Growing up in Ottawa, you would never quite know what time of weather you could have; raining, snowing, windy and cold, or warm. One year , because of the rain, the kids in the neighbourhood went out in their costumes + ponchos. I was a pirate in a poncho. But no matter the weather, the plastic masks would always make it difficult to breathe.

Getting home after a tour of the neighbourhood, I would be greeted by Dad announcing. " So, what kind of haul did you bring in this year?" as I entered the door.

Mom would ask that we dump the candy on the table, and the sorting of the goods would begin. Typically, there was a ranking of the candy -- here were my favorites:

1. Chips

2. Toffee candy in the Orange Pumpkin wrappers

3. Rockets

4. Chicklets

5. Chocolates bars (any type)

6. Lifesavers

7. Suckers

8. Peanuts

9. Raisins

10 Candy Apples (by far the worst treat of all).

Now, I'm giving out the candy. And I think I may have bought too much - so far only 12 kids have come by, and we still have 20 lbs of candy to hand out. Surprisingly, no UNICEF orange boxes collecting change so far tonight. The night on this 2009 Halloween is warm and windy, and the costumes are very entertaining. Did you have a good Halloween?

... Just 54 shopping days left before Christmas.

Each year I try to start the shopping excursions early to finish early. And each year I find myself in with the crowds with a couple of weeks of shopping time left. This year, I am pleased to announce that I have started early - and I'm hoping to keep up the momentum.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the best part of the Holiday season when I grew up in Ottawa, was the anticipation of the Holiday catalogues coming to the door - from Sears, Consumer Distributing and Shop Rite. In those publications, I would spend hours scanning the pages and dreaming of things I would find under the tree on Christmas morning. Many of those toys and games still remain ingrained in my imagination to this day.

I practically squealed with delight when I came around the corner and spotted a modern version of "Rebound" at the local Wal-Mart. Wow - I hadn't seen a new box of that childhood game since I was 10. For those not familiar with it - its a type of shuffle board - with little padded metal balls which a player rolls and rebound against a Rubber Band. The object of the game is to get it close to the edge without going over.

If that wasn't enough - I also spotted KerPlunk. A game which involved marbles and a set of plastic twigs. These twigs are inserted into a plastic cylinder. The players pour the marbles in at the top of the cylinder and onto the twigs which block the marbles from falling through. The game players pull a twig out (one at a time) while still keeping all the marbles from falling through. The one player which causes all the marbles to fall is the loser.

Finally, I spotted an old friend from when I was very young. A Red Rocket metal wagon - which I used to have fun zipping around the drive way in. I used to kneel, with one knee in the wagon, and pushed myself forward with my free leg -- steering with the handle. Good fun when you're 5.

The more time moves forward, the more things come back from your past and seem like new to the current generations. Shopping, it feels like, will be as much about finding beautiful gifts for loved ones - as it will be about walking down memory lane.