'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.

Their Christmas Wish List

Christmas is around the corner. I bet children who are celebrating Christmas are busy making their wish lists. Some must be elaborated lists like a snowy vacation (like some kids in the home of yours truly), while some, are simple lists that may or may not come true.

I got this list yesterday from someone who is actively involved in the welfare of the members of a children's home in Sabah, and it moved me so much. These children wish for things that most people take for granted. Things that most children won't care about much, such as alarm clocks and pants, but to them, are luxury. Here's the list from the 68 children at the home.

Somebody decided to 'pass around the hat' to raise money to meet the cost of buying the items in the list. Amazingly, within a day, a lot of people responded with pledges of donating some of the items in the wish list. This morning, as I checked Roslyn's (that somebody who kindly volunteered to take charge of the collection) updates, I was grateful to see that the wish list had been met. Somehow, I know that the faces of some children will light up on Christmas this year. I'm glad that these children have anonymous families out there who care for them. May there be joy in their hearts...

"Story of Appreciation"

Once in a while, we all receive this kind of forwards in our inbox. Some, like this one, touch our heart so, that we feel we have to share them to others. This one is from my cousin brother, Geyouse :):

One young academically excellent person went to apply for a managerial position in a big company.

He passed the first interview; the director did the last interview, made the last decision.
The director discovered from the CV, that the youth's academic result is excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, never was a year he did not score.
The director asked, "Did you obtain any scholarship in school?" and the youth answered "none".
The director asked, " Is it your father who paid for your school fees?" the youth answered, my father passed away when I was one year old, it is my mother who paid for my school fees.
The director asked, " Where did your mother work?" the youth answered, my mother worked as a cloth cleaner. The director requested the youth to show his hand, the youth showed a pair of hand that were smooth and perfect to the director.

The director asked, " Did you ever help your mother wash the clothes before?" The youth answered, never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books, furthermore, my mother can wash clothes faster than me.The director said, I have a request, when you go back today, go and help to clean your mother's hand, and then see me tomorrow morning.
The youth felt that as the chance of landing the job is high, when he went back, he happily wanted to clean his mother's hand, his mother felt strange, happy but mixed with fear, she showed her hands to the kid.
The youth cleaned his mother's hand slowly, his tears dropped down as he did that. It is the first time he found his mother's hands so wrinkled, and there are so many bruises in her hand. Some bruises incite pains so strong that shiver his mother's body when cleaned with water.

This is the first time the youth realized and experienced that it is this pair of hand that washed the cloth everyday to earn him the school fees, the bruises in the mother's hand is the price that the mother paid for his graduation and academic excellence and probably his future.

After finishing the cleaning of his mother hand, the youth quietly cleaned all remaining clothes for his mother. That night, mother and son talked for a very long time.

Next morning, the youth went to the director's office.
The director noticed the tear in the youth's eye, asked: “Can you tell what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?"
The youth answered, " I cleaned my mother's hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes'
The director asked, “please tell me your feeling."

The youth said :
Number 1, I knew what is appreciation, without my mother, there would not the successful me today.
Number 2, I knew how to work together with my mother, then only I can realize how difficult and tough to get something done.
Number 3, I knew the importance and value of family relationship.
The director said, " This is what I am asking, I want to recruit a person that can appreciate the help of other, a person that knew the suffering of others to get thing done, and a person that would not put money as his only goal in life to be my manager. You are hired.

Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates, every employees worked diligently and in a team, the company's result improved tremendously.

A child who had been protected and habitually given whatever he did, he developed "entitlement mentality" and always put himself first. He is ignorant of his parent's effort. When he started work, he assumed every people must listen to him, and when he became a manager, he would never know how suffering his employee and always blame others. For this kind of people, he can have good result, may be successful for a while, but eventually would not feel sense of achievement, he will grumble and full of hatred and fight for more. If we are this kind of protective parent, did we love the kid or destroy the kid?

You can let your kid live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn piano, watch a big screen TV. But when you are cutting grass, please let them experience it. After a meal, let them wash their plate and bowl together with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in a right way. You want them to understand, no matter how rich their parents are, one day their hair will grow grey, same as the mother of that young person.

The most important thing is your kid learn how to appreciate the effort and experience the difficulty and learn the ability to work with others to get things done.