Holiday #6: No Christmas?

It seems awkward to think of a family who doesn't celebrate Christmas. On the other hand, it shouldn't be awkward since my family don't celebrate other holidays like Easter or July 4th so in a way, I have no right to call anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas awkward. Either way, my family often celebrates Christmas (to a certain extent).  However, due to multiple members' catching the flu, my family had to set out on Christmas this year. No Christmas tree. No decorations. No family dinner. Everyone is too sick to get out of bed. Still, how can one forget Christmas if there are reminders everywhere? Stuck indoors with cough medicine beside, I imagine what I will be missing this Christmas.

As a child, I always look forward to Christmas. There was the long winter break, the festive decorations, the festive music, and, last but not least, the presents. When I was a kid, Christmas time was the only time when I can get anything I want (besides birthdays but that always occurs on either STAR testing days or AP testing days :( ). My parents would spoil me, allowing me to get any one gift within budget. Usually the gifts were toys but soon it transformed into video games (because toys are a hassle to clean up). Those were fun times. As a grew older, Christmas time reminds me more of family gatherings - the awful times when one meets with other relatives and they ask constant questions regarding school grades, boyfriends, and (just recently) employment. Who doesn't love family gatherings? I was not looking forward to such gatherings this year. However, now that I [miraculously] avoided it, I tend to miss it. Without the decorations, music, and events, Christmas end up like... any other boring day.

Christmas is a special event whether it is a day for religious people to celebrate their religion or a time for people to spoil themselves with not rational excuse. It is a holiday to cheer people up. And if one does not celebrate Christmas for reasons mentioned above, at least it is a time for breaking boring daily routines, exhilarating one's life [momentarily], and counting one's earnings for the year. A wonderful holiday even for Mr. Scrooge.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everybody!

Holiday #5: The Father I Couldn't Repay In A Lifetime

I don't want to sound as though I'm bragging. However, I believe I'm one of the few lucky people to have an awesome father. He has a strong heart and is very considerate. He encourages me during my ups and comforts me during my downs. In a way, I'm a spoiled child because of him. I can never thank him enough for what he has done for me.

Honestly, I didn't grow up with my father. My father works outside of the U.S. while I was studying in junior high, high school, and half my college. Every year, he would work hard to save up vacation days just to visit my mom, sister, and me. It was heartbreaking every time my family sees his leaving. In a long distance relationship, my parents experienced ups and downs - dealing with trusts and doubts. No matter what the obstacle was, my parents pulled through and now we're all living together. Because of this, I have respect towards my father for his endurance.

What makes me love my father? Well there are plenty of small reasons. However, not too long ago, I just graduated from college. It was a tough time for me. While all my friends were submitting applications for their desired grad schools, I was worrying over my student loans and my GPA. Let's be honest. I'm not one bit smart. I'm the most average of the average. I didn't receive any honors nor did I join any sororities or big clubs, so when I went to my graduation ceremony, I was only wearing my gown and the common sash my college was selling. So through out my senior year, I wasn't one bit looking forward to my graduation. My low GPA would not get me anywhere and I was really down knowing I still need to get a job to keep my student loans off my parents' shoulders. Well, just three days before my graduation, my father decided to have a talk with me. I don't know if he noticed I was down or not but the first thing he said to me was "don't worry." My father told me to keep my career options open and I should just try to get a small job. As for the student loans, I should not worry about them. Then he said something I never knew my parents would think about. He said I should just get a small job and enjoy my life a little as an adult. He worries that I'm spending so much time studying, I didn't get time to hang out with friends. In the beginning, I didn't really understand what he meant. In today's culture, it's normal for students to aim for college and beyond (if possible). That's what I thought but he explained how he was with my mom when she was 22. My parents were already working and traveling around the world for fun. Basically they were enjoying their young lives and now my father is worried that I may miss that life. Coming from an Asian father, this means a lot. I grew up thinking I need to satisfy their desires and because my father spoiled me, I feel even more pressured to repay him. Now knowing my father really cares about my happiness and tries to lighten my burden, I couldn't thank any divine spirit enough for my father. I couldn't thank my father enough for his love. He is one of the best gifts in my life and I wouldn't want him in any other way.

Happy Father's Day

Holiday #4: The Woman that gave us life

Whether you have your biological mother, stepmother, foster mother, mother-in-law, god mother or even a mother by spirit, you can never truly hate her. She gave up some of her time to raise you and teach you about life. Not all of us are blessed for having a loving/living mother. Because of this, we should all be thankful for having our mothers and give up a small time to thank her once in a while. True there are times when she scold you. She might even lecture you over things that you find unnecessary or are not responsible over. Either way, her message and lecturing are meant to teach you what is important and what should be done if you were in those situations. She is teaching us how to build character and value. And most of the time, we don't truly appreciate them until they are out of our daily lives. Let's not wait till they are gone for us to appreciate them. Let's keep telling them "I love you" and thank them. So when the day they truly leave our lives, we have no regrets.

~Happy Mother's Day~

Holiday #3: Luck for your Valentine

I'll be honest. I have no clue what is a good gift for Valentine's Day. Having no experience with relationships, I never celebrated the holiday. With the American's view on the holiday, it's a pretty useless holiday since a couple should always be celebrating their love every once in a while. However, I do love the Japanese's view on the holiday. It's a time when girls make gifts (mostly chocolate) for the guys to confess their love. After Valentine's Day, there is also another holiday (I believe it's called White Day) where that love can be reciprocated. Now, I'm not sure if this occurs in any other parts of Asia but this is how it works in Japan. It seems very sweet.

Anyways, good gifts are hard to find since anyone can just buy a box of chocolate or a bouquet of flowers. I'm not really into that stuff. If one really wants to show his or her love, I think the best way to present that is through a hand made gift. One of my favorite gifts were 3D paper stars. Just to clarify, I didn't made these for the holiday. It was a birthday present for a friend to give good luck (being college, we need all the luck we can get). However, when I checked the history behind this cute gift, I found out it was a gift meant to be given between couples. It started from an Asian drama TV series (I don't know the specific show) and it was made popular because the girl made many stars to confess her love to a guy. Did she ever get the guy? I don't know. Sorry, but you will have to find that out by yourself. After the series, this trend became really popular. It was said that the number of stars you make represent how much love you have for that person. When I checked out the numbers,... let's just say you really need to love that person to make such crazy numbers of stars. Either way, if it's a for a friend or a lover, this neat little gift is a sweet way to represent your caring for that person. It represent luck (or love) and the time and effort you put in shows how much you care. So if anyone wants a cheap but sweet gift, this is my recommendation. It cost about $3 for the jar depending on the size. As for the stars, I spent about $7 for material which makes over 170 stars (the jar holds 170 and I had a lot extra stars). A very sweet, cute, cheap gift!

Happy Valentine's Day

Holiday #2: To be thankful for a thankful holiday

I'm sorry for disappearing for two weeks. I had two big Thanksgiving events for each week to prepare for. With college and two events to deal with, I didn't have the time to type anything. Now that Thanksgiving is over, I can get back to my regular schedule.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I find the time of this holiday to be quite interesting. Everyone knows Thanksgiving occurs before Christmas, and most importantly before Black Friday. Thanksgiving is a holiday for being thankful for the things we have yet the next day everyone is clawing for the best deals in stores. Some even buy things that they probably won't ever need. Did everyone forget what they just said they were thankful for the day before? I'm not trying to say we can't want things. In fact, I bet there a lot of people who understands what I'm actually saying. But for those who don't often think about this idea, remember to want and buy modestly. The last thing everyone wants is to waste more money on the day that was create to help us save.

Holiday #1.5: This is Halloween...

Sorry for posting up one day late but hey, yesterday was Halloween. What else would I be doing? This Halloween, I think it was not the most eventful but I have the most successful costume. After many years of planning and searching (and procrastinating), I finally got the costume I wanted. It was a very interesting adventure looking for all the parts. Make-up was easy. The wig was not so bad. However, the dress was an ironic obstacle. For many years, I have been trying to find a long white plain dress. Doesn't sound that hard, right? I thought so too but once you become an adult... every costume that is sold, for some odd reason, is quite "naughty." I don't want that. I just want a plain dress, as if it is from the hospital. Trying alternatives such as angel or ghoul costumes, every costume was "naughty." I was about to give up when a good friend of mine found exactly what I was looking for. Thanks to her, now my costume is complete. So, what are your Halloween adventures?

Sadako Yamamura

Happy Halloween!

Holiday #1: Monsters, Witches and Ghouls! Oh my!

Halloween is coming soon! The holiday of diabetes from candies and heart attacks from frights! A time to talk about what we want to dress up as and what we're really afraid of! Who doesn't love Halloween?

Halloween is not really a holiday my family would celebrate. However, giving out candy to cute little trick-or-treaters was something we don't want to miss out. It was always adorable to see the smiles on little children. (Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think those cute little smiles are family's weakness.) Anyways, one can't go through Halloween and give out treats without following the real deal of the holiday: dressing up. Ever since 1st grade, I dress up as a witch. It's a decent costume and anyone can look fine in. Of course I got tired of it for a while and tried other costumes, but the witch costume always remain as back up.

Halloween is definitely a holiday based on fun, at least in today's society. Now I understand there must be some crazy serious history behind this holiday, but it will be hard to find people who doesn't celebrate this holiday just for candy, fun, and frights. In my opinion, Halloween is the only time where everyone can literally be anyone. Everyone gets to act childish for one night before ultimately falling back into reality.

What's your favorite Halloween memory?