'tis the season to be merry

It's christmastime again. A season to spread love, peace and joy. A season to be merry. I had fun selecting presents for my family members. Though to be honest, by the third day of roaming the local mall near my workplace from 6pm to its' closing hour, I did feel a bit like an idiot. Buying gifts for over 20 family members is quite a nightmare. Not to mention boxing them. It was a lucky thing that I found this little shop that sells cute boxes and stuffs. And even luckier that the girls keeping the shop were very helpful. Feeling helpless, I asked them to show me how to tie the ribbons in such a way that they end up looking really nice. They did, and they even boxed some of the presents I had on my hands then with big smiles on their faces. So that explains why some of the ribbons on my boxes look nicer than the others, which my two girls, as expected, pointed out to me (one can never keep a little secret from one's kids huh?).

Anyway, Christmas 2010 was great, more so because it was celebrated with family members and close friends. It will be another year before the family will get together again, but the anticipation of a wonderful time will make the wait worthwhile. Merry christmas and happy new year 2011 everyone.

The sound of silence

I've got silence all around me. Post family bbq chaos. It's rather killing, being so used to bedlam. I rather miss the bedlam that is the kids though. Pre-christmas celebration, my mom has insisted that they be sent back to the family house in kampung. After all, all their uncles and aunt have already started enjoying their christmas break. And kids have been nagging me to be allowed to spend their remaining school holidays with the granparents'.

I thought I'd appreciate the few days on my own. I've already visualised myself being super productive and being able to finish all my planned projects in speed. Instead, here I am staring at the wall, feeling kind of weird. It doesn't help that the hubby is on a course far away for a few days. Oh I've forgotten how killing silence can be.

I wish I could say at this moment that silence is golden. But it feels anything but golden. Can't wait to be on christmas leave, back to bedlam again.

against child abuse

"...and mom, the cartoon will be your profile picture for a while", said my 12 year old daughter in her attempt to urge me to change my facebook profile pic in support of a campaign against child abuse. So that explains Rapunzel on her profile pic. Second daughter cheerfully said she's changing hers to Ariel, her namesake. "And which cartoon character are you going to use, mom?", asked a little voice, my youngest son. I looked at all of them, bewildered. Obviously I don't know much about what's going on on facebook. "Shrek", I answered quickly, earning the laughter of the kids. They know I'm nuts about Shrek 2. And then I forgot all about it.

But later I read up about the campaign. It seems that people are encouraged to replace their profile pic with a cartoon character pic for a few days. Seems that children jumps to response to the campaign whether or not they understand the purpose. It might be useless, to some people. But it works towards creating awareness among the young hearts, that child abuse should never happen. Bravo to the people who think of using various means to fight for a good cause.

Selling Maia-the nightmare

The nightmare of selling a car again. I thought I'll have Maia for a few more years before I have to say good bye to her. But then Harry Hilux came along (and we do need him to do the tough job of going to almost unreachable places with nighmarish roads and stuffs), and we still need Livvy Livina to transport the kids and their friends to school and other activities. So after about 11 months, it has to be 'good bye' Maia for me.

Because I wanted to be practical and not to have to renew the road tax and insurance by 31.12, I decided to place an ad in Mudah.com.my, half-heartedly expecting responses. (It is really hard to say good bye to 'a member of the family'...I wish I don't have to). But right after the ad was published, I started getting calls after calls after calls. Non- stop even until past midnight I had to silence my mobile. What nightmare!

I sought the help of my brother to show the car to some potential buyers yesterday (me having been too busy with staff sports and all). Promised two other people that if the first potential buyer decided against buying, I'll offer Maia to them first. And decided to delete the ad today. After 3 days. Am I not glad I deleted it. No more calls in the middle of driving, or worst when I am just about to drift off to dreamland. I'm still heartbroken over having to part with Maia. But this is just another reality of life, isn't it?

Korea vacation countdown

Phew...phew, phew...Finally done with marking, the nightmare season of most teachers. Can't say it's an easy thing to do. Especially with essays. But it's finally over and yours truly is so relieved. Now I can start my vacation countdown. This time around, to Korea. Yippee, taking off in 5 days. Not that my work file is cleared...but it never will. So might as well take a well-deserved vacation. 8 days in freezing Korea, including a night or two in the ski resort. Might even get to build a snowman and name it a fancy name...

Some say it's a bad time to go to Korea now. But, heck, it couldn't be that bad. The war is happening far far away from my destination. Correction, our destination (kids can't be left out, can they?). But my hearts says it's going to be ok, so ok it would be. I so want to believe that it's all in the mind set.

Counting the days. Getting really excited. First destination: Teddy Bear Museum...Happy holidays everyone.