Boxing Day Snow

Today is Boxing Day in the Canada. Although Wikipedia offers various explanations for its origin, it's first listed possibility is that "It was the day when people would give a present or Christmas 'box' to those who have worked for them throughout the year." I'll go with that one because it's pretty well the version that was passed on to me. The custom may actually have its origins in feudal times as an obligation of the lord to the serfs. After being served by his serfs on Christmas Day, the lord would provide them with a box full of "practical goods such as cloth, grains, and tools." It's still an official holiday in this and most countries of the Commonwealth, and it still has to do with merchandise as it is the biggest shopping day of the year.

We don't do Boxing Day that way. For us, it is a day of quiet relaxation after the hustle and bustle of getting ready for Christmas, and we had two Christmases to hustle and bustle for this year. One year long ago, however, Cuppa had the insane notion to take the kids to downtown Toronto on Boxing Day. The crowds were incredibly dense, and we feared to lose our children in the crush. We held on very tight and extricated ourselves pretty darn quickly. Neither Cuppa nor I enjoy the push and jostle of the crowds very much. At the best of times we tend to eschew big malls in favour of smaller shops. Besides, I don't know about you, but we're always pretty broke after Christmas and can't really afford those incredible bargains for stuff that we don't need. Some people claim that they begin shopping for next Christmas on this day but that doesn't appeal to me either. Buying presents is part of the buildup, and I won't be ready to be start getting back into the process for about another eleven months, give or take.

What we do have to help us enjoy this Boxing Day is a modest covering of snow. Much too thin to be called a blanket, let's call it a sheet although that may be not be the best description either because it tends to connote a sheet of ice. Regardless, after several weeks of mild and/or rainy weather which produced a green Christmas for us yesterday, it's rather attractive to look out the window and see the white covering. And really, the snow did come in time for Christmas Day in a way, for it was falling when we left the kids' place at eleven o'clock last night.

I'll probably bore you with Christmas pictures at a later date, but right now I thought I'd share the sheet that covers our back yard . It's pretty enough, don't you think?