a peek inside the fishbowl

Minimal carbs, lots of fat, incredible dieting results – but not enough science /via @globeandmail https://t.co/PJStKj7GPH

— Tanya Arcand (@ArcandTanya) December 23, 2017

• Bussed out: How America moves its homeless, theguardian.com
• The nightmarish darkness of It’s a Wonderful Life, thenewbev.com
• Santa in Finland, Where Marketing Triumphs Over Geography, nytimes.com
• Have You Ever Wondered How Snow Is Made In Films?, youtube.com
• A Christmas without Stuart McLean, theglobeandmail.com
• What’s Paw Patrol’s secret? How it captivated children and conquered the world, theglobeandmail.com

On the nightstand: A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, by Bill Bryson

Piper turned eight this week and I felt like we had to mark the occasion with something special so I invited two human friends and their dogs over to our house for a wee puppy party.

Yes, I did!

It was a team effort. The youngest contributed small party hats she bought at the Village Quire here in Westboro. The eldest, who I picked up from Kingston on Tuesday and is home for the holidays (!), helped keep the peace.

It was a lot of fun. First: I made dog-friendly hors-d’oeuvres of sliced turkey and cheese cubes (although the people were welcome to eat them too).

Piper was ready to dig in at the get-go. I suspect she didn’t really want to share but I told her she had to:

For the people, I prepared some fancy cheese, grapes (grapes are NOT good for dogs, by the way), chips and salsa, and avocado toasts.

Someone was QUITE eager for the party to get started. Clearly, the guests could not arrive soon enough:

Finally, our two doggy friends arrived (with their respective humans). It was pretty wild at first, to say the least. I will say this… it is impossible to put tiny paper hats on three dogs and expect them to keep still long for a photo:

This was the best I could do:

There were a few, er, incidents. Here’s a good tip! When serving cheese cubes on toothpicks, make sure the dog doesn’t decide to unleash her inner wolf, lunge at a cheese cube, and try to eat it with the toothpick still embedded in it. Sigh.

There was a lot of bum sniffing, some chasing, and lots of tail wagging. All of the bones, rawhides, and pig ears in Piper’s bin got a good chewing during the party, which I was happy about. I mean let’s face it, one of the best things about parties is checking out other people’s stuff, amirite? I suspect that one of the bones is buried in the snow somewhere. And SOMEONE tried to bury one in our couch and even left one upstairs. I won’t name names but clearly, she had a good time:

Speaking of which, I think I have two dozen blurry photos of this gal, who jumped up and down in front of me while I tried to get the perfect shot:

And then there were PRESENTS. It was also very exciting, and not just for the birthday girl:

The whole thing reminded me of the birthday parties we used to host when the kids were really small: shepherding young attendees around and making sure no one hurt themselves (or another party goer!) and that there are enough snacks to go around.

Piper’s eighth birthday was a good excuse to get in a bit of pre-Christmas socializing for the humans too. I really should make more of an effort to do this in the new year. Everyone seemed to have a good time. The dogs were ESPECIALLY keen when I had cheese in my hand… no toothpick this time:

Cheese is the secret to friendship obviously.

The sad part is that we made loot bags for our doggy guests and forgot to give them out at the end. Oh well. That just means that I’ll have to take Piper for a walk and drop them off. :)

Last night was my first time visiting the Magic of Lights at Wesley Clover Parks in Kanata (Ottawa)! I wasn’t sure what to expect, but you know what, I can see why people have been swept away by it.

Magic of Lights is a winding 2km stretch of road at Wesley Clover that has been decked out with a crazy amount of Christmas lights and displays. Some are simple (think, strands of lights strung around trees and along fences) and others are big, animated, or both. There’s a charitable component as well. Last year, Magic of Lights raised more than $47,000 for the Ottawa Senators Foundation and they’re partnering with them again this year too.

The idea is to pack up a car of people and drive the route, but I actually had the opportunity to walk it (!) because I was accompanying someone who was shooting video footage. This means I had a LOT of time to watch cars go by and think about what I was looking at. What I saw was happy faces of all ages. It wasn’t just cars full of families either, like I expected. There were young couples and old, parents with babies, senior doubles (a double date?), people with their pets, families with their teenagers hanging out the window, small buses with people from hospitals and care facilities (ROAD TRIIIIIP!) and even a ParaTranspo bus. Some people were singing Christmas carols, others were blasting music. I got waved at A LOT while on the side of the road there. I waved back. It did my heart good.

Magic of Lights is divided into different zones with different themes, which is fun to observe. Some of these themed areas include: holidays from around the world, sports, fairy tales, Candyland, Three Little Pigs, what appeared to be Northern animals, and construction crew (? diggers and such, for realz). I really liked the “Twelve days of Christmas” zone as it was particularly clever and beautiful. And yes, the displays included each verse of the song, including 12 drummers drumming!

This is what it looks like as you drive into that area:

Can you guess what this light display represents?

(It’s swans a’swimming!) Here are some maids a’ milking:

And some lords a’leaping. Watch ’em leap! They are LARGE. This little video clip doesn’t quite do it justice:

The snow fell gently, and the blanket of white made everything glow so beautifully.

Some of the displays are animated, which is pretty neat: LED-Santa on a motorcycle doing a stunt, a fire-breathing dragon, or an elf playing with a basketball. At the very end there’s an animated tunnel of lights, which is pretty cool.

I’m told that the displays are bigger and better than last year, and that there are more of them, but I can’t comment on that because I didn’t see it last year. Some people online have complained that the route is too short so I recommend you take it slow and savour that twinkle as long as you can (because I don’t think you can go through twice)!

Next time I’ll definitely bring the kids, as well as a thermos of hot chocolate or two, and make sure the Christmas tunes are playing in the car! I think if you’re looking for something festive, easy, and gentle to do for the whole family, this is a great option for folks in the Ottawa area. I do kind of wish that visitors had the option of walking through instead of driving. The parking lot there is big enough to accommodate the handful of families who might want to do it this way. We walked the route once and drove through it as well, and it was pretty amazing to see it on foot (even though my toes were froze by the time we were done).

Magic of Lights is at the Wesley Clover Parks Campground (411 Corkstown Road in Kanata) and is open from dusk until 10 p.m. until January 6, 2018. Corkstown Road can be accessed from Moodie Drive or the March Road exits from the 417, west of the junction of the 416 and 417 highways. If you buy your tickets online at magicoflights.com/ottawa it’s a little cheaper (and also more convenient in my books).

Have you been yet? I’d love to hear your review.