Skyway Books – Short Stories – Poems – Books

Welcome back to the weekly Skywaybooks.com blog. There is an annual holiday fast approaching and we all know what it is. The trouble is most people are forgetting what it really stands for.

December 25^th is Christmas Day. In all the commercialism of the holiday, we seem to have forgotten about the true meaning of Christmas. I was listening to the radio the other day and heard a very popular Christmas carol called “Here Comes Santa Claus.” It’s a catchy little tune that everyone knows the words to and we all learned it when we were kids. I had never thought about it until this year, but a couple of lines in particular seemed to make me look at it differently.

“Bells are ringing, children singing

All is merry and bright

Hang your stockings and say your prayers

Cause Santa Claus comes tonight!”

They got the say your prayers line right. However they missed the point on who is coming tonight. Are we celebrating Christmas or Santamas?

Those of you who are regular visitors to my blog or even those who are new to the site may be saying right now, “Oh no Marc is going religious on me and he’s going to get kinda preachy. I may need to cut out here.”

That would be a shame because the middle of my blog is where I really start to get my groove on. So if you have to leave I respect that. For those of you who stayed, thanks and enjoy.

I drove by a mall the other day and saw a sign that said Santa was coming on December 20^th. Funny though, I didn’t see too many signs that said Jesus Christ was coming on December 25^th. In these hard economic times, many families are worried about losing their jobs, their homes, not having enough food on the table. When times are tough, many people, Christians and sometimes even non believers often turn to prayer in desperate times. Who are you praying to? Are you praying to the fat guy in the red suit? How’s that working for you? When you walk through the store to buy your Christmas cards, do you pass over the ones with the scripture message inside or uplifting biblical verse, lest we offend anybody? I couldn’t possibly send those to the neighbours or hand them out at work.

Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against the time honoured traditions of Christmas trees and egg nog and gift giving. When I was little and still was in the believing stage, I enjoyed the anticipation of you know who coming down the chimney. The spirit of the jolly fat guy has lived on for hundreds of years. This year though let’s just take a time out and remember the true spirit of the holiday and who was here first.

Have a Merry Christmas, peace to you all and a very prosperous New Year!

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Welcome back to the weekly Skywaybooks.com blog. For the last couple of weeks I had been talking about travelling. At the end of last week’s instalment, I promised to tell about how Las Vegas was unkind to me. I will have to put that off for just one more week. I did some more travelling last week, last Thursday December 4^th to be exact. I travelled back in time when I visited a local private school to educate some young minds about publishing, writing and to promote my two books.

Glenburnie School of Oakville graciously opened their doors to yours truly for the afternoon. I arrived a half hour ahead of the scheduled program start to set up and get organized for the upcoming events. Tickets were given out and I was soon minutes away from facing 335 enthusiastic, energetic, and intelligent young minds. I went into the event confident, which was very bold of me considering this was the most people I had ever spoken in front of before.

Thanks to the advice of my niece Nicole, an elementary supply teacher, I made some flash cards with big pictures for the Kindergarten through grade three students. It made for a very visual presentation that they thoroughly enjoyed. At one point I knew I would be really reaching I asked if anyone knew how books were written before computers and they actually knew what a typewriter was. I was delighted of course and feeling the vibe again. I was feeling a new sense of youth until one student informed me that her grandmother owns a typewriter. Feeling the old vibe now, the one that reminded me I used a typewriter to write my term papers in college.

The second session with the older kids was next. Kids. Some of them were bigger than me. What are they feeding these kids nowadays? So now the gym was full and I was being introduced by Joan Berberian, the school librarian. After a rather gracious and flattering introduction I was on. No turning back now. All eyes were on me. It was now or never. Well you get the point.

I asked if they wanted to have some fun. A small cheer. I asked how everyone was doing. A little bigger cheer. Now for the slam dunk. I asked who wanted to win some prizes. Now they were getting excited. Their participation was more than I could have asked for or imagined. I was extremely impressed by their knowledge and enthusiasm. Then I started asking questions and handing out signed business card magnets and bookmarks. All of a sudden every hand was in the air ready to contribute an answer. Maybe not the right answer, but I gotta give them credit for trying. All in all it was a great afternoon. I even did some draws and gave away some tee shirts and signed books. After it was all over, I was really touched when some of the kids lined up for some autographs.

Thank you Glenburnie for inviting me into your world, if even for just a couple of hours.

Until next time, have a great day and happy reading to everyone!

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Welcome back to the weekly blog. Over the last couple of blogs I had discussed some travel related issues because I was, well, travelling. I have just returned from Las Vegas where I spent 4 days over the US Thanksgiving weekend.

Flying out I splurged a little and flew up front in first class. It’s not the first time I have flown on the other side of the curtain, so I kind of had an idea of what to expect. When I arrived to check in at the Buffalo airport, my flight was so early that the check in counter wasn’t even open. I was however standing on the carpeted “Elite Status” carpeted mat so I was already feeling a special vibe. The check in counter finally opened as did the self serve kiosk where you can check in, print your boarding passes and tell them how many bags you are checking. I had already checked in online at home so I just needed check my bag. It was seconds after I finished that I was called over, before some people that I knew were there before me, and promptly processed. Feeling more of that vibe again.

Once onboard, I found my seat on the plane and settled in for the hour flight to Newark. No jet service here, I was on what some friends of mine have nicknamed a “Salad Chopper”. Translates to the propellers are not spinning fast enough to even chop salad. The flight was surprisingly smooth. After an hour or so in New Jersey, I boarded a real jet this time for my nearly five hour flight west to Vegas. I found my seat by the window and was immediately asked if I needed anything to drink. Well, well. I wondered if they were quenching their thirst back in steerage. I’m thinking no. I was served an orange juice with plenty of ice and settled in for the experience. The seats were comfortable and very wide, but I noticed that there was not a lot of room between my knees and the seat in front of me. There was another seat next to me on the aisle which was occupied. In fact the whole first class section was sold out. Across the aisle I heard a gentleman ordering vodka and soda and continued to so throughout the flight. I wondered if this gentleman knew or even cared that alcohol absorbs into your system twice as fast when you’re at 35,000 feet than on the ground. Being an ex flight attendant I have seen my share of passengers who have bent the elbow a little too much. Not a pretty site.

I almost forgot, time for breakfast. I was served an omelette with a sausage patty, two slices of ham, a generous serving of cold, fresh fruit and strawberry yogurt. Everything was very tasty, even something underneath the omelette that I never figured out what is was, but ate it anyway. Also cinnamon buns were served and later on freshly baked macadamia nut cookies. My tummy was now full and the vibe was still good. Unfortunately nature was now calling. The slug next to me however was sleeping so I would need to wake him to get by. After thinking about it for about thirty seconds, I decided to make my request. He was very cordial about the whole thing. Unlike my seatmate on the way home while I was with the rest of the cattle who was noticeably annoyed at my request for her to move. She looked at me like, “how dare you wake me so you can relieve your busting bladder.” This time I was feeling a different kind of vibe.

All in all it was a decent trip. The slot machines were not nice to me, but I will save that for next time. Until then have a great day and happy reading to everyone!

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