Tree-Trimming #2

Well, this year has been one of the most festive of all years. We held a 2nd tree-trimming party last night where Chhimi's buddy, Hong and her sister, Chelsea came over to decorate the entire house.

They bought only 25% of their Xmas supplies and it filled up one Camry trunk AND the entire backseat! Of course, we had no idea that Chelsea was so into the Christmas season and decorations.

Tree Trimming
We thought our original tree looked good but after Chelsea was done, it looked like a catalog tree ripped straight from a Macy's or as my roommie said, "Sak's 5th Avenue" Hahahah. It was very elegant and soft. Chhimi and I had NO idea a tree can look like this.

Decorations Everywhere
Chelsea and Hong had a great idea of using a regular gold-trimmed tree skirt and laid it on top of our coffee table to dress it up. In the middle, as a center piece, she placed a wreath laid with gold trimmed flowers, gold ornaments..it was very fancy!

Chhimi of course was being 'spider-man' by climbing on top of the ladder to put more garlands around the house, including our kitchen! There were gold ornaments and ribbons streaming around the garlands along with some purple and lavender ornaments along with some hand-made bows, which Chhimi kept smashing while Chelsea and Hong kept fluffing....sigh!

I was just their supervising :-D hahaha. They did a good job. Hehehe.

Hanging Stockings
At least, when all is done. Chhimi and I had to stop at Target late-last night to get stocking holders to finish the final Xmas touch. Hanging four lovely stockings:
1 for Me.
1 for Chhimi.
1 for Brenda.
and....
1 for Jean.

I hope Santa can make it down the chimney 'tonight'....

Bad Parenting!

This one really pisses me off to another level. I was out doing my lunch errands this afternoon and decided to stop by a nearby shopping plaza for outer wear. As I hit my last store, Gap, I witness some extremely bad parenting!

The Culprits
Two adult women, mothers of two children, who were too damn busy to take care of their children properly.

The Victims
Two little boys ages 2 - 3 years old and everybody else around.

The Scene
They were busily shopping and their 2 little boys as this situation developed:

Woman A calls out to woman B, "hey, doesn't he have to go to the bathroom", referring to one of the boys.

Woman B, still busily shopping and in her own little world of selfishness, responds "Yeah."

Woman A responds after 1 minute of shopping, "well, isn't he going to go in his pants?"

Woman B, still shopping, "I guess."

After 1 minute of silence from the two women and the little boys hopping up and down...

Woman B calls out, "tell them to go outside".

Woman A orders the boy "go outside and pee".

One boy runs out of the GAP entrance...while the other little boy shouts "wait".

When they are both outside of the entrance, they looked at each other and looked at everybody else and decided to zip their pants down and pee-pee on the concrete, within 5 feet of the store entrance.

THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF EXTREMELY POOR PARENTING. Even if they are not the actual parents, they should NOT be teaching those kids that type of activity.

People, the nearby public bathroom is about 5 to 6 stores down from where they are at. In fact, even if they don't have a public bathroom, I'm sure the store has a bathroom inside for their employees that those two women could have asked!

Those 2 boys are not dogs or cats or any type of pet that you just tell them "to go outside". If that is what those two women believed the kids to be then they should've left the boys at home alone....what's the difference? At least they'll pee in your own private home

What those kids have learned from this small event:

• Shopping is more important than them.
• Hell, anything is more important than them and their needs, even at this age.
• Peeing on private store fronts is acceptable.
• Showing the public their 'privates' is also acceptable.
• No need to potty train, hell, the entire world is my toilet, I can go any where any time.

I would understand if you were stranded out of no where and the nearby restroom is more than 2 miles away and nature calls. When you gotta go, you gotta go. But those 2 women weren't out in the forest or anything...they were at a mall!

They are definitely on the naughty list this year!!

Tree-Trimming @ Home

What more can I ask for when I can spend a lovely evening of Tree-Trimming with my husband and my lovely roommates, Brenda and Jean?

It's been a very long time that Chhimi and I had a Christmas tree in our home. The last one that I remembered was in 2000 when Penjo just moved in with us. That year's Christmas tree was only 5 feet tall for our small one-bedroom apartment. After that, we stopped having a Christmas tree and our decorations have been collecting dust.

However, this year, the holiday bugs have bitten both Chhimi and me. We couldn't help ourselves but decorate our home for Christmas. Chhimi remembers spending it with his family in Thimphu, just the four of them, mum, dad, Chhimi, and Penjo. Mum would get out the decorations and cook a wonderful warm meal and the four of them spend Christmas together.

Players In The Tree-Trimming
According to my darling, hubby, these are the roles of each of us:

• Venture-Capitalist: Me
• Tree Designer: Brenda
• Tree Structural Engineer and Expert: Jean
• Worker Elf: Chhimi

On Sunday night, when everybody was 'giddy', the four of us decided that we should do the Christmas Tree decoration on a Monday night. Dinner was going to be a little potluck...chicken from Brenda, Salad from Chhimi, and Dessert from Jean. ...well, we all know plans do NOT go as planned :-)...but no worries it still turned out great, if not a little tiring.

Chhimi came home just a little later than usual due to work so he and Brenda didn't get to go on their holiday errands until 6:40pm and didn't come home until past 8:20pm...so it was a late-dinner for us.

Dinner Is Finally Served
I set out the gold table cloth so the four us can enjoy a nice dinner together as a 'family'. Tables were set with matching plates and little salad plate on top. We promptly ate at 8:30pm...everybody was famished and tired by then. Poor Jean, we thought she was going to sleep while she ate ;-). Hee Hee.

• Salad with various dressing
• Rotisserie Chicken
• Chicken Mushroom Rice or White Rice
• Tiramisu for dessert (THANKS JEAN!)
• Bread with Balsamic Vinegar and Extra-Virgin Oil

Tree Trimming Begins

Unfortunately, when the tree trimming began, I had to go back and do my finance project so my three little "elves" were busy making our tree look nice and merry. Christmas music was heard throughout the house while my little elves unpack the decorations and play 'Ring-A-Round' the tree with the white lights.

I heard little giggles and laughters all over the place. I also heard disappointment from Chhimi when he realized he needed more lights and garlands...so he quickly dashed off into the night to Wal-mart to get some more Xmas materials.

This year's theme is 'Red & Gold' designed by Brenda and Jean for drawing the focal point from my Christmas ribbons on the stair rails. Red balls were needed. Gold balls were needed. Red and Gold garland were needed. An angel tree-topper was a must!

After all the hardwork was done and the final decorations were placed and the tree was moved back to where it was. All four of us just admired it from afar...all were tired and sleepy but we were mesmerized by the beauty of it and the Christmas spirit that the tree emitted. It was definitely a wonderful and memorable Tree-Trimming.

See Chhimi.com web site for the pictures.

Special Thanks To:

Brenda for coming up with a fabulous idea and lending us some of the lovely decoratioins.

Jean for helping us put the tree together and drawing out the red and gold theme.

Chhimi for just being you and helping everything and everybody out, even if they may not have wanted the help ;-).

Leda for lending us the lovely 7 feet tree.