6 Dec, 2007
Keep Christmas With You
Posted by teacherjulie @ 9:20 am
Shelved under Lessons in Life, My Family, My Thoughts, Parenting, Snapshots, Tags/Meme
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Mitch, my kababayan, tagged me to do this meme: What Does Christmas Mean to Me. My apologies to those who first tagged me before this, I think I have to do this first because time is running out.

The instructions of this meme are the following:

Here’s the drill:

  1. Make a paragraph next to the last paragraph in the tag that is passed to you “What is Christmas to you” and put your name at the end of it linking back to your site, or the page that answered this tag.
  2. You can use a title that will suit your Christmas idea.
  3. Then tag as many as you can.

Christmas is an annual holiday that makes my little wishes come true. A pair of new shoes, new dress and gifts from my Godparents. That’s how I defined Christmas years and years ago until… I came to Bahrain. That’s when I realized what it really means. A special day to commemorate the birth of Jesus. Here in Bahrain, Christmas is nothing. It’s just an ordinary working day for almost everyone, unless your boss is considerate, he’ll give you at least a half day to celebrate, if there are celebrations happening. But in my case, there’s nothing to celebrate literally. Everyone is at work, that includes my husband and myself. We attend the midnight (Christmas Eve) mass and that’s it, go to sleep and get back to work the next day, on Christmas day. My first Christmas away from home happened in 1999. I came here in October and had the most loneliest Christmas ever in my life - without my family. That made me realized their importance. On how meaningless celebrations would be without them. To cut the story short, for me Christmas is all about Jesus and family. If you have friends to celebrate this special day with you, that’s a bonus! -When Silence Speaks

~o0o~

A little while ago, I talked to my daughter about this year’s Christmas being different from the other Christmases we had. She asked me why. I explained to her that my husband and I are both undergoing financial difficulties since hubby has just been doing consultancy work since March and that means no extra money for the holiday expenses, not that we give expensive, extravagant gifts, we don’t. She said something like: “It’s okay, we don’t need expensive gifts, what is important is that we are together.” Thank you, Trixie, for making this easier. (Please click on her name to see what she has written in her blog about her thoughts on this.) We have always emphasized about the real meaning of this holy day. That this is about Jesus who came to save us from sins and give us eternal life. We always make it a point to go to church during the morning of Christmas day to give thanks to the Lord. Christmas is not just a holy day, not just a time of giving gifts but a time to thank the Lord for the blessings of life. -TeacherJulie

~o0o~

I am tagging Feng, Cess, Dom and BlurMommy to do this meme.

This is one of my cherished and favorite Christmas song from childhood, I hope you have enough time to listen. Thank you and wishing you a Blessed Christmas.


This entry was posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 9:20 am and is filed under Lessons in Life, My Family, My Thoughts, Parenting, Snapshots, Tags/Meme. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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6 Dec, 2007 @ 10:01 am
feng said:

I’m teary-eyed with what you and Mitch shared.

  • Aw, shucks,Feng. I think Christmas brings out the best in people. (Except for a few who opts for media mileage) :)

6 Dec, 2007 @ 10:08 am
Dom OSB said:

that was so moving!….
thank you for tagging me- i will do it asap!…bless you julie!

  • It seems kasi that Christmas has been commercialized and children have become too hooked with material things and are not being taught the significance of this special event. Ah, this would be a lengthy discourse, I will stop na. Will wait for your post, Dom. Thanks :)

6 Dec, 2007 @ 10:48 am
KK aka Tina said:

Hi Teacher Julie,

I’m touched by your post. It’s also a blessing that your daughter Trixie understands the situation. I hope that things will better for you and your husband soon. Christmas is renewal of hope and really, it’s not about stuff. Kung meron bakit hindi but not to the extent of borrowing money just to give gifts. I have a post about this.

  • Re giving gifts, we don’t really give them since they get a lot during Christmas. No, am not into borrowing money just to give gifts. And you know what Tina, answered prayers, transferring some amount from Paypal to my debit card last Saturday was easy pala and I did not encounter glitches and I am thankful for this monetary blessing that I worked hard for in my paid posts :)

6 Dec, 2007 @ 10:50 am
Raquel said:

Ohhh, how sweet and very touching naman ng anak mo Julie.

  • Thanks, Raq. We are honest with them about our family situations and in return, they are able to understand. I don’t know if this is wise but I think this helps us understand our family more. :)

6 Dec, 2007 @ 2:23 pm
Mitch said:

Grabe iba ng mag-isip si Trixie. Matured na talaga!

Thanks Julie for doing the tag! ;-)

Uy, email me your cel# ha para kita tayo pag nasa Zambales ka.

  • Hay, Mitch, she is that though sometimes, she tends to be childish. Maybe we expect her to be mature, alam mo how that is since we are both panganay.  The tag is so wonderful, thanks too. And I already emailed you my mobile number :)

7 Dec, 2007 @ 8:49 am
Kittymama said:

T. Julie, Trixie does you proud. It seems only yesterday that she was this little toddler running through Alex’s class, and today, she thinks like a young woman beyond her years. (Parang mas mature pa kay Alex, hehe!) God bless you, T. Julie, for being able to instill in your children the real meaning of Christmas!

Much love!

  • Thanks KittyMama though at times she acts childish and I tell her to be a role model for her younger sibs which she finds annoying. Hay, time surely runs fast and sometimes I wish they would not grow up too soon. :)

7 Dec, 2007 @ 5:35 pm
teacherjulie.com » Photo Hunt: LONG said:

[...] Keep Christmas With You [...]

9 Dec, 2007 @ 2:10 pm
lovelyn said:

How our kids see things would be reflecting how we raised them. Trixie will not understand if you didn’t teach her well. Hope my boys will grow up someday writing their wants and will know what really matters. Just like your daughter.

  • Lovelyn, thanks so much. Just last Sunday night, when we were discussing where to have dinner and one of the younger children, Julian, said he wants to go the Shakey’s, Trixie said that to eat there is expensive and we will just go somewhere not expensive, hence my Weekend Snapshot post. Differentiating needs from wants is one of the best things we can teach our children in this very commercialized world of ours. You can do that. Thanks :)

10 Dec, 2007 @ 5:59 am
SandyCarlson said:

This is a lovely post, and a delightful perspective on Christmas from a young person. Thanks for sharing it.

  • Thank you, Sandy. Much as I don’t want to burden my children about these things, I think part of their lessons in growing up should be about financial responsibilities and priorities. And Christmas is one very important event for me that should be put in proper perspective.

11 Dec, 2007 @ 1:45 pm
From Dawn Till Dusk » THE TRUE MEANING OF THE SEASON: AN EARLY CHRISTMAS INTROSPECTION said:

[...] Caution: A quite sentimental post ahead. So ready your hankies for wiping some tears. This is an answer to the tag by Teacher Julie on What Christmas Means to Me. [...]

11 Dec, 2007 @ 2:13 pm
feng said:

hi T. Julie, am finished doing the tag.

nakupo, medyo naiyak ako while writing the post. :) thanks for tagging me anyway, I enjoyed it. it brought so much introspection.

  • Feng, yes, Christmas bring a lot of introspection, sometimes even bittersweet memories. This season does this to me as well as Easter Sunday. Thanks for sharing your thoughts :)

14 Dec, 2007 @ 12:09 am
Max Coutinho said:

Hello Julie,

Thank you for having dropped by my blog :)!

You have a special kid: comgratulations :)!

Cheers

  • Thank you Max. Welcome to my blog and I hope you would be able to come back :)

14 Dec, 2007 @ 8:08 am
lady cess said:

thanks for the tag, julie. i’ll do this :)

seems to me christmas is really tough for most pinoys who had to celebrate it out of the country, far away from family and loved ones.

  • Thanks for accepting this, Cess. Iba kasi talaga ang Paskong Pinoy, especially when celebrated far from family and loved ones.

17 Dec, 2007 @ 10:09 pm
teacherjulie.com » 2007 Christmas Tree Blog Parade said:

[...] I looked through my files but can’t find a photo of our Christmas Tree. We are a little late in putting up the tree for this year’s Christmas because we were supposed to get a new one but haven’t gotten around to it. For a little reading, here are my thoughts about Christmas. [...]

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