Holiday Season Extended to February 15th

Now that we are comfortably into 2010, many of you have already packed away Christmas and kicked your tree to the curb. What's the rush? In Canada, the new official Boxing Day (in our house anyway) is Family Day, the third Monday in February. So set February 15th aside for taking down the tinsel and tree, and enjoy an extended Holiday Season.

A Family Tradition

A long-standing family tradition we enjoy is preparing and serving baked beans as our first meal of the New Year. We'll soak the beans tonight, and place them in the oven at about 4 p.m. New Year's Eve - ready for a midnight tasting. I'm sure there are varying takes on the link that a meal of beans has to prosperity, but my mom always said that starting the year off with the simplest meal ensures better fortune in the year to come. There is still time for you to enjoy this tradition, too. We use Ontario grown Thompson's White Pea Beans. A simple recipe for old-fashioned baked beans is provided by the Thompson family on the package. Enjoy!

The Relevance of Museums

If you have spent time working in the museum or gallery field you may find this short video essay by Robert Janes a wake up call of sorts. For anyone who has toiled in under-resourced organizations, you have likely taken action long ago. If not, his perspective is real and worth considering, in my view.

When the day of quality ends...

There is a scene in the 1979 film An American Christmas Carol (found at 8:25 of this linked segment) that is prophetic, especially as the manufacturing economy in Ontario towns continues to disappear. After apprenticing with the owner of a small town furniture maker, ambitious young Ben Slade unveils a new manufacturing concept, mass production, to his employer and adoptive father Mr. Brewster at the staff Christmas party. Mr. Brewster cannot accept that the assembly line will revolutionize the furniture business, and states, "When the day of quality ends in this country we'll all be in trouble indeed."

This depression era interpretation of the Dickens classic was filmed in Elora, roughly an hour from the small towns of Hanover and Durham. As a kid, I remember the sign at the edge of Hanover proclaiming the town as "Canada's furniture capital" It has probably been 30 years since furniture has been made there. East on Highway 4 is Durham, which just this year lost the town's major employer, Interforest, a veneer production factory for nearly fifty years.

Mr. Brewster was right. In the new year we should all make an effort to seek out quality, local made goods. They cost a little more, but last a whole lot longer, and our support may just help to ensure the sustainability of our small Ontario communities.