Roughriders running back A.J. Ouellette says<\/a>. \u201cWe did \u2018guess what\u2019s in the box?\u2019 with Christmas and summer themes.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s a fun little thing for our social media group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hopefully, Ouellette has already loaded up on presents this week. He celebrated a milestone birthday (his 30th) on Sunday \u2014\u00a0one day after helping the Roughriders improve their record to 5-1 by defeating the host B.C. Lions 33-27.<\/p>\n
Ouellette\u2019s birthday takes place 158 days before Christmas, allowing plenty of breathing room between the two celebrations.<\/p>\n
It is a different matter for Head Coach Corey Mace, whose next milestone birthday (40) is just three days in advance of Christmas (December version).<\/p>\n
Having a birthday in such proximity to Dec. 25 could very well lead to the present deprivation or consolidation \u2026 right?<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always happy about the gifts,\u201d Mace says. \u201cI\u2019m sure there were a couple of occasions when I maybe got short-changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cNonetheless, some of the best times of the year are around Christmas \u2014 and you get a plus-one with a birthday there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if Gainer is planning on putting on a hat or something out here (on Friday night), but I\u2019m all for holiday spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they\u2019re going to bring that and the crowd\u2019s going to be loud, there will be no \u2018Bah! Humbug!\u2019 from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nor will there be an objection from Joe Couch, who is accustomed to warm-weather Christmases.<\/p>\n
The Roughriders\u2019 genial Global punter hails from Australia, where summer runs from December to February.<\/p>\n
How best to describe a typical Dec. 25 in the land down under?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hot,\u201d Couch says. \u201cThe boys are always asking when the best time to go to Australia is and I say, \u2018Look, December is just a party \u2014 the whole month of December.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful month. Everybody is in a good mood. It\u2019s stunning and we\u2019re all feeling festive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, back in Canada, we\u2019re all feeling frozen. That includes placekicker Brrrrrrr-ett Lauther.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was saying to Brett and the boys that I was thinking about staying in Canada (through Christmas),\u201d Couch says. \u201cThey said, \u2018Why would you do that? It\u2019s going to be freezing cold.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know \u2026 I\u2019d like to have a cold Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just like in the storybooks and theatres.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favourite Christmas movie is Love Actually,\u201d Couch continues. \u201cIt was set in England and there was snow and cold and hot drinks and cocoa and stuff like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never experienced a White Christmas before. It\u2019s in all the Americanized movies where it\u2019s cold and snowy, like Home Alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, it\u2019s \u2018get seafood, go to the beach, play a game of cricket.\u2019 It has always been an Australian\u2019s dream to have a White Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well \u2026 how about a Green and White Christmas on Friday?<\/p>\n
Santa Claus will be present, of course, at a stadium that is decorated for the most festive of summer occasions.<\/p>\n
The Rider Pep Band will play Christmas tunes as part of the pre-game festivities.<\/p>\n
The second half will include a festive light show, in which fans can participate by downloading their Rider App and using their mobile phones.<\/p>\n
Participation is also encouraged for \u201cDodging Snowballs\u201d \u2014\u00a0an amended version of dodgeball, except with fake snowballs. There will also be a Christmas gift unwrapping game.<\/p>\n
Christmas in July is presented by Purolator, which on Friday is holding its annual Tackle Hunger food drive at Mosaic Stadium. (For more information, CLICK HERE<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saskatchewan Roughriders\u2019 looming home game against Edmonton will include Elks and elves. It is all about celebrating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-25121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}