Come to Bethlehem and See

So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 

Luke 2:16

A Happy and Blessed Christmas

Christmas is the time when we at Kwa-McCann celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

We recognise that not all of our friends see Jesus in the same way that we do and we respect that.

No matter. At this time we wish all of our friends all the blessings that this season offers: love, joy, peace, goodness.

Love,

Terry, Ingrid and all the family.

Happy Chanukah

I know I'm more than a day late but seeing as this is an eight-day festival Ingrid and I hope we're not too late in wishing all our Jewish friends and colleagues 

HAPPY  CHANUKAH !!

Sinterklaas (St Nicholas) comes to Holland Landing

The feast of St Nicholas is actually December 6 but somehow Sinterklaas knows not to come then but rather when the whole family gets together which this year was on Sunday 7th.  We started with a nice hot meal. Everyone brough part of it or cooked it in our kitchen. Mark, assisted by Luisa, roasted the veggies in our kitchen. The setting afternoon sun cast their shadows on the kitchen wall and you can see how how much Luisa was helping Mark and how attentive he was to the oven and the stove.
Dinner was a delicious affair although Stephen was a bit concerned that he had misplaced the keys of his car.  After dinner we sat down to sing the mandatory Sinterklaas liedjes (songs) without which the good Saint will not come.

Everybody listened very attentively while I told some stories about the good saint and then we sang more songs. Geoff observed that the stories were exactly the same as last year. Hmmm. He actually seemed a little disappointed that I had not done more research on the Internet to come up with some "fresh material."

Then we sang more songs - actually the same songs all over again.

While Stephen and Judith were out at the shops to buy more Coke there was this loud knock on the door and there were sweets and candy flying all over the place. Stephen and Judith came back while we were picking up the scattered sweets. Amazingly, Stephen's car keys were amongst the sweets and candy so we guessed maybe the Sint might have left something more for us in Stephen's car.

Stephen went to have a look and, surprise and excitement, there was a whole sack of goodies in his car. If we were in any doubt where it came from the sack had "De zak van Sinterklaas" written on it.

As you can see, there were lots of nice goodies inside, each with a rhyme attached from which we had to guess the content. 

There was one more surprise. We each received one gift except for Geoff, who received two gifts and Mark none. Hmmm. Obviously Geoff had been a very good boy and Mark had been found lacking. Geoff found this a very heavy burden to bear and gave one of his gifts - a Canadian Tire gift card - to Mark.

After all that we forgot to sing "Dag Sinterklaasje."

Movember '08 - Final Wrap-up

Greg Landry

Great work, Greg. Thank you.

Taylor Landry

Thanks for being on the team and giving us your mo shots - but Taylor, what's with the beard?

See you next year.

Zachery King

Zach - you are one elusive reclusive. Thanks for being on the team.

Greg Forbes

Sir Gregory - now that wasn't so bad was it?

Peter Righton

My ME Mo Bro. Thanks for joining the fun, Peter. Now Samuel knows what whiskers are.

Bob Arpin

Thanks for all the regular mo show pics, Bob.

Final wrap-up

Thank you everybody for a very successful drive that achieved all my personal objectives: raise funds and awareness for something serious while not taking ourselves too seriously. Final tally is CAD $3,366 raised by the Mostashed Hairiers. Add that to the $2,254 raised by my sons' team, The Great Canadian Moosestaches, and we all made $5,620 in total. Looking at the donors I made a rough tally of about 100 donors across both teams - an excellent achievement. Next year will be even better :-)

Mo Bro Terry

End of Movember '08

Wayne Hudson

Putting on the winter woolies before shaving the 'stache.

Justin Manuel

Justin tells me his mo is growing on him... Now that is profound mo wisdom - I'm just not sure what to do with such insight...

James Demarco - Platinum

Congratulations James Demarco (right) on raising more than $1000.00 and achieving Platinum club status. And thank you Taylor and Greg for bringing in this great asset to the Mostashed Hairiers.

End of Movember (nominally anyway)

As I write this it is 9:30pm in Toronto and the month of Movember is nominally over. I say nominally because I know from last year that some more donations do continue to come in and I certainly hope that will be the case again this year. We are less than $40.00 short of passing $3000.00 as a team.

The big winner of course is the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation in Canada and similar foundations worldwide.  Their stated mission on their website is "to raise funds for research into the prevention, treatment and cure of prostate cancer by engaging Canadians through awareness, education, and advocacy."

The fact that our team received sponsorship from over 70 different individuals tells me that this Movember has been a huge success not only in terms of fund raising but also for getting the message out about men's health.

Here are some of the amounts raised - all figures CAD$:

Canada $1,906,214

England $2,548,851

Australia $9,856,586

To all who sponsored the Mostashed Hairiers, THANK YOU!

...and to all you intrepid team members who grew your mo's and gave me your pictures for friends and strangers to laugh at, a great big THANK YOU!

Mo-sincerely yours,

Terry

Movember - My good news with 3 days left

My personal good news

Today I went to the urologist. [self-censored...]  My latest 6-monthly PSA was exactly the same as the last time so no indication of any further cancer growth. The economy can fall to pieces - if you have your health you have everything!

Raj and Terry

A study in contrasts. They say camera's don't lie - but this picture of me is living proof that they do. Anway - just focus on the 'stache and if you want to laugh, go ahead but please pull out your credit card for the privilege...

Inspector Clouseau - Take-1

Could it be, could it be..?

Inspector Clouseau Take-2

...could it possibly be that the great Inspector has joined the Mostashed Hairiers? Friends, roamers and country men, please honour the great Inspector with a sponsorship donation.

Zack King

The reclusive Zachery King was tracked down to his blog site where this amazing picture was found. Behold the mo! Do I hear thirty dollars? No? Forty did you say?

Justin? - yes, I'm afraid so

And all the time you thought this upstanding pillar of the community would never break any rules. Alas and alack! Here you see it. A goatee! AAarrgh!!!! In Movember!

How suave can you get?

In a matter of days our Justin has transformed himself into the model of Movember. Banished is the goatee. In with the Trucker 'Stache. Ladies and gentlemen, surely this gallant effort is worthy of sponsorship for the Movember cause?

Yours mo-sincerely

Terry

Movember - the final stretch

As we come into the final straight our team has so far raised just over $2000.00.  It is a good amount and I am very grateful to all those who have contributed as well as to our intrepid team of mo-growers. Nevertheless I am also a little disappointed because I had hoped we might have raised twice that amount by this time. So - all hands to the oars!! This is the final push. Please tell your friends and enemies about Movember. Give them the link to this site. In the pane on the left is a great big button that says, "I want to walk amongst them." Making a donation is as easy as having your credit card ready and clicking on that button.

Meanwhile, how is our team doing?

Mike Peyvandi - dedicated mo grower

A mo worthy of respect. Fortunately for us, Mike doesn't follow Wally's philosophy that you can read in the background of the photo.

Mike and Terry - Day 19

Mo bro's bound by a common cause.

Mean Looking Mo-growers

These guys don't look quite like what you would want to meet on a dark night - real mean mo-growers. You would not dare refuse to sponsor these "persuaders".

Taylor, Greg & Jimmy - The Good Guys

Actually they have hearts of gold and butter would not melt in their mo-uths. Jimmy on the right is our leading mo-mo-ney-maker at the mo-ment with over $700 in sponsorships.

Wayne - with a mo makeover

Gone is the truck driver mo image. Here is the new Wayne of the mo-ment! Could be this is the new look that we'll see on the cover of every magazine. The question is, will it last or will "someone" sponsor him enough to shave it off at the end of Movember?

Justin - Mo Hero

Here is the spirit of Movember. A big hearted mo-grower doing his bit for raising funds and awareness for prostate health. Keep at it Justin.

Pause for the cause

When diagnosed and treated early and effectively, prostate cancer has a cure rate of over 90%.

Of major concern though, is that every year around 24,700 Canadian men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 4,300 die of the disease, making it the number one cancer threat to Canadian men. In his lifetime, a Canadian man has a 1 in 7 chance of being diagnosed with the disease.

Movember mo-growers are raising awareness of men's health issues while raising funds for prostate cancer research and health education.

Yours mo-sincerely

Movember - Day 17

Bob Arpin

Smiling mo' and mo'. Keep it up, Bob - that mo is starting to take form and substance.

Jimmy "The Hulk"

Ja, well, no, fine, Jimmy - whatever it takes to convince your sponsors, but I'm not showing anything below the triceps on this blog...

Wayne "Cool Dude" Hudson

That mo really gives character to the shades - who can resist sponsoring a team with such depth of talent and personality - dare I say "star power"?

Peter 'Mo Love' Righton

Now this makes any man without a 'stache green with envy. Mo love! What can beat that?

Time to recognise the sponsors.

Just over half way through it's time to take stock and say a big thank you to all who have donated so far. Some have sponsored individuals, others the whole team, but you have all given in the spirit of Movember for the cause of prostate cancer research and so, on behalf of every man who has prostate cancer, and every man who will be diagnosed with this disease, let me say, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." 

In no particular order: Walter Chan, Janet Landsberg, Mimi Vinluan, Daniela Gaul, Cathy Boyd, Angelica Lau, Tena Bennet, Stella Fayaz, Lucian Acatrinei, BE Whiteford, Jim Kleefman, Tracy Weekley, Lee Farrell, Lynn Bischoff, John Thanos, Kareen Hudson, Joanie Katz, Voula Feld, Margaret Landry, Helga Tedford, Joe Penariol, Doug Ward, Damian Barrett, Patricia Dal Ferro, Julie Knisley, Cathy Kennedy, Michael Cote, Shannon Crumb, Harry Smit, Franca & Nick Sabino, Ashlie Burns, Keith Gartley, Jody Boutin, Remi Parent, Oreste Apolito, Gwen Hearty, James Demarco, Shubh Mann, Paul Strong, John Mumford, Barbara Stroud, Julie-Anne Hearty, Ashley Carruthers, chris connolly, Shawn Glogowski, Chris McDonnell. Oops. Nearly forgot Allanagh Latimer, Edward Yoon. At the time of writing you have together sponsored the Mostashed Hairiers fund raising to the tune of $1,572.14. That is wonderful.  There is still one more thing you can do... Please tell your friends about Movember and pass on the links.

Yours faithfully

End of Movember Day 11

I'm clearly overdue for an update. Deepest apologies.  Although, in my defence, I have been keeping the official Movember blog up to date.

At the time of this blog, The Mostashed Hairiers have raised Cdn $1250.72 for prostate cancer research.  Jimmy has been a great addition to the team, raising almost $500 from among his friends.  He has reassured me that neither blackmail nor extortion are among his techniques. You can see from his innocent and sincere face that he is totally to be believed.

Wayne Hudson is ahead on style with his "Truckers' Stache", but also has a good bunch of friends who have taken him well over $100.00 in donations.

Since my last blog we have acquired some additional members to the team, and I have pictures to replace the smiley faces that I used previously.

Jimmy Demarco

Zachary King

Peter Righton

Greg Forbes

Kevin Timmins

Mike Norman

Raj Bamaniya

Wayne Hudson

Greg Landry

Bob Arpin

Taylor Landry

Mike Peyvandi

Ingrid McCann

Terry McCann

Finally, I should mention that Mark has started his own team, The Great Canadian Moosestaches, which includes brothers Sean and Stephen. We were all together with Mark and some other friends of his over the weekend watching South Africa beat Wales in rugby. Here is a photo of the four of us, from left to right, Mark, Stephen, Sean, Terry.