Memorable Traditions

Christmas is considered a magical time of year. One of the reasons is because of our traditions  associated with the holiday.

Blue Mountain Christmas Lights

Are you taking the time to enjoy the holidays or are you on auto-pilot and putting decorations out or baking just because it's what you have always done.

Do you sometimes find yourself in January with the disappointment that the holidays got away from you and you didn't enjoy them as much as you could have? I certainly have some years.

By being mindful and taking the time to reflect and plan, we can ensure that this Christmas is a memorable one.

What are your favourite holiday traditions? Who do you love to spend time with?

Take a moment to reflect on your favourite Christmas memories.

When you take your Christmas decorations out, what are your favourites that bring a smile to your face when you see them? Do you have decorations that you would rather donate than keep? Sometimes when we have less, we appreciate our favourites more.

What is your favourite ornament? Do you put it in a prominent place on your Christmas tree?

Favourite Ornaments

Some people love the tradition of preparing and enjoying special meals and treats. Do you like the tradition of making and enjoying the same foods year after year? This year, consider getting a new recipe from a Christmas-themed magazine or from a friend.

If you love Christmas music or movies, are they the same every year or do you add new ones?

Introducing new favourites to our traditional favourites can make this Christmas more memorable.

There are many Christmas events in the GTA. Do you prefer to return to the same event like the Distillary Christmas Market or the Nutcracker every year? Or do you like to experience new events?

Most towns and cities have special Christmas events like:

• Toronto Christmas Market - Distillery District
• A Nutcracker Christmas At The Castle - Casa Loma
• Evergreen's Winter Village - Evergreen Brick Works
• Toronto Aurora Winter Festival - Ontario Place
• Holiday Fair in the Square - Nathan Phillips Square
• Terra Lumina at the Toronto Zoo

• Christmas Glow at Toronto Congress Centre in Etobicoke
• Winter Festival of Lights - Niagara Falls
• Blumination Dream Trail at Blue Mountain
• Santafest at Santa's Village in Bracebridge
• Gift of Lights - Bingemans in Kitchener
• Festival of Lights - Kapuskasing (my hometown)
• Alight at Night Festival - Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg
• Winterfest - Canada's Wonderland

Dream Trail at Blue Mountain

These are just a few ideas. What is happening in your city or town? 

Sometimes even finding a beautifully lit street is worth the drive or walk in the evening. Inglewood Drive in Toronto is lined with giant-sized inflatable Santas every year.

Santas on Inglewood Drive

When we recognize what we love, we can create more of these types of memories. 

For those who love markets, return to a favourite or experience a new one. If you love music, find new Christmas songs to love.

What brings a smile to your face during the holidays?

• The scent of our Christmas tree brings a smile to my face every time I enter the house or room. To have that feeling before we get our tree, I purchased a pine and balsam scented candle.
• I love tourtière and shortbread at Christmas time. I used to make peppermint patties but haven't in years. It may be time to revive this tradition or find a new recipe. I just re-read this blog post from 2011 where I wrote about my favourite Christmas foods and traditions. It's definitely a good reminder to keep the traditions I love.
• Is there a Christmas movie you haven't seen that can be added to your Christmas tradition? I had never seen Elf until I visited my brother-in-law in DC for Thanksgiving less than 10 years ago. It is now one of my favourites. Click here for a list of Christmas movies for inspiration.
• What are your favourite Christmas songs? Did you have a favourite album growing up? Create a playlist of your favourite songs.

Imagine that it's January 1st. What do you hope to have experienced over the holidays?

Revive55 Challenge:

• Make a list and check it twice ;-)
• Ask friends and family or Google for new ideas
• Add events in your calendar
• Enjoy the holidays
• Take photos and videos
• Journal memorable stories
• Share the photos, videos and stories!!

It's the last Christmas of the decade, make it a special one!!


*********************************************************************************

I wrote this post yesterday knowing I would be out most of today at a Positivi-Tea event with Brenda Jasmin and Tea with Tracie.

If you're in the Oakville area, I highly recommend their events. One of my friends at the event also told me that the Burlington Lakeside Festival of Lights is beautiful!

I want to share my favourite takeaways from this event as an addition to my post.

The theme of the event was "Infusing Positivity Into Your Holiday".

We discussed many aspects of the holiday season and what is meaningful to each one of us. Just like I mentioned to find the traditions that are meaningful to us, Brenda asked us to list activities that were sources of depletion or repletion. It wasn't only what do we love or not love, but what drains or adds energy to our holiday.

My favourite takeaway from the event is:

Look for the Good.

Instead of being stressed and noticing what is missing or not perfect, look for what you love and what you did accomplish.

Brenda shared this in the context of being an optimalist rather than a perfectionist. An optimalist is a healthy high-functioning perfectionist. An optimalist still has high standards but the vision is closer to reality. You look in the direction of where you're going rather than the perfect destination.

I love that.

I will also add that instead of thriving for the "perfect" Christmas or holiday season; prioritize and focus on what matters most to you.

Playlist of my Life

"What seems to happen is that

a piece of familiar music serves as a 

soundtrack for a mental movie 

that starts playing in our head. 

It calls back memories 

of a particular person or place, 

and you might all of a sudden 

see that person's face in your mind's eye,"

Petr Janata

Source: University of California-Davis

Music has always been a part of my life. I played the piano and sang throughout my childhood and listened to music on records, albums, 8-track cassettes, audio cassettes, CDs, and digitally on iPods, iTunes, iPhones and computers.

It's amazing to reflect at how much technology has changed over the years.

During my childhood-themed mini project, I took my 45's out of storage and was enjoying seeing my record box on display, however, I decided to go one step further.

Over 10 years ago, I had made a CD with my favourite childhood songs. I didn't find the CD but found the list of songs on it.

I made an Apple Music playlist with these songs and others that I found while looking through my records. There were a few songs that were not on iTunes however. I decided to look at record players to see how much they were. They averaged $75 on Amazon. I saw reviews on Amazon that were not that complimentary. I have never returned something to Amazon so in case I would want to return it, I checked Best Buy. The same record player offered in various colours at regular price was on sale in grey for $27. I figured that it was meant to be and ordered it.

I am not recommending this record player. The Amazon reviews are accurate and the table wobbles but I am keeping it anyway. I initially played my new U2 albums I received from being a U2 subscriber. I figured that once I started playing my old records that would wreck the needle, I wouldn't play new records. I quickly noticed though that I didn't really want to play my new records on it. It's good enough for what I wanted it though.

I have continued this music theme and made a playlist of my favourite songs from High School and University Days.

Listening to these songs has revived so many memories for me of the places and people in my life. It has also reminded me of songs I had forgotten.

Music is profoundly connected to our memories.

Dr. Petr Janata tested the hypothesis that music and personal memories are linked in the same region of the brain: the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). His study entitled Neural Architecture of Music-Evoked Autobiographical Memories was published in Cerebral Cortex in November 2009. His results found that songs linked to strong memories had greater activity in the MPFC. This supported the idea of a "hub" linking music, emotions, and memories.

"What seems to happen is that a piece of familiar music serves as a soundtrack for a mental movie that starts playing in our head. It calls back memories of a particular person or place, and you might all of a sudden see that person's face in your mind's eye. Now we can see the association between those two things – the music and the memories."

It's therefore not surprising that listening to these songs, I can picture myself:

• in my childhood home
• in my bedroom, basement, living
• at a bonfire in the field behind our house
• on the dock at Ouellette Bay (Remi Lake)
• listening to the radio
• going to hilltop rendez-vous in Timmins where cars would line-up to request and dedicate a song live on radio
• at school for a gymnastics routine
• at friends' houses
• at the movie theatre
• at the piano
• singing/playing in front of the school
• in the gym
• at tournaments and meets
• warming up in the parking lot at OFSAA
• at dances
• at McDonald's (where I worked)
• in my university residence room
• at the Jack Pine and the Commercial (hometown bars)
• at Fed Hall and Bombshelter (university bars)
• walking to campus
• at CKMS where I DJ'd
• at concerts
• and more...

Although I may not like some of these songs anymore, it has been wonderful to think back about these wonderful memories that involved music in my life. It is also a great reminder to continue to enjoy music, especially in the context of making new memories that I will want to remember in the future.

Mini Project #1: Childhood

There are 10 months remaining in my Revive55 Project!

I am really excited at the progress I made in my Childhood Mini Project.

My main goal for each mini project is to complete what I call: 5Top5.

My Top 5 in 5 Categories:

1. Stories
2. Photos
3. Mementos
4. Accomplishments
5. People

It's difficult to just have 5 in each category but I think it's a great exercise to just reflect and try to choose.

I think even with my childhood long over, it's a work in progress. As I was writing this post today, I remembered my badminton racquet that I kept and was in our furnace room with other sports equipment. I am adding it to my mementos list, bringing it out of the basement and into my memories room.

So here goes my 5Top5:

1. STORIES:

1. I like it my way
2. I'm Number 3/Almost Perfect
3. Childhood Dreams/Ambitions
4. Family trips
5. Tourist Hostess Summer Job

Although I have blogged and written many of these stories, I started recording my stories while walking my dog using the Voice Memo app on my phone. When I arrive home, I label the voice memos to find them more easily in the future. I haven't decided what I will do with the recordings, but for now, the stories are preserved.

What are your top 5 childhood stories?

2. PHOTOS:

5 months old

I'll sleep anywhere
At the airport on our way back from Florida in 1977

Back from school trip with some of my souvenirs
Love my school jacket on the suitcase as well
(jacket was originally my brother's)

I'm so happy playing badminton
wearing my favourite outfit at badminton camp

The Terry Fox monument in Thunder Bay
was originally on the side of the highway
Terry Fox died in June 1981
Monument was unveiled in June 1982
We visited a few months later when we drove
my older sister to her new home in Thompson, MN

3. MEMENTOS:

1. trophies, medals and plaques (I can't pick just one)
2. badminton racquet
3. records (45's and albums) (just one? really?)
4. charm bracelet (and high school ring)
5. shells from our Florida trip in 1978 (and shells necklace)

I am preserving some of my favourite
childhood mementos in this
heart-shaped Lindt box

I'm not sure if this 45's box was originally mine
(it may have been my older sister's)
but I have taken it out of storage and
enjoy seeing it on display

4. ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

1. 2nd Franco-Ontarien Track Meet 800m
2. OFSAA competitor volleyball and badminton; All-Ontario track 3000m
3. Music Festival and Royal Conservatory Grade IX
4. Offered job at my first interview & tourist hostess job
5. Badminton training regime, learned to sew to make badminton warm-up outfit I loved

5. PEOPLE:

1. Family (👋🏻 to those reading)
2. Childhood friends
3. McDonald's boss
4. Grade 1 and Grade 13 English teacher
5. Coach

Along with my 5Top5, there are other parts to Revive55 Project that are works in progress.

I bought a shelf for the trophies I'm keeping. I need my husband's help to put it up on the wall. It has pegs for medals and a corkboard.

I am updating my Personal Timeline which is a chronological list of memorable events in my life.

I am updating my childhood album. Years ago, I took the photos that were originally in my magnetic childhood albums and preserved them in a Creative Memories album. After making albums for my siblings when they turned a special age, I found lots of other photos from my childhood that I am adding to my original one. I am splitting it up and also adding mementos like report cards, ribbons, certificates and newspaper clippings. My first album is from birth until Grade 8 and my second is my high school years. I will make a third for my university years.

I think that I had decluttered quite a bit from my childhood already so there wasn't too much more to do besides trophies, report cards and certificates. I had one big box of childhood memories that I have split up into smaller boxes that are more easily accessible. Things that could be added to my childhood albums are preserved there.

I have started Mini Project #2: University Days.

Decluttering Trophies

I was decluttering my box of sports trophies and as I took out trophy after trophy, I noticed how many silver ones there were. It reminded me of the many times that I didn't win.

A couple of weeks later, I was listening to a podcast where they were talking about gold shoes and gold pens. The two speakers love gold. I had an aha moment hearing this. They are raving about the gold pen from the podcaster's stationary store, and I had bought the silver pen. I also prefer silver jewelry to gold.

This made me wonder, did I love silver before the runner-up results or did I learn to love silver by being runner-up so often?

It turns out that my championship trophies were at the bottom of the box, understandably because they are bigger (and heavier) but I definitely remember being runner-up or third more than I remember winning. I wonder if this is because I thought and analyzed the losses afterwards more than the wins or that I obviously lost a lot more times than I won. We don't have trophies when we don't make a final or podium.

I remember as a young teenager having a button that said "I'm no. 3, I don't try very hard". It was similar to this one but the button was white.

I don't think I actually wore it. The best track athlete in my town wore one. I used to think it was quite funny because she won everything. She was a natural and amazing runner and jumper so it may have been true that she didn't try very hard. Maybe she was number 3 provincially but in our town, she was by far the best.

At the same time, I remember having a t-shirt that said "almost perfect" with the R backwards.

It was the t-shirt I wore at the Franco-Ontarien All-Ontario Championships. I can still picture myself wearing that shirt on television when my race was part of the newscast. Luckily they showed the beginning of the 400m so we didn't see that I was 6th at the finish line. One of my greatest sports accomplishments (in my mind) was at that meet. I qualified to attend All-Ontario for the 400m (the longest distance we raced in my town to qualify) so we didn't have anyone from my region competing in the 800m so they added me to the race (or they added the 800m to the competition). I was 6th in the 400m but won a silver medal in the 800m! In track and field, we normally got ribbons so getting a medal at this championship (at a podium I believe) was very special.

I don't have any photos from that meet but I did get my photo taken when I got home.

Telling myself that I didn't try very hard or that I was almost perfect maybe took the sting out of losing or I just didn't care about winning as much as my fellow competitors. I definitely cared about moving on, so if two competitors qualified for the next meet, I would be at least second. If three qualified, I often was third. So sometimes, I was second locally, then second regionally and second again to qualify for All-Ontario. Maybe I tried just hard enough to move on or had a fear of success.

Looking back at results, it does amaze me to see this pattern. Maybe playing or racing was more important to me at that time. Even now looking at my box of trophies, I wonder why I kept them all these years. There are special ones worth keeping but was the quantity also important then?

I kept all my report cards and all the trophies, certificates and adjudicator sheets from the music festivals, so I guess it's not surprising that I kept my sports trophies - although they take up a lot more space.

Another reason I kept them was that it reminded me of a happier time when I used to play sports competitively. After moving away, I realized how lucky I was to grow up in a small town in Northern Ontario where learning sports was affordable and the competition wasn't too deep so we would travel to other towns for competitions. The number of trophies, ribbons and medals reminded me of all the sports I played and all the tournaments and meets I competed in.

When I look back at my early sports days, getting to travel to meets and tournaments I qualified for by winning locally or regionally are my fondest and most memorable moments. Because I didn't win awards at the more prestigious events and don't have many photos, the trophies were the proof or mementos that helped me remember.

When choosing whether to keep or let go of a trophy, there are a few things that we can reflect on:

1 - Are you proud of the accomplishment(s) and want to display it (them)?
2 - Do they inspire you?
3 - Do they remind you of memorable moments?
4 - Would you be as happy with a photo to remind you instead of the physical trophy?
5 - Are they useful? My sister sent me a video showing me her husband's golf trophies. I was inspired to see "trophies" being used as bookends, filing systems or coin holders. I asked her to send me photos to share.

I think these trophies and medals used to give me a sense of accomplishment. I have probably been ready to let them go for quite a while now, but didn't think they would be useful to the organizations that I donate household items to so they have sat in a box.

I found an organization, Repeat Champions, in Hamilton that refurbish and donate trophies.

"Trophies are refurbished, recycling as much as 90% of the parts and donated to groups and organizations within our community and abroad, which do not have the resources to purchase them on their own. "

My Revive55 Project along with finding this organization have given me the incentive I needed to finally declutter my trophies.

Revive55 Mini Project #1: Childhood

The first five weeks of My Revive55 Memories Project were spent taking inventory of my mementos and memories and reflecting on how I wanted to preserve my memories.

In my 55 week long project, there are 50 weeks left that are divided in 10 mini-projects.

1. Childhood
2. University/Waterloo Days
3. Toronto Days - Pre-Kids
4. Music
5. Husband and Children
6. Travel
7. Sports
8. Toronto/Canada (Home)
9. Me after 30
10. Dreams and Future Process

My Memories Project is fluid so these are the categories as I envision them today, but they may change.

Childhood is an easy choice for me with where to start.

My childhood home

I have already mentioned that I wanted to improve my childhood album. I thought that this is what I would end up doing for my Childhood mini-project but as I mentioned, things change as I reflect on the project.

I still want to improve and complete my childhood album, but what My Memories Project will entail is what I call 5Top5.

For each mini-project, I will choose 5 categories and preserve my Top 5 in each whether that is a photo, a memento, a story, a video or recording.

Childhood 5:

1. Stories
2. Photos
3. Mementos
4. Achievements
5. People

I will write or record my Top 5 stories.

I will choose my Top 5 photos.

I will preserve my Top 5 mementos.

I will describe my Top 5 achievements.

I will tell stories of my Top 5 people.

This is the main part of my Revive55 Memories Project but along with this, I will update my personal timeline.

As part of My Happiness Project, one of the 20 things I chose to do in 2019 was to complete a personal timeline. I started it at the beginning of the year but haven't touched it since. By going back into my childhood memories, it is a good opportunity to have my timeline close by so I can update it as I come across dates.

I will also take the opportunity to declutter my childhood boxes. By choosing my Top 5s, I hopefully will find things that I'm ready to let go of or digitize.

I am returning to my childhood town this week for the third time this summer. These trips are making it easier to remember childhood stories as I visit with my family.

Childhood Souvenir with a Story

When my parents downsized from their house to an apartment, they decluttered many of their possessions. They donated many things and also gave my siblings and I some of the sentimental mementos that we wanted.

I love their mentality. They enjoy seeing us appreciate these mementos while they are still alive. Instead of having all the children split up the mementos after they have passed away, they get to see and enjoy us choosing what we love.

Every time we visit, they tell us to "put our name" on the things we care about. If they still want to keep them, the name is there for the future. Sometimes though, they are ready to part with the items and give them to us in the moment.

A souvenir that I wanted was a wooden sailboat that they had at the cottage. I had bought the boat for my father during my Grade 8 school trip to Southern Ontario that included Toronto and Niagara Falls.

I remember that I had $1.20 left. I saw this sailboat that was $1.10. I was very happy to have found something that I thought my Dad would like with the money I had left. I can still picture myself seeing it in the shop. I think we were given daily allowances for food so although I used to tell the story that I went home with $0.10. I don't believe that I starved on the way home.

After telling my parents the story that either I hadn't told them or they had possibly forgotten, I added a label with my name and the price I paid for it as a reminder of the story.

On a future visit, my father told me that he was happy to part with the boat. It probably didn't have the sentimentality to him as it does to me which is why I love the way that they are parting with their mementos.

They are sharing stories with their mementos and hearing the stories that went with the gifts we gave them. They now get to see us enjoy and display them. The sailboat is even more special now too because we have been reminded of the story that goes with the souvenir.

As I was writing this blog post, this reminded me of the gift my son bought for me at Canyon Saint-Anne on his Grade 8 trip to Quebec City and Montreal. I am now displaying the two gifts together as a reminder of our childhood trips.

Sharing stories and mementos while we are still together adds even more meaning to them. Adding a label or writing the story in a journal helps preserve the memories.