Christmas Daze

Quick blog post to wish you all a merry Christmas! I am celebrating at home with my family, feeling very much like in a daze: I am spending the 25th as I did as a child and a teenager, playing with the model train, reading by the Christmas tree. The whole family is here, this is three generations now that contributed to this Christmas and the village at its base. Grandparents, parents, our children. My feeling is a cocktail of pride and nostalgia.

Christmas Night Train

 First: Merry Christmas everyone. I am sharing today a picture taken by my brother PJ of the family's Christmas at night, with the train running at night. It's just so magical. I promised Wolfie we will be there next year.

Model Trains And Christmas (a brief history)

This YouTube video is about a year old, but I only found it yesterday. It is about the history of model trains and Christmas. It's a big part of my own family history and our LGB train (sadly LGB isn't mentioned in this video) is by far the greatest Christmas present my brothers and I ever received. We are now three generations of boys in it. I say boys, because when it comes to trains, we never really grew up. (And the outnumbered women in the family never really understood our fascination for it). Be that as it may, I found this video fascinating. Oh, and Lionel is often mentioned. That was my father's favourite brand when he was a kid.

The family's Christmas Tree

 I shared it in a post in French yesterday, but here it is today, night time version. My parents' Christmas tree. With the train and the Christmas village at its foot. The greatest Christmas tree. Wolfie and I really want to go there next year.

L'arbre de Noël, 2024

Mes frères et mes neveux sont chez nos parents (et leurs grand-parents) depuis hier. Le sapin familial est donc monté et je partage une photo ici. Wolfie et moi nous aimerions y être.

Le sapin 2023

De l'autre côté de l'Atlantique, ma famille a monté et décoré le sapin de Noël. Avec tout, y compris le village de Noël au pied de l'arbre et le train électrique. Mon père m'a dit qu'il était plus petit que d'habitude: il n'ont pas pu mettre toutes les décorations. Mais il est beau quand même. Petit loup et moi, on veut y aller l'année prochaine, sans faute.

The Christmas Train

 First and foremost: merry Christmas everyone! Been quite busy today so I haven't had time to blog until now. Although we had a fairly quiet day, as both my wife and I are sick. But Wolfie enjoyed himself a lot and made our Christmas joyful. But I don't want to be all gloom and doom, so I'm sharing a picture of the LGB train my parents have at the foot of their Christms tree, which for me is the Christmas family tradition. Wolfie saw it yesterday via Facetime. Even via video, it is still an experience. He remembers it vividly from his Christmases abroad. My wife summed it up perfectly: "It's three generations on the same train." (One of her great unknown lines by the way). So yes, this is truly for all my family, the Christmas train.

L'arbre de Noël de la famille

Mon père m'a envoyé hier des photos de l'arbre de Noël monté et décoré par lui et mon frère PJ. Avec à sa base le train LGB qui est devenu sa marque de commerce, ainsi que le village de Noël qui vaut bien celui de bien des magasins. Nous l'avons développé au fil des ans. Dans un monde idéal, nous aurions été là aussi et petit loup ainsi que son petit cousin auraient contribué au travail de décoration. Trois générations sur le même sapin, ça a quelque chose de très touchant.

Crowbar Carl

 You might know that my son loves Playmobil.Maybe not as much as Lego, but still. He has a few sets that he loves. Last year, him and I agreed that, while he had plenty of police officers (some bought new, some obtained second hand from friends whose kids were too old for Playmobil, how sad), he lacked a few badguys. So at Christmas, I bought him a few Playmobils that had villains in it, including a police station, with jail cell, and this badguy. I named him Crowbar Carl. A new accomplice of Max la Menace. And like Max, Carl is holding a MacGuffin. Carl is a thief, his favourite tool is his crowbar. He is also a jailbreaker extraordinaire. He got arrested a few times already, but he always escapes when the game requires it. I hope Wolfie never outgrows his toys.

"Our" Christmas Tree

My brother PJ shared this picture of my parents' Christmas tree. It's unmistakable, with the icicles, the many, many decorations we gathered from everywhere, and, more importantly with its LGB train at its foot, and the Christmas village, which my dad built and developed over the years. Wolfie loves it. Two days ago, we did facetime with them and Wolfie could see it running around and it felt like we were there. He also interacted with his little cousin properly for the first time. I cannot wait to be there again, one family, so Wolfie and his cousin can be partners in crime and enjoy playing together around the Christmas tree. I still call it "our" Christmas tree, even if we are not here this year.

La roue de la Zamboni

Pour sa fête l'an dernier, j'ai acheté à petitloup une Zamboni Playmobil. Parce que je voulais qu'il adevienne familier avec cette réalité québécoise qu'estle hockey sur glace et que la Zamboni l'avait déjà fasciné dans une des vidéos (éducatives) qu'il regardait sur YouTube. Enfin bref, il l'a montée, puis il a vit perdu une roue et on l'a rangé dans sa boîte de Playmobils, jusqu'à ce qu'il retrouve récemment la roue manquante. Morale de l'histoire: ça ne nous prend pas grand-chose pour nous rendre heureux dans cette famille.

Ice Pirate

'Tis the season to be giving and I am buying presents for Wolfie, trying not to spoil him. Shopping for gifts, I came up with quite a dilemma: this Playmobil Ice Pirate with Snowmobile. I mean an ice pirate, how utterly cool is that? Not sure how you do piracy in Antartica, or the Arctic circle, or any wintery place, and do it with this fancy snowmobile on top of that, but it certainly looks nice. The problem is, while Wolfie likes Playmobil, he does not play with his sets nearly as much ashe used to. Now he's all about many his train sets. Maybe it is just a selfish idea, as this is the kind of present I wish I could still receive. I don't know. Still, it's an ice pirate. Just typing it gives me goosebumps.

Le chat et les rennes

Toute la famille cette année semet dans l'ambiance des Fêtes, même Domino. Pas qu'il soit très porté sur Noël en soi, mais disons que ce qui arrive avec Noël dans la maison a toujours un certain effet sur lui: les décorations de l'arbre, surtout celles qui ressemblent à des souris et, comme nous l'avons découvert le 1er décembre, les rennes du traîneau du Père Noël Playmobil que Wolfie a reçu de son oncle maternel (en seconde main, il va sans dire). Tout gris et à la taille qu'ils ont, je crois vraiment que notre chat les a pris pour de petits rongeurs. Dans tous les cas, il les chassait et a essayé de les égorger, jusqu'à ce qu'il se rende compte qu'ils n'étaient pas comestibles. On respire.

The Old Playmobil Castle

Last weekend, Wolfie decided that he wanted to build his old Playmobil castle. I say old, because for a toy, it is indeed quite old: my son received it two years from his maternal uncle, who had first given it to his own daughter. Since our niece is now a young adult he gave us a few buckets of her old toys. Among them, the famous castle. Wolfie had often played with it before, but it was the very first time when he had decided to properly build it, following the plan. I think there are still a few pieces missing, the action figures are mostly gone, that said we managed to do a fairly good job with it, as you can see on the picture. It was not easy, as I am not very technical and not much of an architect (Wolfie is far better, he's a natural builder and he understood the plan very well). It took us the weekend and I was quite proud of the result and of my son even more, even though there were still a few pieces to put on. Unfortunately, the very next day Wolfie walked into my office telling me that he had decided to bring the castle down so he could make room for... another train track. I felt quite sad.

Playmobils en grève

Ce billet appartient à la catégorie: les niaiseries que l'on peut retrouver en ligne sur les réseaux sociaux. Les petits bonhommes Playmobil font partie de ma vie quotidienne de père, mon fils les aimant beaucoup. Quiconque est familier avec eux sait qu'ils n'ont pas de coudes. Ils ne peuvent donc pas tousser dedans, ce qui est temps de pandémie est problématique. Ils ne peuvent pas non plus lever le coude, ce qui est tragique quand t'es travailleur.

Autumn Birthdays

It was recently little Wolfie's birthday. As expected he was spoiled with lots of presents, among them this combined harvester from Playmobil. Spoiled, but thankfully always grateful: he was happy and even enthusiastic with every single present he received. We probably have done something right with him, but I also think this in part due to the fact that his birthday is in autumn. I was discussing this with my brother PJ, who also celebrate his birthday in autumn, and it seems that from what we can remember, the birthdays of our childhood we celebrated in that season always seemed cooler somehow. The presents at his birthday always seemed more inspired than the ones my brother Andrew or myself received. Maybe there were better toys on sales due to the coming winter season? Maybe because I was already unconsciously an autumn lover and thought it was nicer to celebrate during this season? Maybe it is just the nostalgia talking and twisting my old memories. I am not sure why, but I often remember more PJ's birthday presents than my own. But I cannot complain now that Wolfie has his birthday in autumn. Having a young child, it gives you a second childhood.

Cops and Robbers

Wolfie has quite a few toys from Playmobil, it is one of his favourite brands. Among them, he has a number of police officers and police equipment, either bought new or second-hand. But he had no badguy to chase, so the criminals his cops were chasing were invisible. That is, until now. To give him a villain for his ever growing police force to fight (or "méchants" or "naughty badguys"as he calls them), I bought him this Policeman and Burgler set. It's not much, but boy does he enjoy it! So we have now a proper adversary for his cops to fight, with a cool mask, stubbles a beanie hat, black gloves and most importantly, a bag. In a bag there is a MacGuffin of some sort, maybe jewellery, maybe money, maybe a harddrive, maybe something else. Who knows. What matters is, Wolfie enjoys playing our own crime fiction games. The cop has no name yet, but I named the burglar Max the Menace, although this might change. So anyway, it really fired up his imagination.

Playmobil's Police HQ and Prison

I found a new toy from Playmobil which got Wolfie very interested. Although it is a bit much and I have no reason right now to buy it for him, I'd really, really, really love to. It's a Police Headquarter with Prison and it won a price for preschool toys apparently (see picture).It has cops, criminals, it is completed with surveillance equipment and towers. The hours of fun I could have, I mean he could have playing with it, as well as building a mind to appreciate crime fiction (like his Playmobil police car). I might buy it for his birthday, if I can wait that long.

Playmobil's Police Car

I often say that being the father of a young boy is like having the chance to live your childhood a second time. Which is truly a blessing for me, who is an eternal nostalgic. So I recently bought for Wolfie (because he's been a good boy and I promised it) this police car from Playmobil. It is a "Squad Car with Lights and Sounds". The car is too European for my taste, but it is the one he wanted. Anyway, it has two police officers, one blond guy and one brunette gal (with a ponytail) and all the bells and whistles: handcuffs, guns, walkie-talkie, the lot. He. Loves. It. Me too. I kind of hope this will be a way to introduce my son to crime fiction, as we invent stories where Blondie and Ponytail chase bank robbers, burglers and the like. Because Wolfie already wants badguys Playmobils.

"Playmospace"

Once upon a time, my brothers and I had a few Playmobil sets. I was discussing this with my brother PJ recently and we mentioned that the very first one we had was a space shuttle with three astronauts in it, one red, one yellow and one another colour. PJ thought he found it online. I did my own research and it appears that the collection was called Playmospace. I remember this space shuttle fondly. There was one action figure for each one of us (my character was the yellow one), the vehicle and the equipment looked absolutely out there and it became the center of our science-fiction make belief games. At some point, we the shuttle and the astronauts were merely used as reference and we played a live action version of the game. I hope I can find a similar shuttle for Wolfie one day.