BOCA INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY

MERRY CHRISTMAS December 25th, 2011, 1:25 a.m.

I know it is only 1 o'clock in the morning but here I am waiting to see if I can catch Santa as he races through. We had a lovely supper tonight, a leg of lamb and we enjoyed the company of family that could make it for the first feast of the weekend. Now we get to cook the big bird and enjoy the 23 pound turkey. I love Christmas for that reason. But alas, it will be a long time until the next turkey is roasted. I am already dreading this diet I have planned for the new year. Even so, Christmas is for the enjoyment of the family and it is a gathering of the clan, so to speak. My older brother and I are closer to 70 than we wish to admit but such is life and the generations do have to go by. It is what it is.

My nephew David and his girlfriend Courtney were here from Thompson, Manitoba and his older brother Alex will be arriving later this morning with his special girl Christina. It seems that life continues on as it did for us in our own youth. Matt is still single but there is hope for him too. My son Robin will be in Victoria for Christmas with his sister and mother's family. He is arriving at some point from London, England.

The concept of the FAMILY unit is a unique thing. It draws on outside sources to create and widen the various branches of the family tree and regardless of whether or not the relationships continue, the offsprings become permanent parts of new families and they too have to go through the process of life. Life is a continual process and we look at one and another and see others in faces. My brother and I look like our English grandmother but with the blue eyes that were provided by her Swedish-Finnish husband. They are good eyes and unlike both of our parents who had considerable eye problems and wore coke glasses, we still carry on without glasses. At the same time however, we inherited family traits that one does not want but we have to deal with on a daily basis. Such are the results of millions of years of mixing DNA and hoping that the outcome will be as good or better than the last generation.

While you ponder all this, I want you to have a wonderful Christmas celebration and to remember that had it not been for the FAMILY you would not be enjoying the celebrations you are enjoying today. Now where is the axe and that turkey?