chrismukkah

And we have arrived at one of those rare moments in time when christmas and hanukah come together on the same date. Well, very close anyway, as christmas night is actually hanukah eve, but close enough -- it's the first candle tonight.

I haven't cared about such things since my daughter was small enough to be fascinated by the pretty candles, but it's nice we've got something anyway. Today they brought sufganiyot (jelly-filled donuts, traditional hanukah treats) for the whole office. I ate my first one of the season, maybe the last, if I'm lucky. Last night I resorted to concocting some heavily rum-spiked eggnog in a fit of nostalgia for the old country and the illusions of merriment christmas eve always managed to evoke. (I also remember how the illusions are barely sustained by liquor throughout the following week, only to crash in the January blues, which usually drag right through to the middle of March.)

Oh that dreaded cold.

It's been almost that cold here this past weekend, with so much rain falling for the past 48 hours that several parts of my town were flooded. Not that I went out, mind you. I didn't even get dressed yesterday -- just stayed in bed reading most of the day. Reading and feeding is what I did the whole day, getting up only when ms. squarepeg wailed that she was hungry. Come evening I was a bit fed up with the storm, though. One can get a little stir crazy.

This morning I needed my Canadian winter jacket to keep warm. It's a great quilty jacket I picked up for only $20 (Canadian!) -- one of those fantastic right-place, right-time buys at Honest Ed's, 3 winters ago. Not only that, my mother-in-law bought it for me! And it's still going strong. I wonder how much longer Honest Ed's will last? While in Toronto I heard tell that once 91-year-old Ed Mirvish leaves this sphere of things, his legendary store sitting on that priceless bit of property at the corner of Bloor and Bathurst in Toronto will be razed and the location will become some kind of huge flashy development. If so, the character of that neighborhood will never be the same.

So if you're in Toronto, make sure you get yourself over there and enjoy the bargains and retro other-wordliness of Honest Ed's, perhaps soon be nothing more than a legend.