So, I’m free from work and on a much needed vacation that shall last for 12 days. Gonna be coming home to spend time with my parents and grandmother—-just four of us. The rest of everybody else is either buried or a distance too far except for one relative. That relative is my uncle, my mom’s only brother. Which is one of the big disappointments that my mom has, as she and her brother were never close. You can probably link that to a communication barrier since my mom is deaf and he isn’t. But that’s still no excuse. Everybody can learn sign language—-don’t have to be equally fluent but just enough to carry a conversational mode—-so it shouldn’t matter. With that, I’m also disappointed with my uncle. Anyway, with just four of us, it reminds me of one funny movie called My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It has that scene where everybody’s at the wedding in a chapel and the aisle of the groom is all empty except for his parents and maybe some relatives. When I saw that scene, it reminded exactly of us and if I ever got married, I think we’d be like that, with the front row barely filled. In case you’re wondering about my dad’s, he is an only child just like me and we’re also born in the same digit year. He was born in 1951 and me in 1981. We graduated in the same digit year too—-1969 and 1999. So, it’s always easy to remember my dad’s age, just add thirty years.

Christmas is my mom’s favorite holiday of all and that’s because I got adopted and came abroad on December 22nd. My mom said it’s the best gift she could have and every year we get to celebrate Christmas together, it’s a bonus. I also ought know better not to ever miss this holiday because I may want to be somewhere else like snowboarding in Colorado with my buddies since Illinois only has bunny hills. My mom would be so heart broken and has said it wouldn’t be Christmas if I didn’t come. (another movie popped in my head, the movie called I’ll be home for Christmas with Jonathan Taylor Thomas, as his family demands him to be home.) Since I’m an only child, it’s true that I get all the gifts any child could dream of, even though I’ve told my parents many times that there is NO need for those but they insisted. I realize my parents wanted to show their love in the most way they can. I’m just grateful to be home with my parents and spend some quality time together. I feel that money spent on expensive gifts could be better invested toward something else like stocks, real estate or even vacation getaways for memories. I would like that very much. Maybe I should discuss this with my parents but a little uncomfortable trying to tell them what they should do with their money.

Today’s December 22nd. I’m grateful for what I have and will never to take things for granted. Indeed, I’m blessed. Mom and Dad, I’m looking forward to come home.