December: Anniversaries

Joyeux anniversaire!

This is December, the month of anniversaries. My parents and my sister are having their birthday in December. My sister at 12th; Mom at 16th; Dad at 21st. Whoops. Got to empty my pocket and spend every pennies I have for the presents.

Whatever. Afterall, these are birthdays; so we had to celebrate it! Well, not really celebrate: the Javanese term is syukuran, be gratitude to God by sharing meals to others. In our case, we had a dinner tonight (December 16th, 2012) with our closest neighbours and friends to celebrate Mom's birthday. We ate at Phuket, a Thailand cuisine restaurant. We invited my old-bestie Merlyn and her family! It had been so long that I met her, miss her and her family so much...

Merlyn and her family came even before we arrived at the venue. Well, my impunctuality is genetic. They brought a peanut tiramisu for my Mom. It was really sweet... and smells nice. Really nice. And it was from Breadtalk so... You know what I mean.

From left to right: My beloved Auntie Nining; my Dad, he got a real cool haircut lately; my Sister (unseen); my Mom; Tante Dian, with her white-framed glass; my neighbour, Dhea, with her mom, Aunt Anom, and dad, Uncle Anom (unseen); Uncle Is, you can see his lavender cloth; Om Dennis, Merlyn's dad; Merlyn (blue polo) and her brother, Rian (green polo). 

Well, we wouldn't have three celebrations in a month, would we? So my parents and my sister blowed the candles together. Make some wishes!

For the present, I gave Mom my painting, titled Mother, in the Market. Earlier she said that she loved it and that was why I gave it to her. It was actually an Art class project, but Mas Fahmi (my art teacher) told me that I could keep that and was very supportive when I told him that I was going to give it to my Mom. Mas Fahmi helped me a lot in finishing it. My sister act as the financial supporter (well every artists needs a patron). 

Happy 47th birthday, Mom!

***

Somehow, I think it was really sweet. Perhaps it was caused by my emotional transformation in this twelfth grade. As I left my usual business at school and had more time with my family, we grew closer and I found our loveliness that I used to put aside... This is another story, though; but one thing true, like how my bestie Arnest said, these are my family and no matter what happens, I will always love them...

~

Happy birthday, Sister. Happy birthday, Mom. Happy birthday, Daddy. And may us all keep being together, until the earth is our sky and we breathe God's heaven.

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