These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things

Cast your mind back....waaaay back.  To when you were a kid and Christmas was magical.  To the Christmas mornings when you got your parents up at 4:00 and 5:00 (and I'm talking a.m.) because you just couldn't wait one more minute to see what was under the tree.  Can you ever remember not opening your presents while it was still dark out?  And just what did you find under that tree?  What were your all time favourite presents?  Three things stick out for me.

When I was a kid, Santa always paid a visit live in person on Chrismas Eve, before he started his rounds in his sleigh.  He'd burst in the front door and give each of us three kids a present.  Years later we found out that a group of dads in our neighbourhood rented suits and went to every house for a visit.  If the parents wanted a Santa visit they would leave the gifts and a quarter (to help defray the cost of the suits) in the milk chute.  Remember those?  Back in the day when the milkman delivered door to door, there was a small door on the side of the house that opened from both the outside and inside so the milkman could leave the milk and you could retrieve it without it being left outside...but I digress.

One year (I think I was about 5 years old) Christmas Eve Santa brought me a Lady and the Tramp colouring book.  Oh man, I loved that colouring book and was so careful colouring everything perfectly...Lady's fur light brown, her ears dark brown.  Every page was a work of 5 year old art.

Then there was Bugs Bunny.  He wasn't just any stuffed toy -- Bugs could talk!  Pull the string and he said nine different things in Bugs Bunny's real voice.  (Toy Story revived the pull-the-string talking toy with Woody but you didn't get Tom Hanks on the other end of the string.)  My Bugs says:  Hi, I'm Bugs Bunny;  Now hug me tight; I'm sleepy; Heya, take me with ya; Yipes! I hurt myself; Now take it easy; Hehehe...you're a cute bunny; I love carrots (complete with munching sounds); and of course, Yaa, what's up doc?  Now before you go thinking I have the most amazing memory ever, you can stop being impressed.  The fact is, I still have old Bugs.  Sure he's a little worse for wear.  He's a bit twisted and floppy but he still talks.  His full repertoire, loud and clear.  How cool is that?

When I was probably 8 or 9 years old I got a microscope.  Anything and everything I could get my hands on went on a slide for my inspection.  No insect was safe within 10 feet of me.  But the absolute best part of the microscope kit?  A jar with a dead frog in formaldehyde. I'm pretty sure that's no longer standard issue.  I removed the frog's eyes and, after studying them under the microscope, kept them wrapped in a tissue in my pocket.  I'd go up to other kids on the playground and whisper, "Pssst....wanna see some frog eyes?"  I'm thinking now if I hadn't gone into law enforcement a career as a drug dealer or selling fake watches from the inside of a trench coat might have been in my future.

And when it came time to dissect frogs in grade 11 biology and everyone else was totally grossed out?  Well, let's just say I was an old hand at it.

Ahhh...Christmas memories.