough red flags to make a scarf... I truly think I was just so young when I read that book, I didn't ask any questions.

I read Green Grass, Running Water when I was in high school in the 90s, and have read a couple of his books since. I guess I just never read much in his bio. But if I had heard the "father who he didn't know well, maybe, was found out later to be adopted..." I would've known to exercise caution.