Merry Christmas - From Around the World!

Aloha Everyone,

Here are additional photos we received from our friends for our Christmas Blog. Thank you for your generous assistance to "spice-up" our holiday blog.

Painting by Jeannette, our RV friend from OR

Sydney photos from Armi

Door decoration from Shelley, GA

Aloha Beetle from Stan & Connie, HI

Scenes of Basel, Switzerland from Sandra

Town Square, MA, from Greg

Hawaiian Santa, HI, from Kumu Keahi

Aloha -- Cathi

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Her House

Aloha Everyone,

My Mother decided to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of her house on Christmas Eve. All her three children and 2 of her 4 grandchildren and 4 of her 5 great grandchildren were present. We were a total of 14 including the spouses, plus the fiancée of my nephew.

Everyone volunteered and brought dishes and delicious baked goods. As always, there was lots of food and wonderful conversation. What a blessing for us to gather and be able to spend time together! Entertainment was provided by the younger 3 of my Mother's 4 great-grandsons who used their own brand of creativity to conjure up games and merriment.

Wine from Yasu & Mayumi's vineyard

26 pounds roasted turkey

Home made stuffing

Just to clarify, the choice of using paper plates was mine rather than my Mother's. Her preference was to use her fine china. But for practical purposes, my sister and I sort of convinced her that we would like to focus more on our company than spending time cleaning up. My Mother reluctantly agreed. If she sees the photos in our blog, she would be horrified!

My plate:

My nephew's dessert plate :-)

"Christmas is the day that holds all time together."

--Alexander Smith

Aloha -- Cathi

Christmas Photos From Our Friends

Aloha Everyone,

For the past few days, J.J. and I have been pretty much "house bound" with our primary activities being getting my Mother's home ready for Christmas and New Year. When I mentioned to Jeff, our son who is responsible for my starting and maintaining the daily blog about the lack of interesting subject to write about, he came up with a brilliant suggestion. Why not write to some of our friends and ask for their photo contributions.

The response so far has been FANTASTIC!!! So here are the first group of photos we received. Thank you so much for your wonderful contributions!!! YES, please feel free to send us your photos to fill the last few days of 2015!

Niseko, Japan from Mayumi

Singapore - from Yui & Yo

Singapore

Chicago, IL from John

Antioch, IL from Pat 

Honolulu, HI from Lena

Nativity, from Nike in Italy

Rainbow from VAM in Honolulu, HI

Annapolis, MD from David

Whistler, British Columbia, Canada

From my Mother's garden

With much aloha and love,

Cathi

Egypt, A Country My Mother Wishes To Revisit

Aloha Everyone,

My sister and I acknowledge that our Mother belongs to the community. She attracts people like a magnet when appearing at functions of organizations where she chairs or is an active member. However she is also a very private person and rarely does she share her deep feelings with others.

Therefore just "hanging around" with my Mother and reconnecting with her inner person is incredibly precious and rewarding to me.

My Mother has traveled extensively through the USA, Canada, Central and South Americas, East and Southeast Asia, Western Europe as well as to Greece and Turkey. Around her spacious living room and dining rooms are souvenirs from her travels. But she likes to gaze her magnet collections and recall her various adventures.

When I asked her where would she like to go next, without a moment of hesitation, she said, "Egypt! I've been to all the places I want to see, but I would love to go back to Egypt. As soon as it is safe for Americans to travel (to Egypt), I am going back!"

To her strong conviction, J.J. and I concur that it would be our privilege to tag along.

Aloha -- Cathi 

Surprising Discovery From Our Year-end House Cleaning

Aloha Everyone,

J.J. and I are spending lots of quality time with my Mother. Some people do spring cleaning, but my Mother likes to prepare her house for the New Year. We volunteered to help.  

This house has been her home for 50 years and things do accumulate. Not being able to take charge and sort and discard as we please, the process of cleaning just one corner of a room could take hours or even days.  

I am grateful for this opportunity to spend our time together to make new memories of sharing. Especially sharing her ordinary days.

On the top drawer of the dresser located in the bedroom J.J. and I are staying, she pulled out two boxes and indicated for me to look.

What I found was a pair of my first baby shoes and my baby book. Without saying a word, I gave her a huge hug.

"Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don't wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it's at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored."

-- Earl Nightingale

Aloha -- Cathi