Canada

I spent this last week in Canada; Ontario in particular; visiting my friend Janice. I really enjoyed myself because I felt like I was home for the holidays. Not only is Janice a good enough friend that I feel she is part of my family, but I was visiting places where my mother grew up and eating food my mother used to make for the holidays when I was young. We made butter tarts and ate plum pudding at a nice little restaurant.

People in Tucson will find it hard to believe, but I very much enjoyed the snow and cold weather in Ontario. To me, a house with Christmas lights and a warm glow in the window looks more cozy in the snow than in the bright sunshine surrounded by desert.

I also enjoyed seeing the free public ice skating rinks in downtown Toronto, too bad every city can't have these! Toronto also has an underground city below the streets that is full of stores and allows people to get around and shop without facing the cold and ice.

I learned about life in the early nineteenth century when I visited Dundern Castle in Hamilton. Built in the early 1830s over the remains of some War of 1812 structures, it is restored and open to the public as a museum.