26-12-42

Hello Everybody:

What's cookin in the old burg these days. I suppose that its snowing and blowing, etc.

Talk about keeping warm, I don't even wear my great coat here, but I suppose it is cold up north, but so far I haven't been there. Haven't hear from Bill since he was down here on his way over to Wales. I wrote to Razz and wondered why he didn't answer and a couple of weeks later I found the letter in my pocket. Had a letter from Less the other day; he seems to be happy about the whole affair.

I got the parcels (yours and Olwen's) and one from Minto Red Cross, so have been living high these days. I live in a kitchen of a suite and have a host of drawers, cupboards, etc., so I have a real grocery store now. Jim Broadpast and Farkin and myself laid in a stock of buns, cookies, etc., and use this as a supplement to our meals. They are good but not plentiful enough. The turkey dinner yesterday was good but again not enough. I got your letter of Nov. 24 and three from Olwen the other day. They seem to come in leaps and bounds. Ordinary mail seems to keep up to air mail. I guess the Lizzie must be on the mail route. It can out run the mail route it seems.

Everything is quiet here; there was a bit of action about five miles away one day. Couple of Dormers 217 were shot down. We could here the action but not see it. I have yet to see a Jerry of any description; in fact there isn't so much action right here as there was in Edmonton, except for the odd alert which so far hasn't signified anything to us.

Good news continues to pour in from Africa. Sure hope they finish up proper down there, but there is a lot of ground to cover yet. I'd like to get on a few of those trips to Genoa, see the Alps and all. The boys on those raids are sure lucky, haven't lost a plane in the last three or four raids.

Funny thing, when we were in Canada we figured oh, just wait till we hit England and we'll see what war is really like, and darned if Edmonton wasn't the more warlike of any place I've seen yet. I guess the day isn't far away when we'll get plenty of it though. I sure like to get on O.T.U. right away and get back in the groove again. I will have forgotten all the stars by now.

I guess it won't be so long until Bet gets into the money; she'll sure be right in there if it all comes out as expected. I suppose Bernice is going strong as ever keeping that small fry in good shape. I can hardly wait to see Bun. I bet he had to order a whole new uniform. Well just keep those home fires burning, it'll take ‘em all to thaw us out when we get back; there is no heat at all in our quarters and gets plenty cold sometimes. We tell the Englishmen we are going back to the land of ice and snow to get warm, but we have been lucky so far—only two days of rain.

Well that's about all for now, don't let Pa slow down on you, you know how hard it is to keep him working, and hold on to Ed, don't let him run amuck amongst the women around there. Especially the ones who just switched from one school to another, and I'll be seeing you.

Love Jim