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FEBRUARY 2003 Okay. on with the column. It would appear my two young sons are both possessed of that quintessential Canadian gene that leads most kids born here to want to strap on the blades and take to the ice. We're regulars at the indoor arena on the Ninth Line for public aghayng sessions on It seems Santa had been having a very bad day one Christmas eve â€" Mrs. Claus was after him to cut back on caloric intake. Rudolph had come down with the flu and the elves were threatening to go on strike again. In the midst of all the turmoil, a messenger comes to tell Santa there's an angel at the door with the Claus Christmas tree and she wants to know where to put it... And that. of course, is how the proverbial angel came to sit atop the Christmas tree! Forgive me for being a month or two past the season here. But the punch line of this column hinges upon a joke I love to tell duringthe Holiday Season about how it came to be‘ that the angel gOt to sit on top of the Christmas Stumbling - Stouffvillé/Z’; And while it's bad enough wrestling with this task indoors, it becomes an exercise in full- fledged finger frigidity when undertaken outside on a numbingly cold day at the park. So it was understandable that on a recent, fonnidably cold outing there_ that I almost met my Great fun. Except that my wife Susan and l have reached the point where our winter-dried fingers are becoming split and prematurely arthritic from tugging, twisting and tying the skate laces of our boys and ourselves every time we take to the ice. Especially when Drew and Griffin insist upon pulling their laces right out of the eyelets when they take their skates off, making it necessary to ball up the always-frayed ends and somehow stuff them back in the next time we go to the rink. Wednesday afternoons. Griffin, ’of course. is a rambunctious rookie “Tim Bit" in the tyke house league. and he, his older brother Drew and myself have been taking to the natural rink :rnaintained by the local fire fighters at the Town Park for shinny as of late. Skating on Thin Ice uhderachiever. ' We offer a free service that can closely estimate what your RRSP could be worth at retirement. If it’s not achieving the results you want, I ll show you all of our available RRSP choices. Call or stop by today. "WHITCHURCH-STOUFFVILLE THIS MONT H” - 15 EdwardJones Serving Indiviadal in‘vésir's _-, _- . , lnveslmonl Refirgsonlntis e 34 Civic Ave. Unit 101 Stouflwfle Bus 905-640-9559 Fax 905â€"640-9916 www.cdwardjonea.mm .Mike Mame cm m