OK, I know, three posts in one day are a bit excessive. Sue me. I'm feeling rather giddy these days.
This week has been a packed one with lots of evening Christmas festivities. It's been fun.
One highlight was my book club meeting on Wednesday evening. We'd chosen two books to read for this month, one of which was Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. I've read most of Dickens' works in years past, but never A Christmas Carol. For those who aren't familiar with it, it's the story of Scrooge and his transcendental journeys through time with the ghosts of Christmases past, present and yet to come...and Scrooge's transformation from, well, a scrooge, to a man full of joy and benevolence and Christmas spirit.
To do something a bit different over the Christmas season, our book club bought tickets to attend a dramatic reading of A Christmas Carol. The event was held at Dalnavert House/Museum, which is the restored home formerly owned and occupied by the Premier of Manitoba in 1900, which premier was also the son of Canada's first prime minister. An actor by the name of Richard Hurst performs annually a series of dramatic readings of A Christmas Carol and this is what we attended. It was fantastic. Hurst even donned what seemed to me to be a perfect English accent for the narration, and the number of characters whose voices he brought to life was remarkable. At any rate, it was a terrific event, and the story of Scrooge, which I've heard many times over the years, really came alive for me. We capped the evening off with some nibblies at the Fort Garry Hotel and it was great to just sit and talk (and nibble!) in the lovely surroundings.
Another fun point of the week was last night, when Geoff and I had a chance to get out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary. We haven't used babysitters very often, which makes it so lovely once in a while to get out of the house together and know that Matthew is being well taken care of. We went to a new-to-us restaurant called Steppin' Out, and had lovely (albeit very expensive!) dinners of steak (with the most divine potatoes gratin) and seafood linguine. Though we lingered for a while, we still weren't quite ready to go home...after all, if one has a babysitter only rarely, it seems a shame not to maximize the opportunity. So we went to Chapters and wandered amongst the books for a while...of course, I made a little list in the notebook I always carry with me and jotted down titles that were of interest to me. It was a lovely evening.
Then, this morning, while Matthew played with his cousin at my sister's house for a couple of hours, I procrastinated dealing with my waiting piles of laundry for forty-five minutes in favour of going to our local little library on a book hunt. I'd made a list of about fifteen books that I was interested in (based on suggestions some of you gave me a couple of days ago and on my visit to Chapters). I found a few books on the list and signed them out; the others I have ordered through the library system. So now my waiting-to-be-read pile is delightfully expanding again. Here's what's on deck, in no particular order other than my whim of the moment, after I finish Hardy:
Elegance of a Hedgehog, by Barbery
Netherland, by O'Neill
True Believer, by Sparks
An Irish Country Doctor, by Taylor
Cry, the Beloved Country, by Paton
Stones from the River, by Hegi
Shantaram, by Roberts
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by See
A Mission with Passion, by Duerksen
Yes, particularly given the referral news from Imagine, this has been a stellar week. And it's not over yet! Most unusually, I'm heading out again tonight and tomorrow night for some relaxing fun with friends (while Geoff and Matt get to play with Matthew's remote control car). Believe me, I don't usually get out this much - I do try to get out socially once a week, but this is a particularly and unusually fun week for me. Sunday will cap everything off when Geoff, Matthew and I get to... well, wait, I'll tell you that on Sunday!
Great day everyone!
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