Bookmonkey's Sunday morning tradition

Like a lot of people, I've got a few simple pleasures I enjoy - my family, talking with my wife, pairing up tidying and reading (it's a thing I do) and more. I love my morning coffee, which at about 6:00 will include a visit with my daughter Lorisia (she turns 18 in a couple months, and with high school over and university starting soon I'm not sure if she be sleeping through these coffees soon). I love watching The Food Network with my younger daughter Kaia at 6:30 in the mornings - currently we watch a show called French Food at Home. One of my favourite simple pleasures in life however, is my Sunday morning tradition.

First off - I sleep in rarely (or if you ask my wife Kayla - pretty much never), so Sunday mornings start at 5:30am. Up here in Edmonton, that means waking up before the sun for about half the year. I make coffee (grinding the beans myself - pictured left - I got addicted to freshly ground coffee years ago and if you want my coffee grinder you'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands), smile at the fact that Sunday is the one day a week I do not have a date with my eliptical machine and sit down to read.

At about 6:45, I got on my coat and boots and walked across to my local grocery story, aiming to grab some muffins for my daughters and a couple croissants to share with my wife. One of the things I love about Edmonton (pictured above), is that on Sunday mornings, not a lot of people are out and about yet. It feels a little like the opening sequence of 28 Days Later, but without all the zombies. Just a quiet, sleeping city.

If I'm lucky, Kayla is awake by the time I want to leave, and instead of the grocery store, we walk across to Tim Hortons (pictured left) for some tasty breakfast sandwiches and tea. Tim Hortons is incredibly popular in my home town, so there is often a pretty big waiting line, but not on Sunday mornings - there are maybe four or five other people in the store - mostly people on their way to work or kids on their way home from a long night.

I know that for a lot of people, sleeping in on Sundays is the way to go - but for me - that's when the city becomes my own. If you've never done it before, give it a try, see what your neighbourhood looks like on a sleepy Sunday morning.