Sunny flowers

My living Van Gogh - picked from unwanted sunflower plants in Landsdale Farm School.

HO-HO-HO Merry Christmas!

Did you know that the Santas you see in shopping centres attend a 'Santa workshop'?

I read in last week's paper that these Santas - young and old, slim and stout, hairy and bald - attend a 'workshop' where they are trained to the 'Santa' thing. Most of them join the company for the simple reason of giving joy to the kids. Not necessarily for the money, for they are paid "North pole dollars", according to the source.

Santa Clauses have a few guidelines to remember:

a. To reserve the "HO-HO-HO" when they enter the scene. Sadly, this belly laugh is now synonymous with an illegal profession.
b. They don't kiss or hug children unless the parent asks for it. And when they do, they should have their hands visible.
c. Never comment about a child's weight - to say he's slim or chubby - as this can be offensive to the parents.

...and a couple of enemies:

a. Kids or teens who taunt them.
b. Santa photographers: Santa and the photographer are from different companies. Photographers want profit. Santas believe in FREE photography (e.g. using the parent's own camera for a FREE pose).

One would think that there aren't many things that come for free-of-charge in shopping centres this month, because this is the time most cashed-up people spend BIG on gifts, food and even holidays. Surprisingly, I saw one and it even involves the marketing tool Santa Claus! The shopping centre near our place arranged a free-of-charged photo session with Santa. I was glad that they did that, even it was a marketing ploy, because it speaks the spirit of giving this Christmas.

Another reason I was happy that they did that is because my own kids can be very unpredictable when it comes with having their photo taken - specially with strangers and with a white-bearded folk! I would be disappointed to spend and bring home a photo with grumpy, crying little kids with Santa. Anyhow, I'll openly tell you that my oldest was suprisingly cooperative and sat quietly, but my youngest was too frightened to sit.

As I waited for the photo to print, I looked at the Santa on the chair and thought of what was in his mind. His face was covered mostly in white - fluffy hat trim, bushy white eyebrows, white moustache and long beard. Only his eyes would tell. I looked at them and wondered: Had he been sitting there all day long and does he need someone to talk to? Was he tired or bored? Was he hungry? I also wondered what did he feel about Christmas. Did he have a genuine love for making kids happy this Christmas or was he there only for show? Well, since it is Christmas I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, for surely he was there for a heartfelt reason.

I always thought that these Santas must be bored sitting there on the big chair to only hear children's long wish lists and 'orders' from adults to say "cheese". Standing close to him while waiting, I thought I'd be friendly and throw in a short conversation with him. Since I'm not a kid anymore to know he wasn't a real Santa, I boldly and quietly asked the Santa, "How long have you been a Santa?". And his reply was, "All my life!". Stunned, I walked away feeling sheepish and stupid for ruining the Christmas fun for myself.

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!

Our Aussie Christmas

Christmas is a very special occasion that's close to my heart. In fact, I'm in love with Christmas. It's such a beautiful occasion that's best spent with loved ones. Blame it to American influence in me and their songs Winter wonderland and I'm dreaming of a white christmas that I always associate Christmas with something cold and white even if I was born in a tropical country. Unfortunately here in Australia where I now live Christmas is not frosty, but is hot and sticky and is usually mixed with cold beer and barbeques. Nevertheless, cold or hot, snow or not, I'm still in love with it.

When I see Christmas decorations in place and hear music played, I jump in joy inside to know that the time of the year is here again. To some Australians who aren't Christians, December holiday period is just about exchanging presents, time to have a trip overseas or relax by the beach, time to pull out the barbeque or time to indulge in lots of seafood. Despite all these activities that surround, I still hold deep inside the true meaning of Christmas - the birth of our Jesus Christ.

Christmas is also about traditions: traditions that are familiar, give us security and comfort. Dad introduced us or informed us about traditions that most Filipinos take part this season. One of them is Simbang Gabi (Night Masses) that take place early mornings for 9 days until Christmas. As young children, perhaps it was hard for us to get up, like 4am, that we didn't participate in this seriously. Another is Misa de Gallo (midnight mass) followed by Noche Buena (feast after mass). We do both traditions, but usually not together, i.e. we'd attend the midnight mass and have a feast the next day or we'd have Noche Buena but attend church service the following morning. Dad's parents also instilled in me that Christmas and New Year are reasons to be together, merry and loud - they hung parols, cooked feasts (pancit malabon, lechon, hamon, queso de bola) and lit firecrackers to greet the new year! Mom, on the other hand, was the one who taught me that it's the time to think about others - through the traditional long and tiring hunts for our presents and for all my relatives in both sides of the family and through the hours of preparations for the Christmas feasts. Tiring it may be, nonetheless it was all for the spirit of togetherness and love of the family.

Since I'm older now and over with getting thrilled in seeing my gifts under the Christmas tree, it doesn't mean that it's the end now for me of childish excitement. Now that I have children of my own, Christmas is all about them now. I should get them thrilled about Christmas, through simple things and practices, the same way that my parents have done so for us. It's now time to create our own traditions for my little family and also to keep good old ones. Finally, it's also up to me and my husband to make them fully understand the truest meaning of Christmas - to give joy and love.

Shopping and eating

A good thing that they have here in Sydney is that the shops are open till late, like 8pm or 9pm seven days a week. So, shortly after arriving here in Sydney on Saturday, we shopped in the evening a trolley full of basic food and pantry supplies - from eggs, bread, meat, nappies and detergents. What convenience! If this was in Perth, I would have to wait until shops reopen on Monday or I would have to settle from shopping in a small local IGA (supermarket).

Another plus they have here is the convenience of not having to leave home too eat pizza, thai or anything else, for they have FREE home delivery! We had the pleasure of eating comfortably at home restaurant-cooked thai food one evening. This is real luxury for me, for it meant not having to drag the young boys out in the coold evening, stress-free eating and feeding kids at the table (which is always the case and hence why I cringe at eating out) and the best bit (*drumrolls please*) - no cooking on my part!!!

For sale - everything must go!

About a month before the move, I had to "trim" our possessions and decided what should be discarded/donated/sold/kept. I didn't want to move to the new place with the same old stuff that were hiding and collecting dust in our present home. So with a small pile of things that are too good to discard (e.g. twice-used electric wok, old purses, watches, tea pot sets, toys, loops of steel wire, cassette voice recorder from uni days, craft books and other odds and ends), my husband and I set out to sell our things in the weekly Sunday (7:30-11:30am) swap meet. It's like a garage sale, but the only difference is that all sellers' stalls are under one roof - this one was at an undercover carpark of a nearby shopping centre. It was an early start - 5:30AM, and we thought we were crazy getting out that early. To our surprise, plenty of cars were already on queue when we got there. Excitedly, we brought out all our things, and decided how to lay them out on the ground. Be warned though if you're deciding to do the same, because at the instant we put our things out we were attacked immediately by "vultures", as what we like to call them, who were there to buy and later sell other people's wares. They were fast, viscious and had no-mercy as they would haggle down the prices of what your selling to ridiculously low prices. Anyway, they came as a shock to us, and we reminded ourselves that the main purpose of our being there was to rid of items we didn't really need and not to make big bucks. When the general public was allowed to enter the premises, all was smooth-sailing afterwards. Towards the end of the morning, we hastened the activity by posting a sign, "Everything must go!" with a fine print underneath that said, "except this whiteboard!" (because many people wanted to buy my son's easel). Happy to report that the trip was worth it and a success, for we had enough dollars to treat ourselves with burgers for lunch (plenty of them if we were crazy to spend all the earnings) and a very long sleep in the afternoon!

To keep or not to keep

One lazy morning, I recently read a very timely article from the O Magazine regarding getting rid of all the stuff at home. Right now we are busy preparing for our interstate move to NSW, and the article's helpful in a sense that I have so many things in the house that I don't know whether to keep or throw (or donate) them away.

Main points I remember from the article are:

a. Kitchen - you don't need 4 spatulas, so 2 will do and throw the rest. Check out expiration dates of food stuffs. Regarding clutter control, keep benchtops clear.

b. Bathroom - discard half-used shampoos, perfumes and other toiletries that haven't been touched for more than a year. Group like things in containers to see easily what you have.

c. Wardrobe - 80% of the time we only use 20% of our clothes. So if they fall in any of the "S" category : small, streched, smelly, stained; then out they go. The rule of thumb to minimize accumulation of unwanted stuff is if a new item comes in then an old one should go out.

d. Photographs - throw away badly taken shots, eg. blurred, redundant. You don't have to label or keep every single shot.

e. Garage - Separate things in appropriate sections or containers, eg. chemicals, car supplies, sporting equipment, gardening. Donate unwanted items.

f. House desk - throw away obvious junk, like coupons, junk mail, catalogue.

g. Bookcase - Donate books that don't fall in any of these criteria: books you love, books read regularly, books containing material not found in internet.

and lastly, you should not own anything that is not useful, beautiful or loved.

Hip to be square

Jewellery/accessory making is not for me right now, since I have no time to fiddle with the little gems and beads near my little boys. But just for fun I thought I'd give it another try after mom said to me she wanted short, not too elaborate dangling pair of earrings. She also specifically said she wanted square earrings. Here are they with square beads that little m picked for her.