Across

1. Salt water sailor's domain

4. A word often said with a sigh

8. Ship famous in Greek mythology

12. One who says what is false

13. One way of delivering ice cream to the mouth

14. Roger __ whose roles included the Saint and James Bond

16. "With regard to..." (memorandum subject line) (2, 2)

17. __ bag often given away to conference attendees

18. The traffic light colour that often makes drivers either slow down or speed up

19. Typically one course of a three or four course dinner

21. The number of years Alanna has served as minister at Centennial United Church

23. A kind of organization (abbreviation)

24. "__ the season to be jolly, fa la la la"

25. __ the Red (Viking who founded the first Norse settlement in Greenland)

27. Alanna drives a white one

29. "Female friend" en francais

30. The number of strings on Art's guitar. He bought it nineteen years ago intending to learn to play but life and work got in the way and it sat in a corner gathering dust. When Art retired on 1 November he realized he now had time to learn the guitar and has started taking guitar lessons. He practices daily and the pain of pressing steel strings decreases as he builds up calluses on the fingertips of his left hand which has to stretch in ways it never had to before to play all the chords.

31. A place that might offer manicures and pedicures

34. Wagers (4, 2)

37. "On the __" (receiving welfare support)

38. A room for conducting scientific experiments

39. Four __ (the next best poker hand after a straight flush)

40. The province where Alanna's two sisters live (abbreviation). We can't remember when we last celebrated Thanksgiving with Alanna's two sisters, Colleen (and John) and Brigid (and Ted). It felt right with Art's retirement coming up to travel east to visit and celebrate Thanksgiving together. Joining us for the Thanksgiving feast hosted by John and Colleen were John's mother and father. The food and the company were excellent. We stayed just over week and visited other friends as well. The only disappointment (a mixed blessing) was that the weather was so warm that the leaves had not turned the glorious red and gold that we were looking forward to enjoying. Another little reminder of the reality of global warming.

41. The place that one of the Community Chest cards in Monopoly permits one to get out of free

42. __ is grammatically the definite article in the English language

43. What a volcano spews

45. The plural of "person"

47. "__ of Man", a title Jesus applied to himself (see for example Mark 2:28)

48. Word used to designate a specified period of time, for example, the "dead ball __" in baseball or the "paleozoic __" in geology

49. Common term for an "improvised explosive device"

50. What you should do to your headlights when a car is coming toward you at night

51. A shop were you can buy the fixings for, say, a pastrami on rye sandwich

52. The day before Sunday (abbreviation)

55. On the ocean

58. Business attire for a man

60. Liable to overturn

62. One of a number of wooden pieces making a barrel

64. A military treaty organization to which Canada belongs (acronym)

66. "__ door" a door to a lower level flush with the floor

67. Welcomes someone to one's home (3, 2)

68. Angered

69. Father

70. The number of these determines how many people can be admitted to hospital

71. Phoenician port mentioned in the Bible (for example Isaiah 23:8). Also how the British spell where the rubber hits the road.

72. Company representative (abbreviation)

Down

1. Mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments (Exodus 31:18)

2. Their title is not "count" but their wife's title is "countess"

3. It can be measured in square feet

4. Put on an __ (pretend)

5. A coin with many sides

6. Something a child might do to gain attention

7. "Children are to be __ and not heard"

8. American physicians' organization (acronym)

9. "He was the noblest __ of them all " (in Marc Antony's funeral speech for Julius Caesar)

10. A large amount of often gooey stuff

11. Raw materials for smelting

12. "He's making a __ and checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty and nice"

15. A kind of sea bird

20. __ car (what a car salesman may take you for a ride in)

22. Wicked

26. "__ Tin Tin" (canine film and TV star)

28. Lumberjack's tool

29. Donkey

30. Drunkard

31. Strike with an open hand

32. Bucket

33. "Ready, willing and __" (Up to the task)

34. White nose syndrome is a disease affecting __ which are the only mammals capable of powered flight. We learned about this when we stopped in Jasper during our summer vacation and visited a naturalist display. We had planned our driving tour that would take us to Kelowna, Okanagan Falls, Trail, Invermere, Valemont, Jasper, Revelstoke, Clearwater, Prince George, and 100 Mile House. We had intended to go from 100 Mile House to Pemberton and thence to Horseshoe Bay for the ferry to Nanaimo but the forest fires that blanketed much of the interior of the province with smoke closed the road and we had to travel from 100 Mile House back to Kelowna. The compensation was that we got to visit family in Kelowna a second time. While in Prince George we stayed a couple days a the home of Art's cousin Eva and her husband, Gerry, and took a side trip to visit Art's cousin Susan, whom he had not seen in longer than he can remember. Art has other cousins in that part of the province and we hope to visit them on a future trip. There is so much to see in this geographically diverse province. We look forward to continuing exploring it.

35. If someone keeps repeating what you say, you might ask "Is there an __ in this room?"

36. If you add 36 down to 21 across to form one word, you will have the number of years Art worked for Island Health before his retirement on 1 November. He has learned that as soon as anyone hears that he has retired they will say "Congratulations!" and then ask "What are you going to do in retirement?" Art does not understand why retiring should be a cause for congratulations as retiring is not an achievement and is best done before people start suggesting that one's best days in the job are behind one. And asking what one is going to do after retirement implies that one has been planning one's post-retirement while still on the job, which someone who has been totally focused on the job (such as Art) probably has not done. So his standard answer to the question what he is planning to do is, "I started to plan my retirement on the first day I was retired and I don't expect to finish that planning for quite some time." Art recommends a book called "Transitions" by William Bridges for anyone having to make a big change in their life. Bridges makes it clear that leaving something that has been a part of one's life for a long time, whether it was good or bad, is hard and it may take some time before one is able and ready to start a new way of life. So Art does not know what he will do in retirement but may know by the time we send out our 2018 Christmas crossword. Stay tuned.

37. The macromolecule that contains the code that determines the traits we are born with (abbreviation)

40. Another term for the eggs which develop into a human being when feritilized .

41. Several clues in this puzzle refer to Art's retirement. For those who may not know or remember what job he retired from, he was the clinical leader of the Spiritual Health program for Island Health (which owns and operates all the hospitals on Vancouver Island). This involved coordinating the activities of several hospital chaplains and providing professional and administrative support for them. Art regarded this as not just a job but a mission and a ministry, an exercise of his priestly vocation to serve God's people. He has not retired from his vocation and so is engaged in prayerfully discerning where God is calling him to serve next. Alanna's job as minister at Centennial United Church in Victoria is by definition her vocation and ministry and she works very hard at it and is much loved by her congregation. Her goal for the coming year or two is to help the congregation determine what its mission as a church is. The church itself is located in an industrial part of town, not in a neighbourhood where families tend to live, so if it is going to continue to function as a church it has to decide on a mission suitable for the area in which it is located and offer something that other United Churches may not provide. Alanna has her work cut out for her but if anyone can do it, she can.

43. What may be placed around the neck of a visitor to Hawaii

44. Without these two limbs Art would be unable to play the guitar

45. Country just to the east of Germany (abbreviation)

46. Give off, as light

49. More than good

50. The street address of Centennial United Church in Victoria. The church building dates from 1891 and is a heritage building. For a visual tour of the church, check out the website www.cucvictoria.com. It is the only United Churches in Victoria that includes a pipe organ as a regular part of every Sunday worship service.Those who love music stay for the short organ piece played by the church organist and choir director, Dorothy Froese, just after the conclusion of the Sunday service. Sermons are also recorded and if you want to listen to Alanna's sermons, they are available on the web site. Art is planning to become more involved in the church and has offered to take on the position of church treasurer starting in January.

51. "The __ of Anne Frank" records her life in hiding from the Nazis

52. The acronym for the Syrian refugee sponsorship group for which Art is the treasurer working in partnership with St. John's United Church in North Saanich. The group successfully concluded its sponsorship of a 22-year-old refugee from Syria in September and is now waiting for the arrival of a Syrian refugee mother with four young children now living in Lebanon. To learn more about this group go to www.sprig.me .

53. Take __ (disassemble)

54. "He's not my __" (not marriage material)

55. The remains of a fire

56. Stick with a knife

57. "Stand at __" (military command to relax somewhat)

59. Ours is #35 in our townhouse complex

61. "_ _ boy!" Announcement to a father just after the baby is born (3, 1)

63. The letter following em in the aphabet (plural form)

65. A kind of poem