Christmas is Coming. -23

Food

Home & Garden .....16
Parenting ..........18
Table Hopping ..

NORTH SHORE NEWS HOME, GARDEN AND LIFESTYLE

Doing their bit for the
Christmas Bureau

Deana Lancaster

“News Reporter -
dla. ncaster@nsnews.com
across North Vancouver,
. residents and businesspeople
‘alike are doing their part for
the Christmas Bureau.

“At the Lions Gate Cafe, patrons can_
“do their part for the organization just —

. by: buying their cup of morning java. -

; The cafe is donating $1. from every cup
“sold to the bureau. ° -

‘At Among) Friends, a gift shop in
Lynn: Valley. Centre, customers can.
i have. their- gifts wrapped, and -dona-
_ tions: they: make for. the service go
directly to the bureau: Or, head down
to the end of the mall to Indigo Books,
and your $2 donation for wrapping the -
gifts you purchase there wiil also goto.
the Christmas Bureau. =

For.: families’ that ‘enjoy spending
time in the outdoors together, they can
head up to, Guest. Services on . Grouse

like you.” -: ss
‘Yeah, but. Dve

Mountain and make a $150 donation
to the Christmas Bureau. For their
generosity, the mountain will give
them an annual family Skyride pass.

For those who would simply like to
make a cash donation to the Christmas
Bureau, The North Shore Credit
Union has set up an account for the
organization. Patrons can walk inte any
branch of the ¢r-dit union and make a>
deposit to the #:reau’s account.

“It’s wonderful,” said Diana
Cowden of the bureau. “So many peo-
ple from all kinds of organizations,
groups and sporting clubs, they do so
much for us. We’re just thrilled.”

Other organizations that have held

fundraising events or contributed to .

the charity include the North Shore
Winter Club, Hollyburn Country Club

and the Capilano Rugby Club. Even

groups of private citizens have gath-
ered. over the holiday season for
’ “ladies’ luncheons,” in which each per~
son brings a food or toy donation, said
Cowden.

_ chickens just did-
n’t LIKE us.
On Christmas Eve
the chickens began
misbehaving. Two
-. of them staged a
“rebellion by. camp-
“ing out on the ~
‘woodpile under
the porch and
refusing to. go
back to their coop

. I got elected chicken-picker-upper

. We spent the hol-
days on Peni er Island house-sit-
iting and chicken-sitting

ecially con- *
cerned that their four prized :
Rhode Island Reds got the proper oy
care and attention while they, were

and had to physically remove
them. I suspect this caused a
grudge. (It didn’t help that I was ..

‘Foasting one of their distant °°:
-cousins for supper that night.) -
Christmas morning we awoke
to the heatheiily sounds of the

chicken choir..“Buck-buck-a-
bwuckagghhbh!” It was my turn to:

open up the coop and let the girls

“out. Pilfer their nests for breakfast.

Instruction sheet, ¥ we really did;
thi ig went. awry. Those:

-goodies-when they weren't look-

ing. (Fortunately I hadn’t yet.--

heard that line from’ the Cockney ~

rat in Chicken Run “they come

from” er bum!")

It’s a weird kind of pleasure to
grope around in the straw and feel
a big warm egg nestled in there. |

-. groped and prodded. ‘This morn- .

ing there were none,

Spite, I surmised. Or ost-trau-
in the backyard. They had flowa®:

matic stress from last night’s tiny
act of rebellion. I was half glad
anyway because I felt a bit guiity

‘about stealing their unrealized

progeny. ©...
The rest of. Christmas Day \ was"

to be dedicated to serious loung-
“ing, loafing and the proverbial pre-.

dinner walk to be able to justify

eating et again too much food. It
was de

iciously foggy outside.
We walked like spectres through
the mist to the government dock

“'t0.watch the, as it turned out, fog.
“It was so thick that the only sign.

that the Swartz Bay ferry was pass

ing by was a muffled drone and .

_ off, but we couldn’ t place it. The,
“chickens! :

“some vaguely blurry lights moving. -

ee It looked like a floating fairy’
ship. -
We got back from: our walk
about 3 p.m., our cheeks cout --
from the fog. Something seemed

They weren’t kibitzing around”

the coop! (During our stay I came,
to understand every chicken idiom |

_ever coined by man.) .- 00° |

in a panic we phoned our

S friends.

. “Hello (niceties etc. ease into. :
it...”
““Uh; Pantela,’ your chickens

seem to have disappeared.”.
“What? What do you mean?”
.“They’re not in the coop; not’

‘in the yard: They've escaped.”::

“But they've never done that

» before!”

: We assured her that we | had fol-

‘traipsed through sword fern gro

VIKRAM. Bajaj and Jasvir Deol, of the Lions Gate Cafe on nidth St: in North Vancouver,
doing their part for those In nesd this hoilday season. From nevery ‘cup of coffee sold, h they
‘are donating $1 to the N. Vv. Christmes Bureau.

“She gave usa few neighbou
phone numbers and told us to cal
back ‘when we found her precious

“Rhode Island Reds.

a Christmas oy in the dwindling:

light, already obscured by-fog,
a chicken hunt in the’ forests and

: While people’ sat’
their living rooms, glowing
colored lights. of their.Ch

trees, sipping sherry,’ while“?

Christmas cooks basted
f turkeys and-rofurkeys,'\

lucking like. idiots in search’ of:
birds that were suppose:

id but that had’ ‘somehi