Christmas Music

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I live on Sparkle Road with my buddy, Grandpa 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. I look after Chance, too. He's a handful! Oh. Wait! Frankie lives with us, too!

Last Christmas Chance tried to climb up on top of our Canadian Tire spruce tree. I had to help him get down when he got stuck up there. "My son! You are a handful," I tell him." Santa has to sit on top the tree so he can see who's naughty and nice." Chance is too newborn to know better.

Know what we're doing? We have on our headphones. We're listening to Christmas music. That's 'cuz it's only 243 days 'till Merry Christmas comes to our house. She comes every year. She brings Santa and the angels. She brings the elves and Elvis. The little drummer boy comes and so do the shepherds and the sheep. Sheep smell funny, you know. Oh. Wait! The three wise guys come but they follow the OnStar.

Auntie Ruth plays the zither. She sings, too. I bet she knows a hundred songs!

This Christmas album is special. It was made by our Auntie Ruth. She knows lots and lots of Christmas songs.  The CD is called Christmas All the Time and she sent it by Canada Post all the way from New Brunswick. It was a surprise present. Grandpa James helped us write a thank-you letter to Auntie Ruth.

If Christmas came every day I'd get to eat a lot more Smarties!

 Some of the songs Auntie Ruth sings are old and some of them are new ones 'cuz Auntie Ruth wrote them all by herself. She's very smart, you know. My favouritist song is Christmas All the Time. I like that. I want Christmas to be every day! Then I wouldn't have to wait all year. I tell Frankie everything about Christmas. He hasn't had Christmas with us before.

Christmas All The Time has lots and lots of songs!

Did you hear that? Grandpa 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! Grandpa James hollers, "Where's my Frankie? Where's my Knight of Knewfoundland and my Lord of Labrador?

 We gotta go find Grandpa James so we can get our ears tickled and our noses kissed. This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Be good citizens. Be kind to friends and neighbours. Then you can eat Smarties and drink root beer. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house and play with us! We can listen to Auntie Ruth's Christmas album together! Okay! Over and out!"

Our New Puzzle

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I live on Sparkle Road with my buddy, Grandpa 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. I look after Chance, too. He's a handful! Oh. Wait! Frankie lives with us, too. He's our cousin, you know.

We got a present from Nana Elizabeth. It's a puzzle. It's a puzzle about O Canada. We take out all the puzzle pieces and then put them together so we can see our home and native land. Puzzles are fun. We start with British Columbia. I know where British Columbia is. It's the first one on the left.

Look! Look at Chance! He's so newborn he doesn't know how to play with a puzzle. He's trying to eat Quebec! "My son! You can't eat Quebec! Quebec is not one of the four food groups! Put that down this instant!" Chance really is a handful. Frankie knows how to play with puzzles. He doesn't try to eat the provinces. Frankie's four. He's very smart.

We love our new puzzle. Grandpa James helps us write a thank-you note to Nana Elizabeth for the O Canada puzzle. Won't she be surprised when she opens the letter and sees pictures of us playing with it, too. We love Nana Elizabeth lots and lots and lots!

Did you hear that? Grandpa 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! Grandpa James says, "Where's Frankie? Where's my Knight of Knewfoundland and my Lord of Labrador?" We gotta go find Grandpa James so we can get our ears tickled and our noses kissed.

 This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Be good citizens. Learn about O Canada. Then you can eat Smarties and drink root beer. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house and play puzzles with us! We can have a puzzle party with hummus and pretzels and apple juice, too! Okay! Over and out!"

Riding on VIA Rail

It's fun to ride on VIA Rail. The train goes to lots of places.

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I live on Sparkle Road with my buddy, Grandpa 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 too newborn to eat food. He just drinks chocolate owls' milk from his bottle. I look after Chance, too. He's a handful! Oh! Wait Frankie lives with us, too. He's four, you know.

Sometimes we go to Toronto on VIA Rail. Last summer we went all the way to Halifax. That's pretty far from our house in Windsor, you know. I know where Halifax is. It's in Farewell Nova Scotia. We learn all about geography at the Scruffy Maple Day Care Centre.

Our buddies Yannick and his friend make our train trip lots of fun!

The trains sleep under the CN Tower in Toronto.

We got VIA Rail pins. They're pretty nice but Chance tried to eat his. We don't eat VIA Rail pins.

Oh. Wait! Did you hear that? Grandpa 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! Grandpa James hollers, "Where is Frankie? Where is my Knight of Knewfoundland and my Lord of Labrador? That's Frankie! He's a Knight of Knewfoundland and the Lord of Labrador. We gotta go find  Grandpa James so we can get our ears tickled and our noses kissed.

We have a brand new train station in Windsor. It's very nice.

This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Be good citizens. Use your inside voices on the train. Be polite. Then you can eat Smarties and drink root beer. Oh! Wait! Come and play with us! We can ride home from Toronto together! Okay! Over and out!"

Windsor is the bestest place to live. Grandpa James says Windsor is the centre of the known universe and the nicest part of Detroit. Windsor is in O Canada.

Dim Sum at Sky Dragon

Our buddy, Mr. Sunny helps Frankie, Chance and me choose what we eat when we have Dim Sum at Sky Dragon. It's yummy!

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I live on Sparkle Road with my buddy, Grandpa 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. I look after Chance, too. He's a handful! Oh. Wait! Our cousin Frankie lives with us, too! We're the three bears, you know.

Know what? We're in Chinatown in Toronto. It's a very busy place. We like to come here to shop and to eat.

If you're as hungry as a bear, then come to Sky Dragon!

We like to eat Dim Sum at Sky Dragon. The nice ladies bring our food on a cart. We choose what we want to eat. All the food is yummy. Dim Sum means 'choose to your heart's content' in Cantonese. I want to choose everything!

This is our buddy, Mr.  Sunny. He works at Sky Dragon. He's very lucky, you know. He can eat Dim Sum every day!

I want to eat spring rolls and crispy fried chicken. I want some squid and sticky rice. I know why it's called sticky rice--that's 'cuz it sticks to you. Chance get sticky rice all over him when he tries to eat. He's too newborn to use chopsticks. I can use them and I don't even have thumbs! Frankie is a very tidy eater but he's four and he has good table manners.

Sky Dragon is on the corner of Dundas and Spadina, you know.

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

This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Be good citizens. Be kind to friends and neighbours. Then you can eat Smarties and drink root beer. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house and play with us! We can go to Sky Dragon and eat Dim Sum together! Okay! Over and out!"