Canadian Gift Theme Idea - Christmas Secret Santa Gift Exchange

I knew you liked reading, but didn't even want to guess at which book to buy, so I thought a lovely book marker, yes, with a Canadian flare, would be a nice touch.

White Birch - Betula papyrifera

White birch has a wide range across Canada from coast to coast and into the Northwest Territories. The branches of the young trees are dark, reddish-brown to black. It's the mature trees with their distinctive papery white bark that give this species its nickname: paper birch. Resourceful Natives discovered that the layered bark could be peeled into long strips and lashed together to create the famous birchbark canoe - a Canadian icon.

This is a species of forest edges, and the shorelines of lakes and rivers. It is one of the first species to colonize areas cleared by fire or logging. It also provides important browse for wildlife and birds including the redpoll, pine siskin, chickadee and ruffed grouse.

Dream Catchers are an ancient spiritual tool used to help assure good dreams to those that sleep under them. A dream catcher is usually placed over a place you would sleep where the morning light can hit it. As you sleep all dreams from the spirit world have to pass through the dream catcher. Only good dreams can pass through the hole in the center while the bad dreams are caught in the webbing and are destroyed by the morning light.

Here's a little treat for you to enjoy while you are reading!

History of Maple Syrup

From the mid 16th century to the present, Canadian maple syrup has played an important role in global cuisine. From real gourmet foods to rich and sweet snacks, Canadian maple syrup had been, and still is, an important ingredient for creating some of the most delicious dishes throughout history. A few Canadian facts:

1540 First written observation of North American maple trees, by Jacques Cartier, French explorer traveling up St. Lawrence River.

1557 First written record of maples in North America yielding a sweet sap, by French scribe Andre Thevet. Thought to be an ideal constituent for gourmet foods because of its rich texture.

1606 Marc Lescarbot describes collection and 'distillation' of maple sap by Micmac Indians of eastern Canada (Histoire de la Nouvelle France).

1818 Maple sugar selling for half the price of imported cane sugar to the delight of gourmet foods aficionados.

1860 Peak Canadian maple syrup production year for U.S.: 40 million pounds of sugar and 1.6 million gallons of syrup, from 23 states reporting to USDA.

1880 Cane sugar and maple sugar approximately equal in price, to the delight of many chefs of French gourmet foods, for which this can be an essential ingredient.

1889 Small Brothers of Dunham, Quebec, begin producing evaporator with crimp- bottom pans invented by David Ingalls. Precursor design to modern Lightning evaporator.

1940-1945 Canadian maple syrup prices frozen at $3.39 per gallon during World War II. Production suffers.

1965 Maple leaf, a unifying symbol for both English and French Canada since 1800, becomes central image on new national flag of Canada.

1982 Severe local dieback or decline of sugar maples noted in Quebec. Provincial scientists begin searching for causes.

Castor canadensis

The Canadian beaver was the country's first natural resource to be exploited by Europeans. At one time, beaver pelts were the unit of currency in the new land. The beaver population was almost wiped out by 1930, but conservation measures have since restored their numbers to relatively healthy levels.

Beavers have a well-developed social hierarchy in which the family is the basic unit, and the female the central figure in each family. The usual family group consists of the adults, the kits, and the yearlings of the previous year. The average size of the family is about 10 or 12 individuals. Adult weight varies between 15 and 35 kg with the average being about 20 kg.

The bear, wolf, coyote, fisher, wolverine, otter, and lynx prey upon the beaver who is, nevertheless, a powerful antagonist when at bay. Their lodges, made of tangled sticks and caked mud, offer protection that even black bears have difficulty in breaking through.

Beaver dams are usually about 50 m in length, 2 m high, and about 3 m through the base. Their dams help to maintain water levels in forest streams, thus providing habitat for themselves, fish, and waterfowl.

Alces alces

Moose are found in Canadian forests from the Alaska boundary to the eastern tip of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is estimated that there are between 500,000 and 1 million moose in Canada.

A bull moose in full spread of antlers is the most imposing beast in North America. It stands taller at the shoulder than the largest saddle horse. Big bulls weigh up to 600 kg in most of Canada; the giant Alaska-Yukon subspecies weighs as much as 800 kg. In fact, the moose is the largest member of the deer family, whose North American members also include elk (wapiti), white-tailed deer, mule deer, and caribou.

The moose is a strong swimmer and has been known to dive to depths of 5.5 m and remain submerged for 30 seconds in search of underwater roots.

An adult bull is a dangerous adversary and is often able to repel attacks by small packs of wolves. They are particularly truculent during the mating season. The eyesight of the moose is extremely poor, but its senses of smell and hearing compensate. Possessed of a keen sense of smell and hearing, they can only be approached from downwind.

The card set I gave her had a picture of a $100 Canadian dollar bill on the front.

About the $100 Bill

The Bank of Canada unveiled a newly designed $100 bill on March 17, 2004, 120 million copies of the new bill began circulating.

Front

Date on bank note: 2004
Signatures: Left - W.P. Jenkins
Right - D.A. Dodge

Portrait: The portrait and watermark on the $100 note are of Sir Robert Laird Borden, Canada's prime minister from 1911 to 1920. Borden led the country during the First World War and successfully promoted Canadian interests during the treaty negotiations that followed it. In the realm of international affairs, Prime Minister Borden enhanced Canada's diplomatic reputation and status as a sovereign nation.

Back

Scene: Exploration and innovation

The themes of exploration and innovation are illustrated with images of Canadian achievements in cartography and communications. A map of Canada created by Samuel de Champlain in 1632 is paired with a birchbark canoe. There is a satellite image of the country and depictions of Radarsat-1 (a satellite) and a telecommunications antenna. An excerpt from Miriam Waddington's poem, "Jacques Cartier in Toronto," and its French translation by Christine Klein-Lataud, summarizes humanity's eternal quest for discovery.

I sent along two of each and was glad I did. Turns out both her husband and son collect coins!

Loonie

The Canadian one dollar coin has a picture of a loon in water, a bird known for its distinctive markings. When it was introduced in 1987 Canadians instantly dubbed the new coin the "loonie", playing on the image of a loon in water on the coin's reverse side, the nickname caught on and Canadian English gained a new word.

Twoonie

The Canadian two dollar coin (nick named the "toonie") shows an adult polar bear in early summer on an ice floe. Native to northern Canada and the Arctic, the polar bear is North America's largest land-based carnivore. A full-grown male sometimes attains a total length of nearly 3 metres (9.5 feet) and weighs up to about 725 kilos (1,600 pounds). The two dollar coin features a distinctive bi-metallic coin locking mechanism patented by the Royal Canadian Mint.