December 24, 2014: Twas the day before Christmas and all through the town, Joe was getting stuff done and running around!

Seriously.  You’d think we were back in Vancouver.

On perhaps the rainiest day of December, Akemi and I found ourselves running around Montreal, running errands.  First, it was exchanging gifts and, of course, food (“Put the shrimp in the oven at 400 for 2o minutes!”).  Then, we were off to the basement of the Ogilvy department store where I picked up my Christmas gift from Sis (on account of her being laid up with some chest thing that may be a bad cold or muscular ailment or pleurisy [which I thought went out of fashion at the turn of the 20th century along alongside derby hats and laudanum]).

Gendron (http://montrealgazette.com/life/urban-expressions/my-montreal-chocolatier-daniel-gendron-of-ogilvys-new-chocolate-boutique) is my favorite chocolate shop in the city.  The chocolates are wonderful, tasty and varied (blue cheese!), but what truly sets them apart are their remarkably thin shells.  I picked up a box of 12 along with a dark chocolate pistachio bar and some baking chocolate chips.

After that, it was four blocks over to my favorite comic shop in Montreal – 1 000 000 Comix (https://www.facebook.com/pages/1000000-COMIX/1437682166443408) – where my buddy Rob Steal was working while owner (and Montreal Comicon CEO) Alex La Prova if presumably of enjoying a well-deserved retirement somewhere on the yacht he purchased with his comic book proceeds.  I picked up a couple of intriguing-looking first issues (Eric Stephenson’s They’re Not Like Us #1, and Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Bitch Planet #1 which was described as Orange is the New Black..in Space!) and the fourth volume of the ever-awesome Saga, written by Brian K. Vaughan which I’ll be jumping on tonight.

We had lunch at Kojak, a Montreal institution, where my friends and I enjoyed many a gyro pita between final call and the 4:00 a.m. all-night bus back to the West Island.  I remember my friend Suzanne once warning me: “The guy I was with ordered the hot sauce.  His nose bled all night!”.  Now THAT is one spicy hot sauce.  Her buddy was clearly a wuss as the worst side effect I suffered was hiccups.

And, finally, on our way home, we stopped off at, appropriately enough, The Sushi Stop (430 Rue Notre-Dame Ouest in Old Montreal) for traditional Christmas sushi (?) to compliment mom’s Christmas Eve feast.

Finally, to those wondering – yes, I intend to offer up my own list of my top reads in 2014.  Work on yours and we’ll exchange recommendations in the next few days.

Merry Christmas Eve!