Happy Hallowe'en!

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I live on Sparkle Road with my buddy, James. He's really old. He was the second Canadian to get off Noah's Ark, you know.

 Oh. Wait! Chance lives with us, too. He's a newborn cubby someone left in a basket on our doorstep. He's a wee little thing. He doesn't have any teeth. He just drinks chocolate owls' milk.  Chance climbs way up high and then he can't get down. I have to say, "Come down from there this instant, my son!" Then I climb up and get him, 'cuz he's afraid.  Chance is a handful!

Know what? We're dressed up. That's 'cuz it's Hallowe'en. We get to go visit our neighbours and friends. We ring their doorbells. When they come to the door we holler, "Trick-or-treat! Smell our feet! Give us something good to eat!" They have to guess who we are. I'm wearing sunglasses 'cuz I'm Ray Charles. Chance has an orange ghost hankie tied around his neck. He's the Littlest Hobo, except he's a Chance the bear cub, not London the dog. Oh. And Chance isn't on TV--yet. When our friends guess who we are, they give us goodies. We got Smarties and gummy worms and gummy bats and pumpkin cookies and Coffee Crisp and Cherry Blossoms and caramel apples and lots and lots of yummy goodies to eat. James will only let us eat a little bit every day. He says he doesn't want us to bounce off the ceiling. I'd like to do that, wouldn't  you?

Hallowe'en is a good holiday. We get to dress up and be very s-c-a-r-y. At the Scruffy Maple Day Care Centre we're very, very scary. We shout "Boo!" and scare each other. That's a fun thing to do. At home, James helped us to carve a pumpkin. We made a very scary jack-o'-lantern. Then we put a candle inside. See?

Oh. Wait! Did you hear that? James is hollering, "Where are my handsome bear cubs? Where are my Sons of Windsor? Where are my Princes of Ontario? That's me! Charles! That's Chance! We're handsome bear cubs. We're Sons of Windsor and Princes of Ontario! We gotta go find James so we can get our ears tickled and our noses kissed.

 This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Be good citizens. Good citizens get to go trick-or-treating. Then you can get Smarties and gummy bats and chocolate bars. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house and play with us! We can trick-or-treat together! Okay! Over and out!"

Baking Cookies for Hallowe'en

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I live on Sparkle Road with my buddy, James. He's really old. He was the second Canadian to get off Noah's Ark, you know.

 Oh. Wait! Chance lives with us, too. He's a newborn cubby someone left in a basket on our doorstep. He's a wee little thing. He's so little he doesn't even have any teeth. Chance drinks chocolate owls' milk. He makes little squeaky noises when he's happy and little squawky noises when he's afraid or hungry or has poo in his diaper. I look after Chance, too. He's a handful!

Know what we're doing? We're baking cookies. We're baking pumpkin cookies for Hallowe'en. When boys and girls come to our house and shout, "Trick or treat!" Chance and me will guess who they are and give them the cookies we baked. I'm sure they will like them 'cuz they're taste-O-liscious! We know 'cuz we ate them had to  make some more.

This is how you make pumpkin cookies. We measure all the ingredients in a bowl. Here are the ingredients. See?

• 300 ml all-purpose flour
• 5 ml baking powder
• 5 ml baking soda
• 5 ml ground cinnamon
• 2 ml ground nutmeg
• 3 ml salt
• 100 ml melted butter 
• 300 ml  sugar
• 250 ml cooked pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 5 ml vanilla extract
•  
• 
  

 Then we stir them up. James says I'm the Minister of Stirring. I l-o-v-e to stir. Chance is the Deputy Mini-Stir. That's a pun, you know. Then we put the dough on a cookie sheet. Then we put them in the oven.

We are very careful not to get too close 'cuz the oven is very hot. I have to hang on to Chance. He wants to go in the oven with the cookies! He can't do that! He'd get all crispy! Bear cubs shouldn't get burnt. Bear cubs have to be safe. If we got burnt, we'd have to go to Hotel-Dieu and see the doctor.


Now the cookies are in the oven. We set the timer and we watch them bake. The cookies have to bake for 12 minutes. That's a long time.  I only have to sit on the Time Out Chair for five minutes and think about what I did. Five minutes is a long time. Twelve minutes is really long! I wonder what the cookies are thinking about while they bake. I know what they should think. They should think about me. I'm as hungry as a bear and I'm gonna eat those cookies all up! While we wait, we sing The Prune Song and laugh.

Oh. Wait! Did you hear that? The timer is ringing! I know what that means. It means the cookies are done. We have to turn off the oven and the cookies have to come out of the oven. James takes them out but we can't eat them, yet. They're too hot. When they cool off, we get to eat one. Cookies are yummy and yummy is one of the four food groups in Canada's Food Guide. We want to eat more but James says we can have another one after we eat supper. We're gonna have pumpkin soup for supper and pumpkin cookies for dessert!

Oh wait! Did you hear that? James is hollering, "Where are my handsome bear cubs? Where are my Sons of Windsor? Where are my Princes of Ontario? That's me! Charles! That's Chance! We're handsome bear cubs. We're Sons of Windsor and Princes of Ontario! We gotta go find James so we can get our ears tickled and our noses kissed.

 This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Be good citizens. Good citizens get to help bake pumpkin cookies for Hallowe'en. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house and play with us! We can bake pumpkin cookies together! Okay! Over and out!"

Thanksgiving Day

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I live on Sparkle Road with my buddy, James. He's really old. He was the second Canadian to get off Noah's Ark, you know. He must be more than a hundred years old!

We live in Olde Sandwich Towne. That's in Windsor. I know where Windsor is. It's in O Canada.  Windsor is the centre of the known universe and the nicest part of Detroit. I learned that at the Scruffy Maple Day Care Centre. Know what? We can look out the window and see Detroit.



Detroit is next door but it isn't in O Canada. It's in the Knighted States. They are nice neighbours but they have a different boss. Queen Elizabeth is our boss.

She's a very good queen, you know. I'll share my Smarties with her when she comes to our house. We'll climb the sugar maple in the back yard and I'll say, "Your Majesty, hold out your hand and say 'Please' and I'll share my Smarties with you. Oh. Wait! Your Majesty, don't forget to eat the red ones last!" It's a rule, you know.

 Oh. Wait! Chance lives with us, too. He's a newborn cubby someone left in a basket on our doorstep. He's a wee little thing.  Know what? Chance doesn't have any teeth, yet. He just drinks chocolate owls' milk in a bottle. Chance takes off his diaper and climbs way high on things and then he can't get down. I have to say, "My son! Come down from there this instant!. He makes little squawky noises 'cuz he's scared. I have to help him get down.  He's a handful!

Know what today is? Today is super special 'cuz it's Thanksgiving Day.  We get to eat Thanksgiving dinner. It's a special dinner for a special day. Thanksgiving is everywhere! Juanita and Glen have Thanksgiving in Newfoundland. Margaret and Reid have Thanksgiving in Nova Scotia. Andres has Thanksgiving in Prince Edward Island. Francois and Maria have Jour de l'Action de Grace in Quebec. Elizabeth has Thanksgiving up in Tranna. Lois has Thanksgiving in Alberta, too! Bonnie and Terry have Thanksgiving in British Columbia. We're all thankful. Thanksgiving is everywhere! It's really big! This is the day we are thankful. James says we should be thankful every day. Before we eat James asks us to say what we're thankful for.

Okay. I'm thinking about all the things I can be thankful for. I'm thankful we get to eat pumpkin pie today.I l-o-v-e pumpkin pie. It's yummy and that's one of the four food groups in Canada's Food Guide. Chance and I helped make the pie. We get to stir. James says I'm the Minister of Stirring. Chance is the Deputy Mini-Stir. We get to lick the spoons. I like to stir things, don't you?

I gotta lotta things to be thankful for. I'm thankful for our family. I'm thankful for James and Chance and Uncle D and Auntie A and Lily and Lulu. Some bear cubs don't have any family at all.  I'm thankful for all my friends and buddies. I'm thankful for porridge and Smarties and gummy worms and all the good foods except broccolis and saurkrauts. I hate them. They're nasty and that's one of the four food groups in Canada's Food Guide, you know.

I'm thankful for the Scruffy Maple Day Care Centre and Miss Jackie who used to be my teacher but she sailed away to Halifax and my new teacher Miss Sephorah. I think Miss Sephorah is a princess.  I'm thankful for my blue bike with the Canada flag on it and my Ninja Turtle toothbrush and my Cat-in-the-Hat sox that make me run faster than anyone. I'm thankful for the sugar maple tree and my space ray gun. That fills up the whole paper. That's a lot of thankful!

 Know what else I'm thankful for? Turkey. We got turkey with stuffing. I l-o-v-e turkey and stuffing. The stuffing has Smarties in it. It's really, really yummy.

Oh. Wait! Did you hear that? James is hollering, "Where are my handsome bear cubs? Where are my Sons of Windsor? Where are my Princes of Ontario? That's me! Charles! That's Chance! We're handsome bear cubs. We're Sons of Windsor and Princes of Ontario! We gotta go find James so we can get our ears tickled and our noses kissed.

 This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Be good citizens. Be thankful today 'cuz it's Thanksgiving Day. Be thankful every day! Then you can eat Smarties and drink root beer. Oh! Wait!  We can eat pumpkin pie, too! Come over to our house and play with us! We can be thankful together! Okay! Over and out!"