THE SECOND DAY OF CHRISTMAS : BOXING DAY

Today is Boxing Day, the second day of Christmas. Since my son was not able to be with us yesterday, he spent the day with his girlfriend's family, we decided that we would all get together on Boxing Day to celebrate Christmas Day.

We had our traditional breakfast of eggs, Canadian bacon, fruit salad, homemade Christmas bread and coffee. After breakfast we engaged in another tradition, opening our presents. What made this Christmas special was that it was my granddaughter's first Christmas. It seemed that as much attention was focused on my granddaughter's reaction to Christmas as it was to the rest of us celebrating. Maybe this is part of the expansion in our family, our first grandchild.

There were a lot of great presents exchanged today, thoughtful and imaginative. My wife and I were amazed that our children, spouses  and partners had joined together an bought an ipad for us. This is a gift that fits with our lifestyle so well. When we are traveling we can easily keep in touch or be connected in every way that we could think of. It also gives us portability and incredible flexibility. We appreciate the gift greatly and we will make good use of this present.

One of the most unique gifts that everyone received were mittens that were made by Inuit people who live in the village where my son is currently teaching high school. The mittens are made from cured caribou skin. These are the skins of the caribou that the Inuit hunt and eat. The skins of the animals are then used for mittens and other items of clothing. Some of the skins are smoke cured and they give off a delicious odor that is reminiscent of BBQ meat that is cooked with Hickory. Other mittens were cured in the normal way and they have a faint odor that is similar to the smell of a leather coat.

In the picture, there are two sets of mittens. The lighter colored set with the floral pattern belong to my wife. The fur around the outside is rabbit and the lining is detachable so that it can be removed and washed. The other darker pair are mine. We are not sure about the fur around the outside of the mittens but the fur reminds me of the fur of a wolf but we are not certain. The lining of my mittens are also detachable so that they can be washed. At any rate, The mittens are incredibly soft and warm. I would guarantee that I could wear these mittens at -40 degrees Celsius (-40 degrees Fahrenheit) and feel toasty warm.

So, on the second day of Christmas we received two pairs of mittens.