My real Christmas gifts

The day after Christmas presents difficult challenges to every working member of a household. Waking up and scavenging through Christmas leftovers for breakfast in the fridge are the first hurdles of the day. I felt like kicking myself this morning for not taking the whole week off so that I could just relax. Well, it is too late now to apply for a vacation because half of the personnel at work are out enjoying vacation this week. These wise men and women put in their vacation requests way back in January 2007 just to secure their spot.

What was my reason for not taking a vacation? The lure of the spring season to me seemed to be stronger than the Christmas season. You see, I am an avid gardener and working on my flower garden gives me great pleasure. March 20, 2008 is the much anticipated day of any amateur horticulturist because that is the first day of the spring season. With extra help from my children, I was able to clear my backyard and I am hoping to plant numerous flowering plants that would transform my garden into a cottage garden.

I know that my passion is not shared by many of you. Many view gardening as a hobby that elderly people only appreciate. Though this is a common belief, many of the younger generation is missing out the health benefits derived from building and maintaining a garden. One of the known benefit is a garden gives the gardener solace. Having inner peace while toiling mother earth is one of the best therapy one can get. Being a farmer’s son, I have an appreciation towards the bounty that mother earth rewards any person who gets his hands dirty in toiling the soil of the land. That brown material that you call dirt or ground is the flesh of the earth and water is the life giving blood of this planet. You can coax a dormant seed into sprouting roots, stems and leaves if you have the right soil and temperature mixture. In exchange for the care that you give to the plant, it rewards you with its hidden wealth—a bountiful supply of vegetables. Got seeds?

One of the most common question asked on Christmas day is, “What did you get for Christmas?” Thy author plus his spouse has devoted their time in making sure that their kids are the recipients of gifts worthy of their admiration. Our little ones had been waiting of Christmas morning since January and so when they woke up, they immediately dashed towards our Christmas tree ready to be surprised. I trailed behind them with my camera and took numerous pictures showing them hugging their gifts. The last gift was behind the Christmas tree and when my kids read the tag, they said, “Daddy, this one is for you!”. I was surprised to discover that I have a gift. The box was one foot thick, 2 ½ feet length and width. When I opened it, I discovered that it is a stainless mechanic stool.

Stool is a contraption that is used to sit on. Just want to make sure that you guys have a CLEAR idea of the type of stool I got as a gift. My wife bought me the stool because last weekend, I had to replace the broken door handle of our van. I had to take off the whole door from the van and spent a long time carefully removing the panels that were attached to it before I was able reach the locking mechanism. Not having a stool made the job a little difficult for my legs.

Looking at the array of high-tech toys that are now available in the market, it sometimes makes me feel sad that they were not invented when I was a kid. The coolest toys decades ago were battery powered toy trucks or robots that had blinking eyes and moving mechanical legs. Gone were the days when simple toys bring great joy to children.

Though I missed having high tech toys during my youth, my wife and I have a gift that continues to give us joy. This gift is our children.

Enjoying our Christmas gifts

My long road to Christmas

This morning, I woke up and looked out the window. The leaves of my garden plants were all covered with mildew. The first thing that came into my mind was, “I hope none of my garden plants are frozen”.

Tis the season to shiver. I do not want to sound like a scrooge but chilly winter weather does not fall under my list of things that I adore. Everyone this season seemed to be well bundled up while braving the outdoors.

This is the 44th Christmas season of my life and I can’t help but look back to the previous Christmas seasons that lined up my past. Majority of them are full of joy and life but there were two of them that were not so merry.

The first one was the Christmas season of 1985. I was then in Manila and was struggling to establish my own career. Manila can be a cruel and unforgiving city to the new comers who carries big dreams but have shallow pockets.

The second was when I made the painful decision of sending my wife and children to the Philippines so that I could work long hours to save money to buy our house. Christmas and New Year’s eve found me working overtime at the office. Though I was very busy at work, my mind constantly wondered away with thoughts of my children. The hardest part of my day was going home to an empty and silent apartment.

What was my happiest Christmas? I can’t seem to pin which particular Christmas was my merriest because each Christmas that I had celebrated was unique to the previous ones. I always discover something different and special on each Christmas season. Christmases are like opening a box of chocolates—You never know what you’re going to get.

Yesterday, I was sorting through my old Franklin organizer folder and I found an old newspaper clipping that I cut off from a local newspaper back in December 25, 1999. It contained an old Christmas story and I felt the need to share it with you guys.


Soldier’s Christmas kindness

A few days before Christmas 1945, a little girl in cardboard shoes stood amid the rubble of a ruined German village, her sobs drifting in frosty plumes on crystal air. She was headed for school but her makeshift shoes had suddenly come apart. Her mother had wrapped the child’s feet in salvaged cardboard, securing it with twine. But when the twine unraveled, Christa Geuer stumbled. She stood there immobile, wondering what to do.

The war was over, but the sighted of American troops was common that Christmas season in occupied Zweibrucken, near the French border. As Christa—named for the Christ child—stood staring at her threadbare socks, a convoy of army trucks wheeled around a corner. One of them stopped. A big soldier “with a soft voice and soft hands” jumped out, and in broken German said, “Child, I know how it is.” Then he tied up her knots and sent her on her way. Christa was amazed at this soldier’s kindness and face because, in her Aryan world, he was the first black person she had ever seen.

She encountered her soldier again a few days later, when he provided her a Christmas memory that would endure more than half a century.

Christa was a child of war. She never knew her father, who died for her. Serving in the German army when Christa’s mother was due to deliver her, Franz Geuer, 25, secured a one-day pass to be with his wife. But Christa was late, so her father decided to stay an extra day, hoping for the birth. That decision proved deadly: The German army of early World War II made examples of AWOL soldiers. Geuer was shipped to a detention camp in Finland. Later, a survivor told the family that Franz Geuer had died there in his chains.

So the new baby had no Christmases with her father. At war’s end, she, her mother and her older sister, bombed out of their home, were living in a temporary barracks and sleeping in the same bed. Christa, demure with her curly blonde locks, knocked on doors, begging food for her family. And she scavenged—hence the cardboard for shoes.

At night while her daughters slept, Maria knitted, making garments from whatever threads she could glean. Christa’s coat, underwear and socks were rainbows of random colors and texture. Each day at first light, Maria joined other women to scour the fields and to pray for their version of a miracle: To find an overlooked turnip or potato.

It is the custom in that part of the world to be visited on Christmas Eve not by Santa Claus, but by the Christ Child. The gifts He would leave delighted His little namesake: An apple, some nuts, “and if you were really lucky, a hand-made toy.”

But the highlight of that Christmas was the party that American soldiers gave local children at the convent of Heilig Kreuc, the Holy Cross.

Christa got a CARE package from a family in Ohio containing a surprise that exulted her: a toothbrush and toothpaste. From then on, she says, “I believe only angels lived in Ohio, and I slept with the box next to me because it made me feel safe.” But the crowning moment came when suddenly before her was the very soldier who so recently had knelt to tie her cardboard shoes.

Now he knelt again—but this time he untied the twine. From a big box, he removed real leather shoes. One pair after another, he slipped them on Christa until finally, a sturdy, angle high pair did the trick. As he laced them up, he commented discreetly on Christa’s socks, kaleidoscopes of improvised yarns.
They were a pretty, he said, as Joseph’s coat of many colors.

Today, after emigrating to Rhode Island in 1968, she is Christa Casey of Jamestown, herself the mother of three grown children

Daughter’s Christmas conversation

A few days ago, my daughter Camille approached me with a string of questions. Below is how our conversation went:

Camille: “Daddy, do you believe in Santa Claus?”

Ivan: Puzzled by her question, I then asked my daughter, “Sweetie, why are you asking me that question?”

Camille: “Well, my friends at school believe that they are going to receive gifts from Santa”

Ivan: I paused for a second to compose my response and then said, “Well dear, I believe in God and He is the one who gives us gifts and blessings”

Camille: “So, there is no Santa Claus?”

Ivan: Trying to avoid answering the question directly, I replied, “Long time ago, I heard a story about a man named Saint Nicolas and when he was still alive, he brought gifts to the people. Santa Claus is a copy of the character of Saint Nicolas.”

Camille: “Are you saying that Santa Claus is not real?”

Ivan: I wisely answered,“Santa Claus is fictional but God is not”.

Camille: After thinking for a moment, she asked,“Then who is going to give us gifts now?”

Ivan: “God is going to give you gifts through your loving father (me)”.

Camille: “Sooooo, you have my Christmas gift?! What did you get me? Daddy, can I have my Christmas gift now? Please, please, pretty pleeeeease?!”

Ivan: “Nice try, dear. Your gift is still with God. He will deliver it on Christmas day”.

Camille: “But we don’t have any chimney!”

Ivan: “God can go through walls”

Camille: “My gift can go through walls too?!”

Ivan: “I think I just heard your mother calling me……..”


Some believe that Christmas is for the pure hearted children and also adults who still possess a heart of a child. Others look at Christmas as a spirit who sprinkles joy and happiness to mankind. To the working class, Christmas brings the much awaited annual bonus. To the party people, Christmas is the biggest bash in the world. To the culinary crowd, it is the time to brew their secret recipes. To the sport minded, it is an opportunity to break the sound barrier while skiing down a snowy slope. But to a few, Christmas marks another year of waiting…….waiting for the return of the Messiah. Their diligence will be rewarded and their reward is in heaven.

What does Christmas mean to you? If you found the true meaning of Christmas, how would you respond? Would you also wait for the return of the Messiah? Check where your heart is this Christmas. I pray that it is not anchored on earthly possessions that putrefies.

Reflecting the real meaning of Christmas.

The Novice

A moment in Philippine history

Simbang Gabi or the evening Mass first celebrated by the Tagalogs is actually two centuries old. According to historical accounts, the first Christmas Mass in the Philippines predates the arrival of the Spaniards. During the early 14th century, an Italian friar, Odoric de Perderone, celebrated Christmas Mass while passing through the country—200 years before the arrival of Magellan. It was only in 1565—after Miguel Lopez de Legazpi’s arrival in the Philippines—that the Spaniards managed to celebrate the first Mass of the Feast of the Nativity in the country. After the arrival and conquest of the Spaniards, a Spanish friar planned early morning Masses at cock’s crow during harvest time to encourage Filipino farmers to attend Christmas Mass. Because of this, the Masses were called Misa de Gallo or the Mass of the Rooster. These Masses usually start around Dec. 16 and is held nine consecutive mornings as a novena.

Remembering the day of infamy

December 7, 2007

Today marks the day in the history books as the day that will live in infamy. Back in December 7, 1941, war planes from a Japanese naval task force did a pre-emptied strike to the U.S. naval installation at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. From the burning ashes of the aftermath, the sleeping giant rose to avenge those who lost their lives. I pay homage to the brave men and women who fought and died defending the freedom of mankind. Let us constantly remind ourselves that freedom and peace has a heavy price. There are times when it is necessary that human lives be laid to the altar of peace to attain its blessings.

As an amateur historian, I have flipped and read through pages of numerous written accounts of what happened on that historical and tragic day. There are millions of interesting facts about what happened before, during and after the Pearl Harbor attack. I would like to mention just a few interesting facts about the Pearl Harbor attack.

Prisoner Of War #1
One of the Japanese midget submarines that were dispatch to sneak to Pearl Harbor was manned by Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki and Petty officer second class Kiyoshi Inagaki. Their trim mechanism malfunction soon after their craft was released from their mother ship submarine. They missed the harbor entrance and crashed into a reef, damaging their midget submarine. By dawn, they crash into another reef in full view of the U.S. 298th infantry regiment that was guarding the beach off Bellow airfield. Sakamaki lit a fuse to destroy the ship before it was captured but the charge did not work. In the water, Inagaki was swept to the sea and drowned. Sakamaki was captured and became Pacific POW number 1.

After the war, Sakamaki returned to Japan and became a businessman, serving as president of a Brazilian subsidiary of Toyota and then working for a Toyota-affiliated company in Japan before retiring in 1987.

His submarine was salvaged by American troops, shipped to the United States in January 1942, and taken on a nationwide tour to sell War Bonds. It was placed on display at a submarine base in Key West, Fla., in 1947 and later transferred in 1990 to its current site, the Admiral Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, Texas. In 1991, Mr. Sakamaki paid a visit to his old sub during a symposium on the Pearl Harbor attack.

LUCKY HIT

During the attack on Peal Harbor, a Hawaiian DC-3 airliner, coming in to land, was hit by a Japanese tracer bullet and set on fire. A minute later, the plane was hit by another bullet which hit the valve of a fire extinguisher, thus putting out the fire.

JAPANESE/AMERICANS

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 16,849 Americans of Japanese ancestry were relocated in ten specially built War Relocation Authority Camps in the U.S. In Latin America, around 2,000 Japanese were rounded up so the US would have prisoners to exchange with Japan.

During their internment, 5,918 babies were born. A total of 2,355 internees joined the US armed forces and around 150 were killed in combat. The 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team was formed after its members petitioned Congress for the privilege to serve in the war. It became the most decorated unit in US military history earning the following medals:

21 Medal of Honors
52 Distinguished Service Crosses (including 19 Distinguished Service Crosses which were upgraded to Medals of Honor in June 2000)
1 Distinguished service medal
560 Silver Star (plus 28 Oak Leaf Clusters for a second award)
22 Legion of merit Medals
15 Soldier’s Medals
4,000 Bronze Stars (plus 1,200 Oak Leaf Clusters for a second award; one Bronze Star was upgraded to a Medal of Honor in June 2000)
9,486 Purple Hearts

CIVILIAN CASUALTIES

One little-known aspect of the Pearl Harbor attack is that the 68 civilian casualties were killed by falling shrapnel from American antiaircraft shells.

Remember the horrors of war and the price of peace.

Weekend handy man warrior

Have you ever had a project that you just decided to start on a moments notice and halfway to its completion, you started asking yourself the question, “What in the world was I thinking when I decided to start this whole crazy thing?”

The author of this letter came to this predicament in the middle of what initially seemed to be a simple task of repairing and renovating a humble kitchen. The whole thing started one afternoon just after lunch when I looked at my kitchen sink and the cabinets that supported it. I gave its appearance a disapproving look and decided that the kitchen needed some repairs. I figured that it won’t take long for me to replace all the cabinets and sink. My assessment was it would take only one weekend to finish the job—Yeah, right!! I donned some working clothes and went to the garage and brought back a hammer, a pry bar and a box of assorted tools. The mild manner Aden has now transformed into the formidable DEMOLITION MAN!!

I worked like a well oiled machine. I swung my powerful hammer with the intensity of a storm and the structure just crumbled before me. What I did not realize was that demolishing something needs a bit of a technique. A Rambo type demolition can cause unwanted damages to things that are meant to be preserved. My overwhelming energy caused me to demolish the interior wall of my kitchen. When my wife checked to see the progress of my work, she almost had a heart attack when she saw the damage on the wall. She pointed to the wall and asked me, “Aden, what heck did you do?!”. I responded by calmly telling her “I meant to do that. Relax, honey…..Everything is progressing as planned”…….Darn, was I a big lair!

Wanting to cultivate some confidence from my wife and kids with regards to my ability as a handyman, I decided to give a gleaming picture to them on how the whole kitchen will look like once it is finished. After a lengthy explanation about my master plan to my family, my kids told me, “Dad, don’t you think it is better just to pay a professional to do the job?” I responded by saying, with a bit of handyman bravado, “Nonsense! Your old man can handle this!” Those famous words had been uttered by an iconic handyman named Tim Allen (aka Tim Taylor) of the “home improvement show”. He said those words moments before he caused a major disaster.

Demolishing is the easy part. Sorting, organizing and placing all the demolished kitchen parts in huge trash cans is a time consuming task by itself. I had to buy a filter mask to protect myself from the dust.

The work rolled into the second weekend and my wife converted our bathroom sink into a temporary kitchen sink. She also used our outdoor gas grill as a means to cook and heat our food.

One valuable lesson I learned is that there are certain tasks in the project that would be best done by a professional. Soldering copper pipes is one of them. I bought a soldering kit and tried to solder the water pipe. I forgot to drain all the water out of the pipes and so while I was soldering, the water inside the pipes boiled and it squirted hot steaming water onto my chest. Fortunately, it did not hit my face. I thank God for that. There was also the tiny incident where the wall insulation caught on fire because it was accidentally hit by the flames of my soldering gun—It was the fault of the wall. It should have moved away from the flames.

I called the plumber and he came and did a superb job. Of course, I had to pay his expensive rate. Plumbers here in America are well paid because their rates are quite high. They earn far more than a manager of a Bank. My plumber told me that he earns about $150,000 annually. No wonder plumbers own expensive houses.

To accelerate the progress of my work, I decided to take a 5-day vacation from my work. My plan was to work from dawn to dusk in my kitchen. What I did not factor into my whole work plan was the delays and also the hot and humid summer weather which caused me to slow down. Though the oak cabinets were pre-made, I had to use some high school mathematics in calculating the angles, plains and distances so that all the pieces connect perfectly. I even had to use a laser light to assist me in getting the proper wall alignment. I guess a little help from high-tech gadgets can make the task at hand a bit easier.

On the last day of my 5-day vacation, I was able to install a brand new dishwasher machine. Finally, my kitchen is beginning to take some sort of recognizable form. My children were most excited because this is big news—No more daily dishwashing duties for them.

Last weekend marked the completion of my kitchen. Underneath my kitchen sink is crowded with assorted types of water tubes, drain pipes and electric lines. I closed my eyes and opened the hot and cold water valves. I heard a surging sound of water rushing through the copper pipes. There were a few leaks that I easily fixed. The dishwasher worked like a charm when I turned it on and the garbage disposal machine spun perfectly.

What did I learn from this “Simple-1-week-project-that-turned-to-a-4-week-job”? I listed the valuable lessons that I learned and here they are:

1. When doing a project, expect to complete it beyond the date you set to finish it.
2. Expenditures rarely goes below the set budget.
3. Annoying delays are numerous.
4. Walk out of the work area and take a breather whenever your patience is running low.
5. Quality materials and tools might be a few dollars more but they are worth buying because they will determine the quality of your workmanship.
6. Measure twice. Cut once.
7. Pay attention to details.
8. Always read the lengthy product instructions. It won’t kill you to read them.
9. If your child asks you what you are doing, take a few minutes and explain to your kid what you are trying to accomplish. Let the child hit a nail or turn a screw because they will feel involved in the project.
10. Expect to have cuts and bruises when doing a home improvement project. They are a proof that you are not sleeping on the job.

As I finished one project, another one presents itself. The oven, air vent hood and additional kitchen cabinets that sits on the opposite side of the sink seemed to have renovation flags waving at me. I turned on my 1950 model stove and flames came out of its burners. My conclusion—Why fix something that is not broken?

Sail through the sale.

Thanksgiving Day brings certain opportunities to a number of people. There is a 4-letter word that never fails to bring excitement to the buying populous— SALE ! Majority of the shopping community that is bitten by the buying bug belongs to the female specie. Why do I say this? Being married for 20 years to a shopping fanatic, I am convinced that women have been born with a gene that causes them to uncontrollably buy products that had been tagged as a sales item.

The whole frantic fight to grab the best sale items at the store shelves always starts about two days prior to the thanksgiving sale. A few diehards would camp outside known stores with the sole goal of being first in line to grab the few items that will be put out on sale at very reduced prices.

Yours truly does not subscribe to the idea that SPENDING money makes one “SAVE” money. Who is the lunatic that came up with that logic anyway? Only boneheads believe in that logic! It is very obvious that all these sales hype is just a marketing ploy that department stores and other businesses wave above their heads to attract the buying public. Like innocent lambs, the hypnotized credit card holders are drawn into these credit slaughter houses whom I call shopping Malls. These poor souls blindly swipe away their plastics with skillful hands without any careful thought if their income is able to keep up with their purchases.

Lucky for me, my spouse has learned to become a cautious buyer. Though she is now a careful shopper, she still can’t help succumb to the urge of going to the stores early to get ahead of the huge crowd that might head to the same store. Last November 23rd at four in the morning, my wife drag my kids and I out of our warm beds and led us to a large electronic store 8 miles away from our house. Half of my brain was still asleep while I was driving towards the store. The temperature was about 40 degrees Fahrenheit that morning and when we got to the store, there were already about 600 people waiting in line. By the time the store opened at 5AM , there were about 1,300 people waiting in line. There was a mad scramble inside the store to grab the remaining sale items. I went to the computer programs section of the store and immediately grabbed a 3-pack box of Norton anti-virus that was on sale for $29.99 (regular priced at $99.99). It was a very good deal because the pack contained three packages (Norton Anti-virus 2008 with spyware, Norton System works and Norton Confidential). After I got the item I wanted to buy, I started searching for my wife and kids. I found my wife waiting in line to the cashier and was holding a bunch of small product boxes. I examined the contents of the boxes and found two wireless routers, two types of computer games, an I-pod and other computer gadgets whose usage I am not too familiar with. When I asked her why she grabbed so many items, she said that she was waiting for me to sort through them. Looking through the boxes, I told my wife, “Honey, though these things are technically interesting to operate, we are not computer geeks and would be a waste of our hard earned money to purchase them”. With that said, returned half of what she took from the shelves and we ended up just buying four items. I was so relieved to step out of that mad house and told my wife that my cozy bed is calling my name.

Well, my story does not end there. At around 7PM that same day, I decided to return to the same store that we lined up to at 4AM . I was just curious as to what items that were still left. There were still a number of people going inside the store searching through the shelves. To my surprised, ALL the items that we bought at 5AM that day were still available at 7PM ! I felt like a bloody fool! I called my wife and told her what I just saw and advised her that unless we are aiming to buy the highly sought merchandise, we need to just go to the store at a more convenient time.