December 1st

December 1st is a special time of the year. It's my parent's wedding anniversary. This year they are celebrating their 42nd anniversary. Isn't that wonderful? In times like this when divorce rates escalates to a high percentage, it is a comfort to know that some couples do stay together and love each other until death do them part. What an inspiration!

When I was growing up, December 1st is also the time we "officially" start the Christmas celebration in our family. So, in my effort to "re-create" this warm Christmas feeling..and pass it on to my family now... I made sure that we "officially" celebrate Christmas on December 1st here on Maui. My darling husband, knowing my mission, lovingly bought me this extravagant Advent Calendar. Oh, I am very thankful. But there's one glitch. I have not done this kind of Advent Calendar before and it caused a little bit of stress in me. OK, I think I will create another post about Advent Calendar later so I won't get off track with my Dec. 1 post.

After dinner, I pulled out from storage a plastic bin of books which contains our collection of Christmas books, our Christmas days Scrapbook/Journal, and Christmas Cards and letters we received last year. Oh, we had fun rummaging through them. My kids (Gardner and Noelle) found their electronic book that plays Christmas carols. The 3 of us started singing (much to my husband's dismay). We sang every Christmas carol in that little book. Yes, we sang out of tune but joyfully and with all our hearts :)

Gardner and Noelle read a book to me. Then time to watch one Christmas Movie. I was pushing for "Charlie Brown Christmas", but the kids are not in the mood yet for that movie. They chose the "Tom and Jerry Christmas", so that's what we watched. Actually, that's what they watched :)