Our own thanksgiving dinner

As you all know, "Thanksgiving" is only celebrated in United States of America (and in Canada). They celebrate it as a way of (as the name implies) giving thanks for the harvest of the previous year. Long ago, this is a day of prayer not of feasting, but as time change and history change, it is now celebrated with a dinner (and a turkey at that.)

But "Our Own Family Pambid Tradition," we also, once in a year, have a "thanksgiving dinner." Not so much as how the Americans celebrate it but it just a simple dinner at home or in our chosen restaurant. (No turkey involved.)

It is our way of  thanking God for keeping our family safe and together for the whole year round. Thanking Him for the good and also the not-so-good harvest that came. (Good harvest that helps our family financially, emotionally, psychologically, physically and spiritually.  Not so good harvest that tested our faith yet made us stronger as individuals and as a family.)

By doing and creating traditions in our small family, my husband and I want our kids to learn the importance of being there for one another, importance of being together, instilling the importance of having a grateful heart for all the blessings (no matter how big or small) and emphasizing that   "gratitude" should not be neglected. Gratitude to God first and foremost, to the situations that led us where we are now, for the good health that we have and for the people who journeyed, is journeying and will be journeying with us.

Our thanksgiving dinner tradition (the Pambid way) is also our own way to celebrate life as a family. And one day, we're hoping that my kids will continue or will have their own tradition in their would be family as well.

The most loved

Before I tell you about this anecdote of my son, I would like show you where I am now in my life. So I can show you the impact of what my son did for me and that is why I would love to engrave this experience forever in my heart.

They say that in our life no one should be neutral. It's either "yes" or "no" and no "maybe." But in my career path I'm in that area where I can't like it nor hate it. I'm sort of in a limbo here. As if my days is just going on because I need to have a work. But loving what I do in my work I cannot. It doesn't give me any fulfillment  at all at this point. But since I'm in France and my diploma is not recognized here, I just do my job like a lifeless creature. I love the idea of work. I'm a hard worker that's a fact. But my company is not making me grow anymore. Although I need to do something about it, for the meantime, I will just keep on working so at the end of the month, there's food on the table.

Yesterday, on my way to work, I received a call from my 7 years old son. Usually they won't call me not unless it's an emergency, so my initial reaction is admissible. So here's the conversation:

Vance: Âllo Maman.

Me: Hello Vance, is there a problem?

Vance: Non Maman, c'est juste que j'ai oublié de te dire que je t'aime. Et Vanille aussi... tiens Vanille.

(He passed the phone to his little sister.)

Vanille: Âllo Maman, je t'aime trop forte. Travaille bien.

Here's the translation:

Vance: Hello Mama.

Me: Hello Vance, is there a problem?

Vance: No Mama, it's just that I forgot to tell you that I love you. And Vanille too... here Vanille.

(He passed the phone to his little sister.)

Vanille: Hello Mama, I love you very much. Work hard.

The first thought that came to my mind is that I may have done something good in my past (like saved a whole nation) to deserve kids like them. All those thoughts about not liking nor hating my work just disappeared because of this. Positive thoughts started flowing in like my job is much better than any other job because it gives me a lot of time for my kids and family. If I have a high caliber job, I thought, I'll be spending more time at work than at home. So who am I to complain. Yes it still doesn't make me grow career-wise, yet it make me grow as a mother. We can't have everything in the world. Either this or that. Yes or No.

How lucky I am because I felt the most loved person in the world.

And she sang...well

It's been four years or more since my eldest daughter Iciah started her classic guitar course at the Conservatoire de Val de Maubee (Noisiel.) Ever since, we only hear her play classical music. But this year, we (my husband and I) were taken aback when she asked us to register her in a singing contest.

My initial reaction was, "What? You don't even sing in front of us and then you will sing in front of other people plus the judges?"

I know I should be reprimanded, me and my big mouth. (Singing is an art but not a craft where money can be expected at the end of each month. Unlike being a doctor, a pilot, a nurse etc... I prefer that my kids will have "normal" job where food on the table will not be a problem for each and every day.) BUT I don't want to discourage my daughter by hindering her the things she loves doing the most. So I brought her an acoustic guitar (as her early Christmas gift) and simply asked her to just sing in front of me. And she did playing the guitar at the same time. And my husband's small Chinese eyes became round with awe and my jaw dropped on the floor.

After this performance, I told her  that I'll register her in any contest just to show her my support. That when I grow old I can tap myself on the shoulder and say, "I did good as a mother!" If you cannot see the video, click here.

 

It maybe ordinary performance for many of you but mind you, her primary language is French. So being able to sing in English without accent is really an achievement.

And here's another video where she performed with a classmate for the charity event at her school for this year 2014.

If video does not appear, just click this link.
 

She doesn't stop amazing our family.

4rth birthday and Halloween

Just like in any other year, birthday celebration for our youngest will always be the day of the Halloween. After all we cannot change the fact that she was born on the Hallows Eve (I prefer to call it, All Saint's Eve just because...) And for each and every year, we celebrate her birthday simply by having dinner as a family after their "trick or treating time."

Our eldest daughter simply opted for a small hair clip as her Halloween touch, saying that putting a costume for her age (by the way, she's just 13) is already too much. But adding that the truth be told, as much as she wants to, she just don't want to be teased by friends. My son this year is another super hero - the spidy minus the face mask and our little one is a flower fairy.

 

But this time, there's more to it. Just hear out first the story why we celebrate it differently for her.

I was on the phone talking with my husband when our youngest daughter Ella, asked if she can speak with his father so I passed the phone to her. And the conversation was that she was asking my husband if she can invite her friends to celebrate her birthday at home. Knowing my husband sometimes he says "yes," but not minding the consequence of his words.

And to make the story short my husband said, "yes." (As usual).

And as per rule in our home a "no" means "no" and "yes" means "yes." And just to emphasize one thing, never make a promise that you can never fulfill. So I said to my husband since you said yes to your daughter I obliged you to do be there and to organize with me. 

Our daughter don't have much friends. She is not a sociable type. She mostly keep with one or two but we didn't expect that she'll ask if she could invite 7. Organizing it won't be that difficult. BUT these are 4 years old little girls (and a boy), so entertaining them for couple of hours might be a challenge.

So my husband had a week off and I had some days off too. 

The invitation.  

I prepared it but she gave me the idea of which character to put on it. She loves hello kitty, so it is a given that she'll chose it. I had fun making it on one night. But was too tired to go to work in the morning.

The food.

The best thing in living here in France is that in any kids birthday celebration, food is the easiest. Cakes and juices will do and nothing more. 

Unlike when you celebrate it back home where food were overflowing from pasta to rice to sausages to cakes etc... plus hiring of entertainment with clowns, magicians and the "cotillion" which is a-must-included-program even for a 7 years old girls (duh?) (I don't mean it that way, each and every person have the right to celebrate their kids' birthday but having cotillions, with 7 roses, 7 candles for 7 years old is too much for me, I'm entitled to my opinion, am I right? Or maybe I'm from old school and I see it just an extravagance. If it is for 18 years yes, I don't see anything wrong with it. But for 7 years old. Again, I'm sorry.)

So her birthday food is home made pizza, cotton candy, crepe, cupcakes, strawberry cake and ice cream with give aways candies in hello kitty bags, simple as that. Mind you, in a French standard that is already an extravagance.

The invited.

Well, it turns out that one cannot make it because her Mom needs to work on that day so no one can bring her, the other had another reason or two, and the rest we don't know. So her visitors are 3 in all plus the sister of her best-friend Johanne which we also invited because if my daughter is timid, Johanne is the embodiment of timidity.

 

And for the entertainment part... well of course, it's just us. But they had fun, I'm sure of it.

Here's a video of our cotton candy guy. :)

 

A Thursday morning

I rarely spend a day off with my kids. If I am off and at home, usually they are at school.  And if they are at home, I'm at work. If I would not ask for a leave from time to time, we couldn't spend a quality time together. Or if I wouldn't volunteer to help their class then I wouldn't have an extra time seeing them.  But of  course those leave  and those volunteering has consequences. Though I don't really mind those things, just as long as I spend time with them.

But this Thursday,  I had the chance of spending my day off with my eldest daughter. And that opportunity made my heart jump with joy. It's a rare opportunity and what better way to spend it than walking on the streets of Paris.

See here and enjoy a little tour of Paris under the hot burning yet lovely sun on a Thursday morning!

The beauty and the beast

Aside from the cakes and diner (or lunch) that we prepare for the birthday celebration of our kids, we are not really used to giving them material things as gifts. Although we always ask them what they want as gifts, none of the three demand a material thing that they want (as of this moment and aside from Christmas gift giving.) 

Maybe it was the upbringing that they had from both my husband and I. My husband and I are simple people, with simple pleasures and we delight on simple things. For our family, having each other is more than enough and we couldn't ask for more. But if there is more, we accept it as an "extra," in our life's joy.

Sometimes instead of asking them what they want,  we provide options so that they can choose how they can give meaning to their birthdays. Luckily for us as parents, my kids grew up appreciating life's little surprises more than any material surprises and they can now look beyond any material gift as their source of happiness.

For example this year, for my son's 7th birthday he asked for a week of tennis courses. We normally thought that he would love spending it in a center park. Where we can stay for a three nights, two days swimming, doing BBQ, biking and other activities that is included in a package. But we were surprised that he choose do have a tennis course. But since we think that it was important for him. Then we have it his way. And yes, he was really happy about that experience. For a seven years old, we didn't expect this kind of maturity on how he look at things.

And so for our eldest daughter's thirteenth birthday she asked to see the musical production of the beauty and the beast. And so we we did.

Don't get me wrong, you might say that what they asked is far more expensive than any material thing that we can offer. I bet you, it's not the case here in France. A ticket for a musical production (because I'm working for a company that specializes in tourism and leisures), can only be a half price or less than half of the price of an expensive toy that they'll play and use in a week before leaving it aside or breaking it. The tennis courses maybe expensive in other countries but not here in France. So believe me, that it may sound that we are rich but we're not. We have enough, just enough.

The beauty and the beast is the first ever professional theater play that my daughter  saw in her entire life. Through out the scene, she can't take off her eyes on the stage. I even thought she's not blinking at all. Completely absorbed in another world of her own.  That's how I see her. She loves it to the point of bragging about it in front of her friends. She don't brag around, except when she's excited about something. And an example of that something is this one. She was also telling his brother that theater teaches us cultures and etiquettes.  And hoping one day she can bring him to one. Hearing this made me realize that my kids are different.

    

I on the other hand was also mesmerized by the performance of each and every actor. Kudos to all of who performed that night! You made my daughter's thirteenth birthday a memorable one.

All in all, my daughter and I love the show. Luckily for me, my daughter is not yet a typical teenager who will ask for a new gadgets. Yes, I can see that my kids maybe different from the others but I like that certain "difference" in them. They are, should I say for people like us, they are cultured.

Officially a teenager

She's thirteen. How time fly so fast that sometimes I can't find any way to catch it and just hold it a little longer inside my palm so everything will be just the same as before. But life is like that, the only thing that we can't control in this world is time.

It's a school day so we didn't have a chance to celebrate it in the morning. But I let her blow a candle so that she'll be reminded that we didn't forget and that she's officially a teenager.

Well she had her thirteen birthday on the thirteen day of June, a Friday the thirteen. A good-luck day for our family ever since. As usual she wanted to celebrate her birthday with her friends just like her wish the year before and the year before that and so on and so forth, but since it was as I said a school day, we can't celebrate it just like she wanted it to be so we opted to celebrate it in simplicity.

She had lunch at home with her selected school mates and friends (during their lunch break at that). Luckily one their professor was absent so they went home an hour early. And luckily for me, I prepared everything early too.

My husband set the Lasagna the night before (which he pre-cooked after his work, meaning one in the morning) and I just re-heated it. And I just added Burritos, chocolate chip muffins and ice cream (vanilla and  strawberry cream flavor) for the dessert and some drinks. It was simple yet they had fun and ate a lot. As in a lot as if it was a big feast. But I was happy to see that they are all having fun. Just like little ladies, talking about anything under the sun.

After their lunch, they went back to school for their afternoon classes. And as soon as their class is over, we (my son, my youngest daughter and me) waited for my eldest daughter so that she can blow her thirteen candles. We love to do it based on our own family-made-tradition: a home-baked-mom-made-with-love-cake and blowing it together with her siblings.

Well here are some photos, I love to share to all of you. A collection of another wonderful memories for this year.

 

 (My eldest blowing her thirteen candles)

 

 (Her cake)

 (Our traditional candle blowing contest)

Chasing bubbles

I make it to the point that I spend some quality time with my kids. As much as I like to, me and my husband are both working, so finding time with them is very difficult. I have days off in the middle of the week, wherein they are all in school. And if they are at home on week ends, it is me who is not at home. So finding time to spend with them is a little bit difficult. I thank France for having short vacations such as "spring break," wherein we can spend time even in a day or two. Fool around with each other, play together, have some walks together or do some exploring (including pick-nicks etc...)

And so let me share with you through photos how we created our own one-day wonderful memories that will be our "baon" (provisions) until we find another chance to spend a quality time once more.

7th birthday

Traditionally 7 years of age, is celebrated with so much excitement in my county. A big birthday party with clowns, balloons, foods and invites. But since we are in vacation in the south of France, we can't celebrate it as grand as we want to. So my husband cooked pasta aux legumes and we just bought cake (Flash Mc Queen) for I don't have the means to bake one for him and another cake (Spider man) that was bought by my friend. No gifts (except the one given by my friend), no invites (except the family where we are staying in and the friend that went with me for that particular vacation), nothing special really except that it was our son's birthday.

But as simple as that, my son is very sincere in saying that he is thankful that we were able to pass by the Church to thank God for his birthday and that he was able to ask Him for the protection of our family. At his young age, he didn't even pray to have any material things like toys or anything that he likes. He chose to pray for our family's protection. (How many 7 years old would do that, I thought of no one just him.) And he expresses also that he is grateful for the love that we are showing him as always.

And as always, I am thankful that I have him in my life. I know that he has a great future ahead of him. He will do well in every endeavor that he will be in. And that his heart filled with love will be of service to others not just his family. And I pray that he will succeed in everything that he might be able to help others too.


PS. I am not satisfied with the cake that we bought so after our vacation, I let him re-blow 7 candles on my own baked cake.A simple celebration of  his 7 great years.

Ferme Pedagogique

I had the chance of spending my time with my youngest daughter and accompany her class to go to a farm. Yes, I volunteered again a day off of mine, just to spend it (sort of) with her and her class. Other than the fact that she'll be going to the animal farm, she is more than excited to learn that I'll be going with her together with her classmates.

Although it is not permitted to take photos of kids, I took my chance. (Hey, I don't take photos of her other classmates except if I know their parents but mostly it's only photos of my daughter, her best friend Joane and the animals of course).

It is the same farm where my son and his class went to last year (and me also accompanying them). And the same as last year, I had a good time seeing my daughter having fun and not being scared of the animals around her. And seeing her feeding them, assured me that she also have confidence in herself that she doesn't show most of the time. Now, I can relax and let her go once in a while (letting go that is appropriate for her age though).

The story about the invitation

A little background before the real story: My youngest daughter was invited to a birthday party by a certain classmate of her named "Mathis" to celebrate his 4rth birthday. As she just turned 3 years old 3 months ago, I was quite hesitant to let her go. I think that she's not really old enough to grasp the concept of a birthday party. Since her birthday celebration is always just at home, together with  the 4 of us. (Her papa, her sister, her brother and me). So letting her go to a fast food restaurant together with other kids would be very different about the concept that she has in mind about birthday parties. I don't know what to expect. Plus the fact that I really don't know that kid, even his parents or even just his mother.

Usually as I pick up my kids, I see mothers (or fathers or even grandparents) there and I greet them occasionally. But this kid, I assure you, I never heard of. Even my daughter don't talk about him.  So my husband and I were both surprised that she received an invitation.

Well, to make the story short, my husband said that we should let her go to the party. She's so timid that she prefers to be by my side all the time. So he thinks that this will be a good idea, to widen her, should we say "social network," because we're sure that some of her classmates are also invited.

She's the type to keep one or two friends and that's it. She's not really sociable and she won't talk in class. Very contradictory at home. So since I didn't go to work, then I said why not.

It's very weird going there, not knowing anyone. And I was asking my daughter if the celebrant is already there. And she's not saying a thing. Until the mother arrives and introduced her self.

The story about the invitation:

Well, we were surprised by the greetings Mathis' mother extended to us.

Mathis were hiding behind her Mom, pretending to be shy as my daughter gives him her gift. And so the Mom shook hands with my husband and gave me a "bisous," and greeted my daughter in this manner, "So, you're the famous Vanille." Not knowing the story behind, my husband and I just smiled. And so the Mom continued the story that he was asking his son (Mathis at that fact) about the friends he wanted to invite and the boy didn't hesitate in saying, "Bien sure, mon amoureux Vanille." (Translation: "Of course, my love Vanille.")

We just laugh, 'cause we know how kids are but at the same time were also a little bit in shock. Mathis by the look of it, keeps telling her Mom stories about Vanille, but her on the other hand, really don't have any idea why she was invited. She was a little bit disappointed thinking that all her closest friend (meaning Johann) will be there together with other classmates but when the party started she at least played with them or sort of even if she's the smallest.

But anyway, I think she had fun in one way or another. That's what's important, don't you think