Canadian holidays

Stocking the Cupboards


I went grocery shopping American style yesterday. Well, maybe in light of the recent recession, I shopped the way Americans used to shop.

Normally I am more European. I visit the grocery near daily, buy fresh and organic, and typically plan meals out for only a few days at a time. I don’t like to stuff the cupboards, fridge and freezer because food has a tendency to go to waste that way or one ends up with a lot of highly processed food that isn’t very good for the body.

Yesterday however I decided that with Dad’s health being so precarious right now and our Thanksgiving coming up in a week, not to mention ElderD’s 26th birthday coming up, I needed to lay in supplies. I don’t want Rob to have to scramble to feed himself and BabyD if I should need to fly to the States on short notice, and I want us to have a nice family Thanksgiving this year. Last year we were a bit makeshift at Rob’s mom’s place in Regina. She was getting ready to move to B.C., and we were helping out with preparations, so Thanksgiving dinner was Mexican in nature. Do they have their own Thanksgiving? I can’t imagine that they would want to celebrate the arrival of white people in the New World, but one never knows. Food oriented holidays (or ones saturated in alcohol) are hard for cultures to resist adopting sometimes.

I don’t normally shop on the weekends. I prefer the weekdays when the aisles are clear and the checkout swift. The people watching is different though on Saturdays however, so it makes up for the inconvenience.

I was surprised by the number of mothers out with their young adult sons. Boys who are clearly too old to be trailing after mommy at the grocery, and yet obviously too inept to do much else. I wondered at the dynamics that must have occurred to create such creatures. Divorce? Widowhood? Transient common-law relationships? I do believe that at some point we control our own destiny, but bad parental decisions early in the game can really screw the pooch for some children.

One young man trailed after his mom with his eyes glued to his cell and both thumbs beating out messages like a native on drums in an old western film. His mother had her phone stuck up against her ear, and they moved from aisle to aisle like a blind man following his guide dog.

I ran across them several times and only say them interact when the son would direct his mother to some junk food purchase or other. Judging from their relative sizes, I would say that stocking up on unhealthy eats is a weekly ritual.

The other young fellow I noticed mainly because of his interesting attire. White high-water jeans, a black t-shirt with a wildlife scene on it – wolves under a starry sky – and black hightops  that reminded me of the orthopedic shoes I had to wear as a pre-schooler. They were untied and he was pigeon-toed whenever he stood still. His hair was greasy and hung in his face. He didn’t appear mentally deficient, but that isn’t always physically apparent – not like Sarah Palin’s scarily limp baby at the end of the debates Thursday night. I shuddered when I saw that poor child, wide awake and less active than a sack of potatoes as he was passed like a bag of flour from one person to another.

I didn’t run across any openly hostile couples or families. I can’t even count the number of snarling husbands and wives that I have observed out for a stressful grocery run. The other day I encountered a mom, dad and – again over-grown son – out strolling at the Safeway. The son was teasing his mother to the point of combat, and she would swat at him and chase him as though he were a toddler. Their private moments must be fun times.

Normally I don’t have much of a chance to people watch. I know what we need and where everything is. Thanksgiving menu items though were not staples and included things like – meat – so I was wandering a bit more than usual. I circled the meat freezer several times trying to locate the turkey. And then there was the quest to find ingredients for pumpkin pie that didn’t contain any of the preservatives that give me a sore throat and numb lips.

I have been baking a lot recently. I can’t eat anything too fatty because I haven’t a gallbladder anymore and of course most pre-made goodies are taboo due to the additive thing. It is frustrating, but it forces me to bake, and fresh food gives a person more options and control. It also makes BabyD and Rob happy. Poor babies, they are nearly as chained to the limited menu of allowable foods as I am merely by association.

Shopping off the usual menu also means that I have to read labels. This adds to the time spent too. Nothing is very clear on labels, and I have had to do a lot of sleuthing to decipher the industry code. In addition to avoiding my own triggers, I try to purchase things that have as few “ingredients” as possible. So for cranberries, for instance, I simply got a bag of fresh ones and will make the sauce myself. It’s terribly simple and better for us anyway.

Today however, I am taking the day off from food and its preparation. Some sort of stomach bug has me bedridden (which I loathe), and so I will attempt to catch up on my writing – I have a book review due and a piece promised at my new contributor gig at 50 Something Moms (yes, I know I am not 50 but I am old). I also have my dad’s obituary to write and email to him. He was fine with my writing it but insisted on seeing it for editing purposes.

Now to rest a bit and fortify with a cup of fresh green tea before hitting the keyboards.

Happy Sunday to all!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving


Heading down to Saskatchewan in a while for the holiday weekend. Got to hand to it Canadians, they know how to space their holidays. Back in the States it’s feast of famine in terms of time away from the grind but up here the year seems to be evenly broken into a plethora of official holidays that result in three and four day weekends. That’s another thing about Canadians, whenever possible, they hold their holidays on Monday. The school year, which would break the back of the average American kid, is ten whole months long but it has all these lovely holidays in addition to the official provincial and national ones. Yes, that’s right. Provinces can schedule their own holidays. Puts U.S. states’ rights in its rightful place, right between “weenie” and “wuss”.

Monday is Thanksgiving here. We had planned to lay about. There is work to be done winterizing and since it seem to be snowing all around us, though not here yet, it’s something we need to be moving a bit more swiftly on. However, Rob’s mom is moving to B.C. in a few weeks and needed him to come down and take care of a few things his younger sister can’t help out with. Yeah, there is a story there but I am not at liberty to tell it. Suffice to say that are issues and I am sure you can imagine the rest without any further assistance. I am just standing over here in the corner of my blog, not saying a word.

Saskatchewan is an eight hour drive through terrain that makes Nebraska seem interesting. Since I have made it once before, and much of it is on two lane highway (Canadians do not believe in mega highways like Americans do. Back in the states there are four lane highways in the middle of nowhere simply so farmers can get from the homestead to the back forty fifteen minutes faster). It takes forever to get there. Though once there, Regina is a somewhat interesting place. A place I won’t see much more of this time than the first time I was there in June. Perhaps I will get a bit of real writing done as I will be internet inaccessible, but more likely I will work on yet another attempt at winning the mystery story contest in the Edmonton journal. Some other SAHM won it this week which means I have to read another chapter in this increasingly boring story. But, I am nothing if not pig-headed and single-minded when it comes to at least seeing this damn contest through to its end. I suppose I could write one of those “thankful” lists that people do when Thanksgiving comes around. When I was in grade school the nuns had us do this every year. It was a bit like having to think up sins for confession once a month. Not that I haven’t much to be thankful for but the holiday itself is such a sham. Below the 49th it is sold as the day the pilgrims sat down with their friendly Native American neighbors and gave thanks for surviving their first year. Of course the real story behind the Plymouth pilgrims is more on the order of the sordid stuff that would have made it an awesome reality show had there been such a thing as television back then. Then, of course, is the reality that Thanksgiving was actually a propaganda tool of the Lincoln administration during that unpopular war he was stuck with known as the Civil War. But whatever, I am not at all sure what meaning Canadians have attached to it beyond the fact that it’s been about six weeks since the last holiday Monday around here.

I am thankful for the six or ten of you who read this blog and want to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving from Canada.