Geri's Thoughts On Transitions

Unlike other Christmases, it wasn’t hard for me to decide what to get Tom as a gift. I have given him the most basic Amazon Kindle for his birthday and he loved it so much. He especially liked how he didn’t need to bring his overnight bag in his commute to work so he can carry 5-6 books but just have everything in the Kindle, in his jacket’s pocket. He also liked how it didn’t have a glare when reading under the sunlight and being able to adjust the text size.

I thought it might be hard to top such a perfect gift but when I heard over the radio that they were selling Roku for only $49.00 I knew that that was it for him. I first heard how watching Netflix on your tv with Roku was totally worth the purchase (back then it was almost a hundred dollars) from Ed. It was until that I and Evan started watching Netflix often that I was convinced it was time for us to get a Roku. And I knew Tom would like it because there were times we would run out of DVDs during the weekends  and have nothing to watch which didn’t make sense since we have a number of movies (of Tom’s choices) on our Instant Play queue.

But Tom’s sister’s raving about the internet radio adapter and having access to many jazz stations made my husband want one too. I found an inexpensive unit in amazon and was very satisfied with my Christmas gifts to him.

What I was most surprised about was how Tom’s gifts turned into gifts for the family. I never thought I liked jazz as much until we tuned into Bossa Nova and Brazil jazz stations. Even Evan loved listening to them. We don’t watch tv that much, and now we even watch tv lesser – we’d rather listen to the radio. The same with Roku. I even told Tom to cut down our Netflix subscription to just 1 DVD/Instantplay Plan instead of the 3 DVDs/Instantplay.

Two days ago Tom told me that he had a problem with the screen of his 4 month old Kindle. I looked up in the internet on ways to fix the problem when I read that Kindle replaces damaged units without hassle. So I went to the Kindle’s customer service page, pressed a button for them to call me and in 2 minutes I got a call from Seattle. I was asked what problem was (horizontal lines on the screen with a third of it wiped blank), asked if my husband dropped it (not to his knowledge), asked if he spilled water on the screen (just wiped it clean with a damp cloth). I was told to return the damaged unit by dropping it off at UPS and the replacement should arrive Friday. True enough it arrived yesterday.

My husband doesn’t like spending money on himself but for the second part of this year he was a very happy and satisfied hi-tech consumer.

Evan to me, while driving home from school, “I know how daddy works.” “Yeah? How?” I asked. “First, he takes the bus. Then he takes another bus. Then he goes to work. He says hello to his friends. He goes to his computer and gets money from there.” Oct 26

Evan, after reading aloud the The Lord’s Prayer before bedtime, “dear God, it was a good day today because I got to play outside for a long time. For Christmas I want two more blade blades. I love You, Wapshot, lola (grandma), what’s the other one… lolo (grandpa), mama and dad. Amen.” Nov. 6

Evan while eating breakfast: “When I grow up I want to be a superhero, inventor and a dad.” Nov. 21

I was in another room when I heard Evan say, “I will love you always.” “I love you too!” I called back. “No I was talking to Wapshot (our cat),” he informed me. It was just good nobody else was around to hear that. Nov. 23

Evan to me: “You know, there is also a south pole.” Me: “That’s right Evan and you know what’s in the south pole?” (I was going to say penguins). Evan, after a slight pause, “yeah…waterbenders?” Nov. 26

Evan’s prayer tonight: “Dear God, I had a good day today. Please give me Legos for Christmas because I really like them. Please make brown Legos. Please tell the Target guys to put Scooby Doo Legos. I am thankful for my parents, family and friends, lolo and lola, and all the people in this planet. Amen.” Dec.1

Impatient at Evan dawdling, I said “faster Evan! How can you be a superhero if you are slow?” Evan pauses, “well, I am still training.” Pastilan. Dec.3

At the ladies’ room at Target, Evan chuckles and apologizes sheepishly to a 4 year old girl after doing his business, “hehehe I’m in here because my mom has to watch me…” Dec. 10

Part of Evan’s prayer the other night: “Dear Lord, it was a really nice day today. Please give me legos for Christmas because they’re really cool. I also have something else I want and you know what it is…” Of course, I asked him afterwards what he asked God and his answer? A baby brother and sister. I sure wasn’t expecting that. Dec. 18

While putting Evan to bed last night he told me, “I will never leave you.” I said, “that’s really sweet Evan but eventually you will have a house and a family of your own and that will make mom and dad happy. That’s why you have to study hard, so you’ll get good grades and you’ll get lots of choices when look for work…” Silence. Finally he replied with, “I’m glad I’m not leaving yet.” Dec. 22

Evan singing Jingle Bells: “Jingle bells, Jingle bells, jingling all the waaaayyyy.” It’s funny but grammatically correct right? =) Dec 26

After I told Evan we will be mailing his thank you letters today, he says: “I know how the mailbox works. You put the letters in the mailbox, inside has pipes that goes to different houses!” January 6

while watching Karate Kid yesterday, I was cuddling Evan beside me and telling him how I love the smell of his head. He says, “I wish I could smell my head. I wish I could take my head off and smell it.” Well, your nose is still going to be on your head… January 7

Evan’s prayer last night: “I thank you for my mom, my dad, my lolo, my lola, my cousins, my aunts, my uncles, my stepmom, my stepdad…” (he meant godmother and godfather). January 12

Evan to me yesterday: “I want snow for dinner”. He wasn’t joking. Today

On the first week of December when I saw Christmas lights hanging outside of a house in a neighborhood we drove through, the sight made me feel weepy. Oh no, I thought I was over this homesickness for Philippine Christmas. I fared better last year because I was busy preparing for a party at our place. But this year, after hosting Thanksgiving I was just too tired to have another one so close. I couldn’t bear stepping into the store after weeks of preparation for that Thanksgiving dinner.

But things did get better. The secret? Getting together with friends. I got lunch invitation from a college friend in Cebu and we met at Cheesecake Factory. I first dreaded going there because I rejoined Weight Watchers last week of October and have been doing really well with their new program (lost 8 pounds so far) but I was delighted when I saw that they have a new Skinnylicious menu and their veggie burger was surprisingly moist and yummy. I also got another lunch invitation from a hometown friend and this is what she cooked for me:
We had humba (pork belly cook in a sweeter adobo version), plaintain to dip with anchovies (guinamos), atsara (she makes the best atsara!), eggplant sauteed shrimp paste while having a profound discussion on Philippine showbiz.

That weekend we spent family time at the Lincoln Park Zoo to view the zoo lights.

The day after we went to Winter Wonderland at Navy Pier with my filipina mommy friends.

Then we finally got around to getting our Christmas tree. Problem was the tree guy told us this  was 8 feet tall but clearly it wasn’t:

I eventually go that remedied, courtesy of my heavy duty cutter. Since it was a much taller tree there were a lot of bare spots, I made mental note to buy bigger ornaments as soon as they go on sale.

There were also Christmas cards I needed to cut out and tape. I was waiting for the snow so I can take a photo of Evan as our card but when none came I decided to used our one good family photo for this year and incorporate with a ready made card sold in Target. I don’t know why I have to make life harder but something inside me always crave for originality and being unique.

I also volunteered to bring food for the Teacher’s Appreciation lunch in Evan’s school and there was also a holiday program and party for Evan. I turned out to be a lot busier than expected that I had to do away from my twice weekly volunteering at the library.

My friend Cielito invited us to spend Christmas Eve with them and her family and I was only too happy to accept. What gets me during the Christmas season here in the US is really how lonely it is compared to the Philippines because the big day here is on the 25th while for filipinos it is the hours that leads to midnight on Christmas Eve.

Cielito’s uncle was going to be there and I knew he was a good cook so I thought of a dish that he might not be bringing himself when I remembered sio-mai. So I made these.

It was the best Christmas Eve I had in the US. Food was really good. I could still taste the lamb chops and duck stew in my mouth, I didn’t know Cielito was a good cook! =) I never cooked duck in my life and would be intimidated to do so. Tom loves lamb and the wine was constantly flowing, so he was a happy guest. Cielito’s mother-in-law made a russian potato salad and I like how it was cut up into smaller pieces which made it tastes. Cielito’s uncle’s family brought strawberry shortcake and carrot cake which I indulged myself in.

Evan with the cutest baby Ella, Cielito and Zhenya’s beautiful daughter. Photos courtesy Cielito.

We went home fully intending to go to the 9:00 mass and was treated to a magical sight of two young fawns just a block away from Cielito’s house. It was such a rare treat for us and we told Evan that the animals were on their way to meet with Santa’s reindeers to say hi to them.

Christmas day was going to the mass in the morning since the night before we ended up just helping Evan set up his Legos. Afterwards we drove down to Tom’s sister’s house  where Tom’s siblings, nephews and nieces were also going to be. Evan had fun playing with his 8 year old cousin and opening his multitude of gifts.

The next morning he was just content to play with the toys that were already assembled and seem to have forgotten that he has more gifts left to open.

It has been a wonderful Christmas week and I am mostly enjoying it with Evan’s company while he is in school break. I am surprised that what started as a feeling of being slightly depressed and homesick for Philippine Christmas eventually disappeared without effort on my part. No tears for Christmas 2011, yay!

I end this post with my favorite Christmas scene of this year that I have immortalized with my camera:

Have a joyous New Year everyone!

I’ve always wanted to make a shirt using some of Evan’s drawings since 1.) I think a child’s drawing is cute 2.) It’d be a good keepsake 3.) He’d get get a kick out of it and will be inspired to make more drawings.
Yesterday their school and many schools nationwide celebrated “Proud To Be Me” day. Since I like this message a lot I thought it was a perfect occasion to make this mommy project. Since we didn’t have an extra shirt lying around, it was only the night before that I got to put together words on his own handwriting and a self-portrait he drew a few weeks ago. I added a few doodles, printed them out on a special paper and ironed it on a $5 green (his favorite color) shirt I bought from Target.

As expected he was thrilled. He is wearing pajama bottoms with the shirt on the photo because it was also Pajama & Pizza Party for his class a incentive for good behavior.

I loved the result, I am excited for our next t-shirt collaboration soon.