I love shortbread (but you probably knew that). I love baking. I love cooking.
I love my family. I love my grandkids. I love my dogs.
I love my hometown (Montreal). I love certain teams from my hometown.
I love my kids’ hometown (Toronto). I even pretend to love certain teams from their hometown (shh, don’t tell them I’m pretending).
I love Vancouver. But sorry, don’t love the hockey team.
I love chocolate. I mean, I really love chocolate. So much that I coat my shortbread in it….
I love sewing. I love knitting. I love British mysteries. I love how my Italian-Irish-Canadian family is loud and messy and filled with good food, laughter and crazy people. I loved secretly feeding my grandma’s Cocker Spaniel under the kitchen table and wishing we could have a dog at home. But alas, my brother was allergic to dogs (brothers, am I right?).
And, I love Italian food. I love how no matter which aunt’s house we visited, the spaghetti sauce tasted exactly the same. I love our family’s secret pizza recipe. I love all the wacky superstitions my Italian mother believed and that permeated my childhood. And those rainbow cookies – could NOT get enough of those as a kid…
I loved camping in the summers as a child with my parents and my brother and sometimes with my cousins. I loved summer vacation and road trips in our ‘63 Ford loaded to the rafters with camping gear. I loved how my mother used to practically pack the whole house to take camping and how my father could make camp with nothing but a fishing pole and a sleeping bag. I loved pitching the tent and fishing with my Dad and my brother. I loved roasting marshmallows and sitting by the campfire late into the night. I loved taking my own kids camping and sharing stories and campfires and s’mores on starlit summer nights.
I must confess though that I used to love camping and hiking but now I am older and wiser and prefer five-star hotels. I love all the memories of camping and hiking with my family and with the Girl Guides. I love my friends made over the years in Guiding. I love to travel. I love Europe and exploring churches. I love going to church and singing loud for all to hear. Oh and I love the movie “Elf”. And Christmas. Christmas is my favourite time of year. Aside from the fact that it is the celebration of the birth of our Saviour, it is shortbread season after all. And did I mention that I love shortbread?
