Getting Ready for Merry Christmas

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I'm five.  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. Frankie is four. He goes to the Scruffy Maple Day Care Centre with me.

We have an important job to do. We have to get ready for Merry Christmas. She will be here in seven days. We have to decorate our tree and bake cookies. First we have to have Christmas music. We have special Christmas music to listen to. Nana Ruth sings the songs. She put them on an album so everyone can sing them. Nana Ruth knows lots of songs about Christmas.

You can get Nana Ruth's Christmas album right here, you know.

Nana Ruth lives in St. Andrews by-the Sea. That's pretty far from our house.We can go there on the train or in Uncle Rob's truck. It takes three days. Know what?  Because we have her album it's like she's right here in the living room with us. We sing along 'cuz we know all the songs by heart.

1. Feels Like Christmas 
2. O Come O Come Emanuel/God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman 
3. Christmas All the Time  
4. Precious Promise 
5. King of Kings 
6. What Child Is This 
7. Christmas In the Trenches  
8. It Wasn’t His Child 
9. Away In a Manger 
10.Childish Eyes 
11.God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/ I Saw Thee Ships (Instrumental)

12.Christmas Morn

So we have the music. Next we have to make hot cocoa with newborn baby marshmallows on top. Frankie and me get to drink out of mugs. Chance is newborn. He drinks his cocoa from his bottle.

Grandpa James brings out the tree. He says it's a  rota picea canadensis Grandpa James makes up stories. It's a Canadian Tire Spruce tree. Grandpa James says that it came from the forest but I know where Christmas trees come from. They come from Canadian Tire. I'm five. Grandpa James can't fool me!

Now, we have to untangle the silver garland. It's a big job!

Frankie and Chance are putting on the silver garland. Chance licks it. He can't eat the garland! It's not one of the four food groups!

When we hang something on the tree, we say something we're thankful for. It's a special thing to do. Our tree is almost all decorated. Uncle Kit and Auntie Kim surprise us. They bring us something special to hang on our tree.  They brought little boxes of Smarties.

Next we put the presents under the tree. We get to open one on Christmas Eve and the others on Christmas morning, after breakfast.

 There are only seven more days until Merry Christmas gets here. I will tell you the Christmas story soon.

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 Frankie? Where's my Knight of Knewfoundland and my Lord of Labrador?" That's Frankie! He's our Knight of Knewfoundland and our Lord of Labrador.

We gotta go find Granpa James so we can get our ears tickled and our noses kissed. This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Be good citizens. Do good deeds.  Then you can eat Smarties and drink root beer. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house and play with us! We can decorate the tree together! Okay! Over and out!"

Surgery!

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I'm five. 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 four. He goes to the Scruffy Maple Day Care Centre with me.

I got really sick and I had to go to hospital. Dr. Quoc said I had to have surgery so I could get well. There are lots of things to do before surgery.  I couldn't have anything to eat or drink after midnight. At hospital I got a wristband with my name and birthday on it. I know my birthday. It's July 1st. That's Canada's birthday, too! Then I had to put on a hospital gown. Mine had bears on it. Then I had to wear a special hat.

This is the operating theatre.

The doctors and nurses asked me questions before the operation. Dr. Quoc is a surgeon. He opens you up and fixes what's wrong inside. That's a very important job.

This is the IV bottle. The tube goes in my arm.

We walked down the hall to the operating theatre. I laid down on the table and the nurse held my paw. She put an IV in me. One of the nice doctors put me to sleep. When I woke up, I was in the recovery room. Then a nice orderly pushed my bed upstairs to my own room. Grandpa James, Frankie and Chance were waiting for me. I had to stay there for two days. Every morning Dr. Quoc came to see me.

The nurse let me listen to my heart with her stethoscope.  My heart says "lub-a-dub-lub-a-dub." The third morning Dr. Quoc said I could go home. Know what? I was glad to go home. I was glad to sleep in my own bed.

This is a picture of our house on Sparkle Road. I drew the picture all by myself.

Know what? Grandpa James says, "There's no place like home." That is really true, 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? That's me! Charles! That's Chance! We're handsome bear cubs. We're Sons of Windsor and Princes of Ontario! Where's Frankie? Where's my Knight of Knewfoundland and my Lord of Labrador? That's Frankie! He's 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. If you get sick, go see Doctor Quoc. He can make you well. Then you can eat Smarties and drink root beer. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house and play doctor together!  Okay! Over and out!"