Today is Vietnamese New Year's eve.  In Vietnam, this season is called Tet.  It has been a long long time since the last time I celebrated this occasion on my country soil.

Tet holds many special memories for me.   I remember every year, a few days before Tet, my mom would buy for our home a beautiful branch of cherry blossoms with a few blooms and many buds.  She said we have to tend it carefully so that we will get many blooms on new year's day, then many luck will enter our house.  On the morning of the eve, she would cook all these special dishes for an early dinner, and then that evening, my mom, dad (they were together then) and grandma would make Banh Chung (sweet rice covered mung beans and bacon all wrapped in banana leaves).  We would load them into a big pot and begin with the long cooking process !  Instead of cooking over our usual coal stove, my mom would bring a fire pit into our family room (also my grandma's bedroom, it's a big room) and she would load wood in it and we cook the Banh Chung pot on it.   It takes about 6 hours to cook them and we just sit there as a family, watching it cook, talking, laughing, listening to my grandma telling stories.  We would grill some squid or sweet potatoes next to the pot on the fire pit.

When it's near midnight (while Banh Chung still cooking) my dad would hung a long brick or two of pink firecrackers on a long stick, light each brick and stick it out our window and the firecrackers would crackle and explore into clouds of pink poofs.  Every single house on the street does the same thing so imagine the loud noise of firecrackers ringing down the street and exploding throughout the night.  We compete to see who's the loudest !  Us kids loves loves loves the firecrackers.  We look forward to this the whole year.  Actually, this and another event during TET, it's called Mung Tuoi for us northern (Li Xi for the southern) people.

On the morning of the 1st day of the lunar New Year, in our culture, family friends and neighbors are to visit each other's house to bestow good well wishes on them.  And every adults are to give money to the kids.  We don't have red envelop then, just plain beautiful colorful paper cash !  I spent my stash on toys and stationaries.  I don't remember what my brother did with his.  He was too young then so maybe my mom kept his :)

There are also many superstitious rituals that we followed on the 1st day of the lunar new year ! We were christians then but still practice a lot of "inherited" ideas.  We avoid cleaning the house (especially sweeping, we don't want to sweep all the luck out), we avoid breaking anything (especially mirror), and we don't do anything that we don't want to do for the whole year.  Common belief is that we only do good things and say good words so the rest of the new year will be filled with goodness.  

When our parents finished welcoming in all the guests and lugging us around visiting families and friends, my brother and I would go inspect our front street, which is now a battlefield of tiny pieces of pink paper, piles upon piles of them, much like confetti.  We would comb through the exploded firecracker corpses, hoping to find one that didn't explode yet.  We would collect them and gather them up along with other kids in our neighborhood.  Then the gang would go searching for a perfect power pole or a cement wall with a good size hole.  One brave kid will stick a firecracker into the hole, light it up and we all run away with hands covered over our ears.  It was good fun.  No one ever got hurt.  Thank God.

These aren't my pictures, just some I found on the internet

The fun continues on to the 2nd and 3rd day of the lunar new year.  We repeat our firecracker hunt each day, munch on roasted red watermelon seeds, enjoy many sweeten dried fruits (called "Mut"), and eat a lot of Banh Chung !  It was the best time of the year.  So much commotions all around and there's an air of jubilant everywhere you go.  3 days of celebration and the whole city/town is in on it together.

I miss Tet.  I miss the way we used to do Tet.  It's the only time in the year that I miss Vietnam.  We celebrate it here in Canada every year, we try to make it a special time for our family but a part of me, as I'm sure my mom as well, miss the good old days.  Time changes many things, strips away many things.

Love just welcomed her 2nd birthday.  We had a small celebration for her with just our family.  I don't know if she knows it's her bday but she walks around saying  "happy Kadie" !  I pulled out the camera to snap a few pictures of her.  She's a mover so all the shots were candid, which were perfect because they captured her.  I can't believe she's 2 but I also feel like she was 1 for such a very long long time.  How is it that time seems to flew by so fast yet so slow in the same time.

Mr. C said to me last night, "can you believe it ? 2 years ago she didn't exist, we have no idea what she looks like or how she is".  I can't imagine a world without Love in it.  I feel like she's been with me all along.  Huh..amazing...how she once never was here and now here she is, all cute and kissable and all things wonderful.

Love is a lover of food.  When I think of her I see her with a mouth stuffed with food.  She takes such big bite that girl !  when Love was 6 months old, an age when she's ready to tip toe into solid food, she refused mashed up baby food and went directly into picking up and munching on adult food with her 4 teeth.  I was worry her little tummy can't digest our food so I over cooked our food to help her out.  In any given day, she would have her usual three meals, where she eats whatever we're having, and in between she'll have an apple, a banana, half an orange, crackers, mango cranberry trail nuts mix, a pack of dried seaweed, a bowl of Greek yogurt, 4 vitamin gummies, a plate of chips, and a bowl of cereal (as a snack).  She's just shy of 30lbs, almost the weight of her soon to be 5 sister.  She's always been adventurous and willing to try anything, even dark kale and spicy dried fish.

Love is a happy silly little girl.  She's an affectionate child and very expressive of her feelings.  Very firm in decision too.  She's not easily persuaded.  When she's sad about something she'll makes sure we know it.  She would crawl up to me or C to show us her sad face and pouty lips.  When mad she would yell "boo boo mommy" or "boo boo nana" or "boo boo daddy" then run off to cry behind a door.  We would leave her to resolve her emotion and "talk" to her about why she's mad when she comes out.  Most day, she's a happy child who loves to smile, make funny faces, scary faces and walk around with 2 arms out like zombie.  My eldest told me they learned about zombie from Karsen and that "we love it".  Um...I don't think they know what zombie really looks like.

Words Love can say in English and Vietnamese:
- Chi (sister)
- Mommy/Mama

- Daddy
- Ba (grandma)
- Ca/Fish

- Wah wah (water)/Nuoc

- Dirrrty

- Hellokitty

- Egg

- Me

- Sock

- Help

- Nope

- Ngu (sleep)

- iPad

- Big iPad (tv)

- Phone

- Babby (Barbie)

- Anna 

- Dap men (cover)

- Cho/Dog/Tobby
- Hum (home)
- Poon (spoon)
- An/Eat
- Di ia ah (washroom)
- Na na (sister)
- Uong (drink)
- Apple juice
- Milk
- Bye bye
- Ilub yo (I love you)
- Zombie
- Picca boo
- Thit ga (chicken)
- Nu (sleep)

- Hello
- Om (hold)
- My
- Tandy (candy)
- Toy
- Choo choo
- Come
- Go
- No no
- Pider (spider)
- Hoppi (happy)
- Sawie (sorry)
- Amen
- Day (here)

Love can combine words together, like "daddy hum", or "my toy", or "come mommy", "mommy help kitty", etc.  She can point to all her body parts when asked in Vietnamese and English.  What she can't say she will point and act it out.  It's like we play charade everyday :)  Love seems to have a good grip on what's going on around her and understand simple words.  We played a made up game, Green, Red, Orange (go, stop, slow down) and she understood each command, when she can run, when to slow down and when to stop.  She can even play hide and seek with the fam.  Although when she hears "where are you?" she would run out and yell "day day" !!!

As a 2nd child, who is old beyond her years, we sometime forget that Love is still a baby and baby have "accidents" :) Love doesn't sit on high chair, doesn't wear bib and doesn't like to eat with kiddy utensils (plastic).  She prefers to drink milk in a glass cup and eat from a ceramic bowl.  She has yet to break anything, which amazes me still.  She's been doing so much stuff on her own that we sometime forget she's only 1 and a bit !  Everything happened so fast with this girl, she's stood up at 6 mnths, then started walking around 8 months and from then on she doesn't want to be held anymore.  It's so sad for me !  I wanted to hold on to her just a bit longer, hug her and squeeze her and hold her til my arms hurt.  I didn't get to rock her to sleep like Bee.  Love just take herself to bed and sleep.  She's so independent.  Ah, my girl is now a big 2, silly troublesome 2 !  I rather troublesome than terrible :)  I pray the Lord will watch over her and protect her.  I ask for patience and wisdom for me and C as we guide Love daily.  It's going to be another fun year !

No-fill, plain pandan glutinous rice balls in ginger sauce
(sprinkled with toasted shredded coconut and sesame seeds)

At home sick (congested) and feeling really sick of getting sick so often !  My daughter Bee asked me to make her "white balls that drop in the water".  I knew right away what she meant and welcomed the request.  I forgot about this sweet treat !  What a great way to take in more gingers :)  Why more ginger ?  I don't know when it started, but as I get older I become more nammer than I desired to be :)  When sick with a cold, my mom's nagging voice would play in my brain ! when down with a cold, we should eat only "warm" ingredients, like ginger, sesame leaves (Tia to), onion, scallion, garlic, etc.  It makes a lot of sense to me now.  It seems a lot of what my mom said make a lot of sense nowadays :)

I propped Bee up next to the stove and let her roll the balls while I prepped the ginger sauce.  She only wanted plain ones so it'll be super quick to make. 15 min. later we were both rewarded with chewy glutinous rice balls in honeylicious ginger sauce.

Here's the original recipe.  If you want plain, omit the mung beans, and just mix the flour, rolled into what ever size rice balls you want and drop it in the ginger sauce.  I also tried something new, pandan flavoured rice balls filled with red beans in coconut milk.  In order to taste the food, I steamed my face in hot water for a few second and gained a few seconds of utter bliss !  I can breathe and taste my food.  It was the highlight of today.  I've appreciate this little nose so much !!!

INGREDIENTS

Yield 10 large glutinous rice balls or 18-20 small ones

- 1 bag of bot nep glutinous rice flour (400g)

- 2/3 bag of yellow mung beans (use about 250g of the 400g bag)

- 1/4 teaspoon of salt

- one inch of ginger, minced or thinly julienne (use more or less to your liking)
- 1 chunk of rock sugar (2-3 inch)

- 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon of sugar (for mung beans)
- extra rock sugar or cane sugar for taste

INSTRUCTIOINS

Mung beans filling: 

- Wash the mung beans and put into a pot, cover with 1 1/2 times of water
- Add the 1 tablespoon of cane sugar

- Add the 1/2 teaspoon of salt and bring to boil, cover and turn heat down to medium.  Simmer for 15 min. and turn off the heat.  Leave on stove with pot covered for another 15-20 min.  

- Mung beans are done when they are easily squished

- Remove from pot, let cool and chill in the fridge

*Taste the mung beans paste and see if it's sweet enough.  Adjust to your preferred level of sweetness.  Keep in mind the ginger sauce serve over this is sweet also.

Prep. for the ginger sauce

- Boil about 6 cups of water

- Add the rock sugar and brown sugar.  Simmer until dissolved.  Adjust sweetness with more rock sugar or cane sugar.
- Add in the minced or sliced gingers
- Bring to boil and remove from stove

Making glutinous rice balls:

- Mix flour with 1 2/3 cup of lukewarm water

- Knead the mixture well and leave a side

- Remove the mung beans from the fridge, with a fork or potato masher, crush the beans into powdery mixture

- Divide the mixture into 10, take each portion and formed into a ball, put aside

- Lightly greased hands, take an egg size of the mixed flour, roll into a ball then flatten it big enough to cover the mung bean ball 

- Place a mung bean ball in the middle of flattened flour, fold in from four sides, then rolled in between hands to form into a ball
- Place finished balls on a plate lined with saran wrap (to prevent balls from sticking to plate)

Cooking the rice balls:

- Boil a pot of water, about 8 cups of water
- When it's rolling boil, drop in slowly each of the rice ball, don't crowd the pot
- When rice ball is done it will float to top
- Scoop out the cooked rice balls and put into a plate, space out the balls so it doesn't stick to each other

Serve:
- Place 2 or 3 rice balls into a bowl (if balls are cold, warm up for a few seconds in microwave)
- Pour hot ginger sauce over the rice balls

*** You can also cook the rice balls directly in the ginger sauce pot and avoid boiling another pot of water altogether.  The different between the two ?  If you cook directly in the ginger sauce, the sauce will get a little thick due to the flour from rice balls.  It's personal preference so you decide :)

If you want to make pandan rice balls covered red bean, add the pandan flavoring to the lukewarm water before mixing it with the flour.  Substitute mung beans with red beans (soak red beans over night then cook it or use unsalted canned beans).  And substitute ginger sauce with coconut milk (bring coconut milk to boil and add sugar to your desired sweetness). 

Now that you know how easy this is, try out other fillings, like ground black sesame, or crushed peanuts with coconut and sugar !  Enjoy ! 

If possible, I want to eat noodle soup everyday.  This is the perfect weather for it.  Nothing beats the chilly cold air outside more than a warm bowl of noodle soup to warm us up.  I've been craving bun rieu for weeks now but crab paste stock has been sold out from all the local stores (close to me).  Either everyone is eating bun rieu today OR that the new shipment hasn't arrive on the West Coast yet.  I went to 4 stores in Chinatown and was lucky enough to find one that has it.  I wanted to grab a few, fearing this might be all that's left for a while, but like all asian grocers, it's 'cash only' and I got 5 bucks in my pocket !!!  Grrrr !  but at least I got one.  I am very picky about the crab paste and have tried a few brands.  This PANTAI brand is the best as the flavor is strong and similar to what I remember rock crabs taste like.  If you don't have this brand around, you might need to tweak my recipe a bit to get the desired taste.

My next issue is, I couldn't located rau muong or 'kinh gioi' or banana flower today either :( I don't have time to go to a Viet. supermarket and I want bun rieu for dinner tonight !  Nothing is going to stop me from having my bun rieu.  I'm going to have to substitute the veggies and opt out of the some garnish :(

(Update:  I think there's a global shortage on this crab paste because in 2016, the price for a jar is around $10 and it's so hard to locate it) 

In this recipe, I'll list what I supposed to use and what I supplemented it with !  The main soup stock is what makes this good and I got all the ingredients for it so it'll do for today :)

Talk about stock, first you need pork stock and/or chicken stock (carton or can stock is OK, opt for low sodium ones)

To make the pork stock:

• 3-4 lb of any type of pork or chicken bones or pork ribs, 
• Water
• 1 white onion, halved
• Put bones into a deep pot, fill with water (cover the bones).  Bring to boil and let it boil for 5 min then remove from stove.
• Transfer the pork bones into a colander to cool down.  Rinse bones thoroughly under tap water.  This is to get rid of all the scums and give you clear broth.
• Add the bones back into the pot, add white onion and add about 4 Litres of water (~17 cups).
• Bring to boil then turn heat on low and let it simmer for at least an hour (the longer the better)
• When done, remove all the bones and onions and use the stock as per recipe. 
  
  (*If there's meat on the bones you can remove and add it to your bowl of soup if you like.  If using ribs, you can use leave it as is)

BUN RIEU CUA recipe (serves 6)

INGREDIENTS:

- 16 cups of pork stock or chicken stock (carton or can is ok)
- 8-9 tomatoes, cut into 4
- 1.5 lb lean ground pork
- 2 + 5 heaping tablespoon of crab paste (total 7 table spoons) in soy bean oil (discard the oil on top as it makes the soup too oily). I ONLY use the Pantai brand, it's the best one I've tried.  You can add less or more to your liking.  If you try other brands, you will need to experience with it to find the right flavor and texture you like.
- 4 eggs
- 1 pack of tofu puff (optional)
- 4 cloves of garlic, smashed
- 2 tablespoon of finely minced shallot (white onion is ok)
- 1 teaspoon of shrimp paste (the purple color kind, very pungent so use sparingly :) while you need only a little of this, this ingredient I feel is a MUST HAVE as it add that shrimpy taste to the broth.
- fish sauce for taste (Viet Huong 3 Crabs or Red Boat brand are best, I can't stress it enough)
- 1 table spoon of Knorr chicken powder (it's like chicken broth powder, this is not bouillon, don't use chicken bouillon, that's totally different.  If you don't have this then just omit)
- a table spoon of cane sugar or organic sugar
- 2 loosely measured teaspoons of tamarind powder
- ground pepper
- 2-3 packs of vermicelli, you can use these or the thick vermicelli

* IF you are not a fan of ground pork, try ground turkey !  We use ground turkey all the time.  Sometime I add Vietnamese ham (cha lua) as topping to this noodle soup.

Rau muong (ong choy), yu choi (ONLY if you can't find ong choy and need to have some greens) , kinh gioi and banana flower blossoms

GARNISH:

- 3 stalks of green onions
- a handful of cilantro
- rau muong (ong choy in Chinese) or water spinach (you can substitute with spinach and if desperate like me, ong choy works too)
- thinly sliced banana flower blossoms
- vietnamese herb 'kinh gioi'
- fresh chillies


COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

- In a deep pot, bring the pork stock (or chicken stock) to a boil

- While waiting for that to boil, in a large bowl, combine into a paste:  ground pork, 2 table spoons of crab paste, 1 egg (beaten), shallot, about 1 table spoon of fish sauce, couple dash of pepper.

- When the stock boils, using a spoon, scoop the meat mixture and drop into the boiling stock.

- When finished with the meat, in another pot, put in the vermicelli, cover it with water and bring to boil.  Test for doneness by breaking a string of vermicelli.  If it breaks easy, it's done.  Remove from stove, pour into colander and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.  Leave aside.

- Mix well together the other 4-5 table spoons of crab paste with the remaining 3 eggs in a bowl.  Turn down the broth pot so it's simmering, not boiling.  Slowly pour the crab paste into the pot.  The paste will forms into fluffy orange clumps (supposed to resemble crab roe) and will float to the top as it cook.  Don't mix or break a part the crab paste clumps and don't stir the pot. 

- In a pan, put in a bit of oil, add the garlic and stir until fragrant, then add the tomatoes.  Cooks for about 4-5 min.  Transfer the tomatoes into the stock pot.  Gently stir because you don't want to break up the crab paste.

- Cut tofu puff into 2 and add to the pot

- Add in the shrimp paste

- Add the cane or organic sugar

- Add tamarind powder

- Add in the chicken powder

- Season the stock with fish sauce (I used about 3 tablespoons in mine)

Thinly sliced ong choy, lots of work but add a nice crunch

SERVING:

- Put noodles into a bowl
- Scoop up the meat, tofu and tomatoes and divide into each bowl
- Put a couple stalks of boiled yu choy or ong choy (if using) into each bowl
- Ladle in soup stock (noodles should submerge in the soup)
- Sprinkle with thinly sliced green onions and cilantro
- Put a small dish of fish sauce with sliced red chili out on table for those who wants more sodium :)
- Put the banana flower blossoms and kinh gioi on a plate so guest to add to their bowl

In the summer, when I get hold of a fresh bunch of rau muong, ong choy, I would thinly slice it down length wise and each thin strip would curl up like ribbons.  We would pile these raw ong choy strips in our bowl.  They add a nice crunch to this soup.  If you don't like them raw, you can dip in the broth pot for a few seconds to cook them.

Since I can't find any ong choy this time, I used yu choy and wilted them in boiling water first before I add it to my bowl of noodles.  I don't think they taste very good raw !  You can use spinach too.  Spinach would have been a better substitution but I got none !


Enjoy !

I love bread.  I think I might love it more than chocolate !  Crusty white bread dipping in Longevity condense milk is my weakness.  If I could, I would have it for breakfast every day.  There's something beautiful about biting into fresh baked bread, crispy crust and warm fluffy chewy dough inside, each bite is pure bliss. 

Fresh baked bread is hard to come by.  I can never make it early enough to the bakery and even if I did, by the time I get home, it's no longer warm.  We have a bread maker but the bread it produced is too much like sliced bread and I wanted something like a baguette, something rustic !  So the other night while craving bread, I did some googling around and found a recipe by Jim Lahey, owner Sullivan Street Bakery.  I like the basic ingredients and at first glance, it looks easy enough for me to do.  His recipe got me at "No Knead" !  My heart sang when I saw those words.  I have always wanted to make my own bread but I dread all the kneading work that goes into it :-/  now there's no stopping me :-)

Without further adieu, here's the recipe and pictures of how it went down for us:

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting (I used half white and half whole wheat organic all purpose flour)           
• ¼ teaspoon instant yeast (I used active yeast as it's all I have and it worked fine) 
• 1 ¼ teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cup of lukewarm water           

          

Preparation

In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky.  It will look like a sloppy mess but don't worry !  Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

the girls wanted to help !  they had great fun with measuring and mixing !  A lot of the flour mixture got on Love but I quickly asked her the stand up so I can shake all the flour back on the bowl !  dion't want to throw the measurement off :) 

Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice.  I wet my hand to prevent sticking and gently shape the dough into a ball. I did knead it a few more times :-)  It feel strange not to spend more time on it !  It can't be this easy, can it ?

I put the dough onto a sheet of parchment paper (to prevent sticking), then put it in a bowl, cover the top with a cotton towel and let rest for another 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

I prepared the dough after dinner and let it sleep undisturbed until next morning !  Ok I did check in twice :)  I can't help it, I was very excited to see the transformation  and outcome !  The result did not disappoint.  It's wonderful.

At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic, or stainless steel pot WITH NO plastic sides or handle) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Lift the parchment sheet up, with the dough inside, into the pot. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

*  I divided my dough into 2 as I don't have a big enough pot.  The bread in the pot turned out well, it rises higher and the top crust has the rough rustic look (left side on the top pic.).  The bread in the Pyrex covered with aluminum foil (the lid for it is not oven safe) turned out just as good, just flatter and the top crust is more smooth, rounded.  The crust crackles and crunches with each bite, and the inside is soft and chewy and airy.  The bread tastes heavenly ! 

If you never made bread at home before, I highly suggest you try this recipe out.  It's so easy to do. The girls and I prep the dough in less than 5 min.  When we placed the dough in the oven, we waited outside the glass, staring at the dough, watching them rise and turning into golden breads.  Then they filled our house, inhabited every room, with their wonderful toasty sweet aroma.  Hubby got out of bed to see what we're up to and what's responsible for the nice smell.  It was a delightful experience for all of us.  We will definitely make this again and again.

Had a short work day today so once I got home I thought I work on some stocking stuffer coupons for Bee and C.  Coupons are easy to make, inexpensive, and fun to give :)  You can choose to be creative or simple.  The best part is that you can personalize each coupon !!!  At our house, they proved to be very popular (favorite) with my hubby.  He even tried to use the same coupon twice !!!  I usually make one book for C every year but it's my first time making a coupons book for Bee this year.  We'll see how she respond when she check her stocking come Christmas morning.

I try to make each coupon unique and special as I really want Bee and hubby to enjoy them !  For C, I know he appreciates some alone time to play his musical instruments, sleep in on Saturday (who doesn't ?), movie date, and no chore day, so his coupons tends to tailored to what I know he would really like.  I also included a coupon for a day trip to a location of his choice.  Bee likes different activities and outings so I made her coupons to include field trip, snowman building, candy treat, swimming, a sleepover at a hotel (she loves sleeping at hotel (she associates it with pool = plenty of swimming time)) and I gave some blank ones to C to fill out for her (I saw he wrote a coupon for a brunch date with him :)

I'm in love with this wood round center piece (from our friend's wedding).  The wood & greeneries are simply beautiful.

I made Bee's coupons book's cover with picture of My Little Ponies.  She loves them !  I wanted to use a picture of each pony on her coupon but there weren't many quality winter theme images so I stuck with Christmas theme.  They're quite cute !!!  For C I used pictures of Forever Friends' teddy bear !  I drew him one in my art class back in 1994 (with Chinese characters as I was obsess with all things Chinese then !  my cassette tapes were filled with songs from Andy Lau, Leon Lai, Jacky Cheung & Aaron Kwok).  It was my first gift to C which he framed it up on his room then and now it's in Bee's room.  I thought it's nice to revisit the memory of that bear again.

Here are the pdf files of the designs I made.  Feel free to print and make your own coupons book.  Enjoy !

CHRISTMAS COUPON PRINTOUTS < this folder has the cute cartoons and the forever friends teddy bear coupons

 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life.

Every year when December arrives, I get nostalgic thinking about all Christmases passed.  We didn't have much growing up and decoration for the tree is just mainly lights and fluffed up cotton balls that my brother and I put all over the tree so it looks like snow.  Under those twinkling lights, my brother and I would dance from one end of the room to the other while my mom and grandma smiles at us, encouraging us to dance some more.  There aren't many gifts, just one each to be exact, from my mom, and a couple dollars from my grandma.  I don't remember what gifts we received over the years, but what I remember though, we were happy.  We were happy just to be in each other's presence.  I looked back fondly at all the tree and house decorating times with mom and brother, and memories of my lovely grandma, grinning from ear to ear over a soap box or a chantilly gift set she gets each year. She's always so thankful.  It was wonderful.

It was never about the gift, we didn't have much, but we were filled over with love and laughter and warmth.  It's the time we spent together that stuck with me.  It's those moments that lives on.

In recent years, with the additional of kids, we've received many cards and gifts from families and friends come Christmas time.  We feel blessed for them.   Every year I would watch the kid/kids ripped furiously through boxes and boxes of presents on Christmas morning.  The joy it seems, as though to be in the unwrapping of presents, of ripping up paper.  They do like and play with the toys too, but after like a week, they moved on to something else.  No toy ever was a "favorite" for long.  Witnessing all these, I desire to make Christmas not about just stuff for our kids.  The reason of the season is to celebrate Christ's birth, thankful for His gift of love.  These few days of holiday for us before the year end give us time to be together, to spend with family and friends !  I love sharing meals with them and discuss the world while the children run around, laughing, giggling, and crying !   Those are special times.  I hope our kids embrace those time and also our family traditions !  I hope happy memories will live on in our kids, like how it was with me,.... trim the tree, bake cookies, count down to Christmas day, fill the shoebox, pray for the snow...

Our kids might be too young to fully appreciate the gesture of the person who bought them their Christmas gifts, but I try my best to explain to them so they understand how special it is to be thought of, and to receive a gift, any gift.  I find kids are a bit self centered naturally :)  Everything is "me" and "mine" !  It's a life long practice, the attitude of gratitude, it doesn't come over night or a month or a year.  At 35 I'm still practicing to be grateful !  it does come easier with practice, that I can assure you.  The more we appreciate what we have, the less the "want", the less we feel the need to keep up, or to prove ourselves or others...it's a very healthy mindset.  A grateful heart is a happy heart !

I made some stockings for us and Bee helped me with the fuzz balls decoration.  Inspired by our Hungry
Caterpillar craft time !  Those fuzz balls are quite fun to work with.

Our homemade count down mailbox !  When the "Open Me" arm is up, it signaled Bee to check
the mailbox.  Some day there's treat in there for her and Lovebug, some day there's an invite
for cookie baking or book reading.  I try to be creative :)