Is early February too late a date to look back at December? No? Good, I didn't think so either.

I had a phenomenal time with the family over the holidays, and because this website is supposed to be about the musical activities I'm involved in, that's what I'm going to talk about.

Here's something that I've known for a while, but is maybe something that you don't know: There are some very musically talented people in my family. Such talent was on display at a family event known as Nick's Taverna - an annual talent show of sorts featuring the Haggis family and assorted friends, held at my uncle Nick's place. Each year, some people come prepared with a song or a dance. Some people drink too much ouzo and are only able to experience their impromptu performance through embarrassing photographs. All are welcome.

What is far from embarrassing is how much fun it was to jam with my cousins and uncles and aunts. There was a fairly consistent "house band", of which I was part, and then a steady stream of relatives singing songs, dancing, telling off-colour jokes, making stuff up. Talent isn't a prerequisite for fun, but it is fun to see talent in my younger cousins grow every time I see them. Playing music with them is pretty cool. Hell, seeing my cousin Cody grind his way up with his hockey team to win the Macs Midget Tournament is pretty kickass, too, but that's another story. My uncle Adrian is a piano player, and some of the first jazz I played was with him. Fifteen years later it's just as fun to do. My cousin Ella, 13, is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist now. My cousin Reid, 16, is a singer/dancer/choreographer. One of his pieces was performed by a group of something like 90 dancers at his school. These kids are the real deal.

Photos by Sally Haggis

On New Year's Eve I had a gig with Jessie Farrell at The Ranchmans in Calgary, AB. That was pretty cool because there was a bit of an 'X' factor - a wildcard, if you will. Our regular drummer Jesse Godin wasn't on the gig because he was playing another one back home in Vancouver. Also, Kylee Epp (backup vocals and guitar) was away on another gig, too. The other act on the night (playing 6 sets, no less!) was Craig Moritz and his band, so Craig's drummer, Ben Bradley graciously agreed to help us out by playing some drums with us. This wasn't a spur-of-the-moment thing, Ben had known about this for a few weeks and had learned most of the material - at least everything we gave him and then some new stuff we threw at him at soundcheck. Still, you never really know what is going to happen when there's no rehearsals and everyone is still kind of getting to know each other.

In the end, Ben is a great drummer and did a tremendous job. Bass and drums locked up really well and we crushed it.