I know it's still November.

I know many of you already know that Angus and I have many problems. One of many of these is our obsession with Christmas, which sometimes begins on a drunkin July night listening to Polish Christmas music on vinyl. I have begun my yuletide season a little later this year by rehearsing for my Christmas concert in Athens this December the 18th. For those who don't know, Athens is my much over glamourized hometown that I tend to get weepy over as the season approaches. Athens is a small place but home to a score of famous charcters including Tara Vanderlinden, Mrs. Covey and Bord Watt (just to name a few, and more on them later). Athens is a place I have a love hate relationship with, but come December I can't think of any other place I'd rather be.

Athens is in eastern Ontario just north of Brockville and east of Kingston and far enough away that people from Toronto haven't ruined it with a Starbucks, art gallery or a 10 000 villages. The population is 1000 and is made up of British, Irish and Dutch stock mainly who have farmed the area for generations. The village was incorporated in 1890, was the centre of education and religon for the surrouding agricultural communities. The village has several denominations (Catholic, Anglican, United, Baptist, Pentecostal and Christian Reformed) of congregations, making it a very devout place indeed. The High School had a few hundred students when I went and I knew everyone by name and who there parents were. It was a loving but sometimes suffocating place to be, but as I said, in December its like the Canadian Norman Rockwell on crack decided to make a town.

So I am having a concert there in the United Church on Friday December the 18th. I began getting ready for it last week and its great to be singing these great old songs again on a clanky piano as they were meant to be sung. I am not what you would call a religous person but I have a great fondness for churches and the important role they play in a small community. The stale smell of mothballs and musty stone, weak tea and coffee brewing in the kitchen and the smell of wood and polish on the pews is a comforting thing indeed . I was raised Catholic but I have a particular fondness for the limestone United Church with its beautiful stained glass windows and high ceilings. My childhood church was built in the early 80's and looks a bit like a cedar chalet, why the Catholic Church decided to go on a rampage and tear down all the historical stone and brick churches to be replaced by modern monstrosities I will never know. I have also been hired by the United Church of Canada to sing more than any other including my own (not more on that as I may be willed out of the family) The United Church is also home to the Lunmans who are very old friends of mine since childhood, so it's always good to sing at there place of worship. (Angus went there too).

So if you're in the area come mid-December and want to see Christmas as it is meant to be seen , in all it's tacky homey pastoral glory, come to Athens. I'll have the cider fortified and ready.

This weeks preparation kit:

Music: Gordon Lightfoot's Song for a Winter Night, Fleet Foxes White Winter Hymnal and David Francey's Lucky Man.

Food: It's time to get your Christmas cake started so it can age just right for the 25th! My mother is doing hers today. This is my late grandmothers recipe:

Kathleen Victoria Barber's Fruitcake

4 1/2 cups of seedless raisins (wash and drain well)

2 cups brown sugar

2 cups water

1/4 cup of butter

The night before, put the water into large heavy dutch oven; add raisins and brown sugar. Bring to boil then simmer for 5 min. Remove from heat and add the butter; let cool to room temperature. (best left overnight)

Beat 2 eggs (set aside). dice 2 cups of candied cherries (red and green) Finely chop 1 cup of peacans. Set aside

Shake together in a large ziplock bag:

2 1/2 cups of floupr

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Sift dry ingredients over cherry/nut combination mixing with your hands until every piece is floured. Blend the floured fruit and nut mix into the cooled raisin mixture alternately with the beaten eggs.

Place a pan of water on the lowest rack of the oven. Place cake in well greased pans and cook at 300 degrees for an hour and a half.

Cool completely then wrap in foil or cheese cloth.

Read: A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. It's a great southern tale about family and fruitcake and I love the damn thing.

Cocktail: 1 ounce blended scotch, 2 ounces ginger wine, ice and a splash of Perrier.

Film: In homage to the American Thanksgiving, Trains, Planes and Automobiles.