and hockey is a big wintertime sport in canada, so a lot of young men and women are on their skates on the rideau canal, the longest outdoor skating rink in the world. i remember that, of course, growing up, we would always, every season go out on the rideau canal and sharpen our skates, and then there would be hot chocolate and donuts, beaver tails afterwards. beavertail is sort of like a long donut with whatever topping you like on top of it. chocolate or icing or icing sugar or cinnamon. so those are the things that i remember. christmas, of course, was an exciting time as a kid just opening up the box. we didn't have a tree that we would cut. it was always, you know, the box tree that the artificial tree. but that was very special to me because we had a tree that was very, very old. my father had this artificial tree when he was growing up. so that in and of itself was a big event to open up this beautiful tree that we would put together.