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returning to lake board a compromise t iplomacy is a large part of democracy such was the case last week as mayor frari sains- bury and councillor stephen bellerby found it necessary to backtrack on heated com ments made with regard to the kettle lake advisory board the pair had resigned and vowed to fold the com mittee over disputes at the heart of the klabs man date however last week the tune had changed both the mayor and beller by realized that the board is of some value and that dis mantling it was not only being seen as going back on campaign promises but insensitive in the wake of the recent ruling by the ministry of natural resources with respect to a boat ban on local lakes some may view this as a flipflop in the face of adversity by the councillor and mayor but it is more likely a makeup after a hasty and heated debate speclm- fok nx ws mr v wm santa and my father were best of friends tit y dad and santa claus were the very best of friends when i was growing up my father seemed to know exactly which foods santa liked and where he was at every minute at least on christmas eve for instance i know santa claus enjoys the odd icycold beer at each stop on his great trek through the sky my dad told me so he would explain matter-of- factly that santa would be good and thirsty by the time he made his way from busy metro toronto jnto rural pefferlaw in light of this discovery my brother and i would always leave a bottle of labatts blue and a sandwich out on a dinner tray and every christmas morning the bottle would be empty if my dads theory was right my dad is always right santa would have been good and crocked by the time he reached our pefferlaw house maybe thats why he enters peoples homes via the fireplace maybe the jolly old elf never actu ally planned it that way he just gets so smashed that he falls down the chimney as hes trying to get out of his toypacked sleigh i mean if every child from here to mississauga leaves the pudgy st nick a brewsky at every stop hed be quite lit by the time he kibbles bits made it back to the north pole i could just see poor ole santa up there teetering on the rooftop one leg wedged in the sleigh between a tonka halfton truck and a rollerbaby the other try ing to balance on a slippery shin gle at a 40 degree angle right next to the chimney one belch and down he would go we didnt have a chimney though and dad said santa knew that and would just park out in the driveway i remember running to the door just before bedtime to ensure my parents remembered to leave the door unlocked dad said he could get in any way so i assumed he gave santa a key dad also knew when santa was out of a particular toy if my brother or i would request some ridiculously expensive thing my father would shake his head and inform us that santa was all out of those this year i used to imagine santa phon ing dad up from his workshop long distance to let him know which toys he still had in stock how else would he know christmas morning my brother and i would rush downstairs stack our gifts and see who had the biggest pile funny how dad always looked so surprised when we proudly announced what santa had left us this year guess he didnt know him that well afterall christmas comes earlier and earlier stoufifville tribune publisher general manager editorinchief advertising director business manager distribution mgr operations manager patricia pappas andrew mair jo ann stevenson debra weller vivian oneil jennifer hutt pam nichols staff reporters tracy kibble julie caspersen roger belgrave photographers sjoerd witteveen steve somerville real estate joan marshman classified doreen deacon debbie amundson uxbridge retail sales joan marshman doreen deacon heather hill gibson uxbridge distribu tion ariene maddock canadian publications mail sales product agreement 439010 published every wednesday by metroland printing publishing and distributing at 9 heritage rd markham ontario l3p 1m3 tel 2942200 the stouffvllie tribune published every wednesday at 6244 main st stouffvllie is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing group of suburban newspapers which includes ajaxpickerlng news advertiser aurora banner barrio advance brampton guardian burlington post colllngwood connection etoblcoke guardian georgetown independentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this week markham economist sun midland express milton canadian champion mississauga news newmarket era banner north york mirror northumberland news oakvllle beaver orlllla today oshawa- whltby this week peterborough this week richmond hiuthomhlllvaughan liberal scarbor ough mirror and uxbridge tribune national sales representative metroland corporate sales 4931300 6402100 6405477 fax fhristmas comes but once a ii year is enough anon anon was obviously a woman how many men do you know who rush around buying cards and gifts making goodies and ensuring that stockings are stuffed and presents are wrapped no doubt there are some male paragons out there but they keep a pretty low profile this year with unusual effi ciency i have already written my cards now all i have to do is buy stamps every day meanwhile the mail brings greetings from someone ive overlooked last week i unearthed some unused cards from christmases past the ones i bought to send at the last minute but didnt quite get around to writing my pleasure turned to conster nation when i found they came with those nasty greet more envelopes covered in red squares kates corne for the postal code to make mail ing more convenient by the time youve written the address in microscopic script at the top and left the bottom untouched because you dont know the postal code anyway they bear an uncanny resem blance to a dogs breakfast your attempt to look classy has failed even before the recipient has had an opportunity to admire your fine taste in cards after all this effort im ready for a fortnight in the bahamas but it turns out this is just the beginning of the descent into chaos shopping can be fun if you start in july christmas week expeditions put one in mind of the morning after the night before larger stores exude a bat tlescarred air as beleaguered sales clerks totter aimlessly around their have a nice day and youre welcome sounding a trifle mechanical parents will find that the cool toys have gone all thats left is math is tough barbie uncles dads and brothers meanwhile will once again be the luckless recipients of loud ties or sludge green socks which is why i have started earlier this year in a con certed effort to search our those perfect gifts that will not make people wince as they search des perately for words of heartfelt gratitude its just going to take a bit of gentle persuasion to con vince the old man how stunning he looks in a hawaiian shirt and matching boxers with profuse apologies to san dras husband iii ti 1 1 tj 11111 il 1 1 i 1 1