Merry Christmas is Here! Merry Christmas!

Christmas dinner is special at our house. All the foods are yummy and sweet and sticky. We don't have to eat nasty foods like broccolis and sauerkrauts on Christmas.

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! Frankie's four. He goes to the Scruffy Maple Day Care Centre with me. That's on Sandwich Street. Sandwich Street is in Windsor. Windsor is in O Canada, you know.

Merry Christmas came when we were asleep last night. She brought Santa and the elves and Elvis and the Newborn Baby Jesus and the Little Drummer Boy and the Three Wise Guys who followed the OnStar to our house!

Know what? Merry Christmas brought us gifts! We open our presents after breakfast.

 Christmas breakfast is special. We get to eat in our Christmas jammies. We get to eat special pancakes. The pancakes look like this. We put peanut butter and maple syrup on our pancakes, too. When I was a wee little cub I couldn't say 'syrup'. I used to say 'syrple'. I still say 'syrple' for fun sometimes and we all laugh out loud.

 When we're finished eating we say, "May we be excused?" We help clean off the table. We rinse our dishes and stack them in the dishwasher.

Our presents.

Now, we get to open our presents! They're under the Christmas tree. Grandpa James says our Christmas tree is a rota Picea canadensis.  That's Latin for Canadian Tire Spruce.

We got lots of presents. Frankie and me got space ray guns! Now we can play Lion Hunt in the back yard next summer!

We got Smarties and candy canes and chicken bones from Ganong Brothers' and books. I got one of my favouritest books, Jelly Belly. I can read, you know. I make Frankie and Chance laugh when I read to them.

We have special food for Christmas, you know.

Unwrapping all those presents make me hungry. I'm as hungry as a bear! We have special food for Christmas lunch. We eat tourtiere . Tourtiere is yummy and that's one of the Four Food Groups in Canada's Food Guide. We get to eat guacamole and chips, too. Know what we got for dessert? I'll tell you. We got cheesecake with bakeapple topping. I love cheesecake. I love bakeapples, too. Bakeapples come from Newfoundland and Labrador. Some people call them cloudberries. Everything is yummy and we're stuffed!

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! We gotta go find Grandpa James so we can get our ears tickled and our noses kissed.

Grandpa James is hollering, "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!

 This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Be good citizens. Be kind to friends and neighbours. Then you can eat tourtiere and cheesecake and bakeapples with us. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house and play with us! We can share Christmas together! Okay! Over and out!"

Bears in Chairs at the Windsor Public Library

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. I look after Chance, too. Is he ever a handful! He takes off his diaper and climbs way up high on things. Then he can't get down. He's afraid and then he makes little squawky noises. I say, "My son! Come down from there this instant!" Then I have to help him.

Know what? Chance and me are at the Windsor Public Library. They got new chairs. Chairs for bears. The chairs and comfy. They're a whole bunch of different colours, too. We like to sit on the comfy new  chairs. We can sit up. We can sit down. We can sit back. We can sit tight. We can sit quiet. There are lots of ways to sit, you know. I'll be glad when I'm old and I can just sit around!

I read to Chance. I'm five. I can read. Miss Jackie taught me. She's my teacher at the Scruffy Maple Day Care Centre. I like to read books. My favouritest book at the library is Alligator Pie. It's a book by Dennis Lee. He writes poems. Dennis wrote Alligator Pie. It's a fun book and a fun poem, too. When I read it, it makes Chance happy. He makes little squeaky noises when he's happy.

 Alligator pie, alligator pie,

If I don't get some I think I'm gonna die.

Give away the green grass, give away the sky,

But don't give away my alligator pie.

Alligator stew, alligator stew,

If I don't get some I don't know what I'll do.

Give away my furry hat, give away my shoe,

But don't give away my alligator stew.

Alligator soup, alligator soup,

If I don't get some I think I'm gonna droop.

Give away my hockey stick, give away my hoop,

But don't give away my alligator soup. THE END. 

I always say 'the end' so Chance knows I'm finished reading. Then he really makes lots of little squeaky noises 'cuz he wants me to start over and read it again. I can make squeaky noises, you know. James says when I was a wee little newborn cubby I made lots of squeaky noises. We make squeaky noises at each other and wiggle our noses until we laugh right out loud.

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. Come to the Windsor Public Library and sit on the comfy new chairs with us. I can read Alligator Pie to you and we can all make happy, squeaky noises together! Okay! Over and out!"