Making Ice Cream on Boxing 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.

 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!

Know what? Today is Boxing Day. That's the day after Christmas, you know. We're playing with Lily and Lulu. We're cooking. We're cooking ice cream in this little machine. Ice cream is yummy. That's one of the four food groups in Canada's Food Guide. We're making vanilla flavoured ice cream. That's good. James asked us if we wanted to make broccoli ice cream. That sounds nasty. I don't like broccolis. I have to hold my nose and take two bites, anyway. James says I have to set a good example for Chance 'cuz I'm bigger and older. That's not fair 'cuz Chance is a newborn baby cub. He just drinks chocolate owls' milk.

The ice cream tastes really good. James says that homemade food is better than store-bought food.
Know what? Sometimes we put ice cream in a glass and pour root bear on top. That makes it a float. Ice cream floats are really yummy. I could drink them all day!

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 nice so Santa can bring you an ice cream maker. Then you can eat ice cream and drink root beer. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house and play with us! We can make ice cream and root beer floats together! Okay! Over and out!"

Thinking

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 even have any teeth. He just drinks chocolate owls' milk in his bottle.  He doesn't have a tail, yet.  I look after Chance, too. He climbs way high on things and then he can't get down. I have to help him. He's a handful!

Know what? I'm thinking. Sometimes I just lie on the carpet and look up at the ceiling and I think. Thinking takes a lot of work, you know. I have to line up ALL my thoughts inside my head. That's what thinking is.

I think about lots of things, you know. I think about Miss Sephorah, my teacher at the Scruffy Maple Day Care Centre. I think she might be a princess. I think about Smarties and gummy worms and root beer. I think about Chance. I think I'd better be a good example so he grows up to be a nice cub, like me.

I think about Thanksgiving. I think about being thankful. I'm thankful for lots of things. I'm thankful we climb on board VIA Rail and go to see Lulu and Lily and Uncle Darryl and Auntie Alexandria. I'm thankful for them. I'm thankful we get to eat yummy food like turkey and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, too!

Sometimes I think about Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas comes to our house every year. She comes on the 24th of December. That's Silent Night, you know. She brings Santa and the elves and the newborn Baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph and the sheep and the shepherds and the little drummer boy and the wise guys who followed the OnStar from Bethlehem to our house. Know what? It's only 108 days until Merry Christmas. I think I'd better be good so I can get presents. I need to think about what to get Chance and James and our buddies and friends, too.

James has a saying about thinking. He says--

If the thought you thought you thought
Was not the thought you thought you thought,
Then the thought you thought you thought you thought
Was not the thought you thought at all!

 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 and think. Thinking is good. Then you can eat Smarties and drink root beer. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house and play with us! We lie on the carpet and think together! Okay! Over and out!"

Family 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.

 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!

Know what? Today is Family Day. Family Day is a holiday for everybody who lives in Ontario. That includes Chance and me. We live in Ontario. I know where Ontario is. Ontario is in O Canada, our home and native land. Know what? Chance and me are Princes of Ontario. James always reminds us when he wakes us up every morning. He says we're sons of Windsor, too.

I know what a family is. Families live together in a home. Families love each other. I love Chance and I love James, too. They're my family. They love me. We look after each other and help. That's what families do. Know what James tells us? Home is where they have to let you in. He thinks that's funny but it's true, you know. I'm sure glad we have a home. James says, "Houses are made of brick and stone but homes are made of love alone." He's pretty smart, you know.

Love is lots and lots of things. James always says he loves us 44 litres. That's a bushel and a peck. I know how much that is. It's baskets and baskets of love. Know what? That's a lot of love!

Love is when we cook peanut butter and licorice sandwiches together  in the kitchen. Love is when we help make chocolate pudding and get to lick the spoon. Oh! Wait! Love is bath time when we splash and make bubbles with our purple bubble bath soap and drive our fire trucks in the tub, too! Love is bendy straws for our Canada Dry when we're sick. Love is  bedtime stories, and bedtime prayers and hugs and kisses and Smarties and good-night dreams. Best of all, love is surprises. As long as there are surprises there will always be love.

Love is even when I have to sit on the Time Out Chair and think about what I did. I hate the Time Out Chair. I hate to think. Thinking hurts. I don't go there very often but when I do, I know James wants me to be a better cub.

Love is when we all curl up together in the comfy green chair and sing silly songs and say silly poems. Love is when we watch Caillou on Radio-Canada. Oh! Wait! Love is playing Hide and Seek and riding our bicycles up and down Sparkle Road. Love is cocoa with newborn baby marshmallows in it. Love is laughing when we're happy and great big hugs when we're sad and our hearts hurt real bad. 

Know what? We're really lucky. We got more family. We got Uncle D and Auntie A and Lulu and Lily. They're all part of our family even though they live far away. We take VIA Rail to visit them.

They live way past Toronto. That's really far. Their house is farther away than the moon. I can see the moon when I look out the window at night but I can't look out the window and see Toronto.


Good thing we can love near AND far! We love them all a lot. Love is hugs and tea parties, you know. It's when we paint pictures together and make tattoos with Smarties. Love is when we ice skate together on the lake.  I'm glad I got a family to love. I'd be a really lonely bear cub if I didn't have a family. Then I'd be sad.

 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. Love your family. Share your Smarties and your root beer.  Okay! Over and out!"

Tea Party with Lulu, Lily and their Friends

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. James says he remembers the first rainbow. He must be really old!

 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'm pretty sure that angels left him in front of our door.

Now I have a little brother 'cuz we adopted Chance. He's so little he doesn't have any teeth. He drinks condensed owls' milk out of a bottle. He doesn't even have a tail! I look after Chance, too. He's a handful!

Know what? Chance and me got invited to a tea party at Lulu and Lily's house. They had some other friends come, too.

Tea parties are fun. We're on our best behaviour, you know. We sit at the table and drink green tea.  Green tea is good for us. It comes from China. I know where China is. It's far away. It's on the other side of Earth. If we want to go there we have to fly on Air Canada or dig a hole really deep. I like to dig holes. Digging holes is fun. I could dig a hole all the way to China, you know.

At tea parties we eat yummy food. We eat carrot sticks, celery sticks and pretzels. Pretzels are really yummy. We eat hummus on pretzels. It's a dip. We cook hummus in the food processor. Hummus comes from chick peas, you know. James helps us. We grind them up with tahini and lemon juice and spices. That's how we cook hummus.

We eat raisins and cashew nuts and chocolate chip cookies, too. Oh, I almost forgot! We eat Smarties at tea parties. Smarties are my favouritest chocolate. We always eat the red Smarties last. It's a rule.






Chance doesn't eat food. That's 'cuz he doesn't have any teeth. He doesn't know how to chew. He'll learn to chew when he's older. Chance just drinks condensed owls' milk out of his bottle. Chance always falls asleep after he finishes his bottle. That's 'cuz he's a wee little thing. Newborn baby cubbies need a lot of sleep.


 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 kind to friends and neighbours. Be on your best behaviour. Then you can get invited to tea parties and eat Smarties and drink green tea. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house! We can have a tea party together together! Okay! Over and out!"