ADVENT 2016

Today is the start of Advent - a period of preparation, extending over four Sundays, before Christmas. 
Advent begins on the Sunday that falls between November 27th and December 3rd each year.
In churches as well as Catholic homes the main decoration for the next four weeks is the Advent wreath (not the Christmas tree). The wreath is made of various evergreens-laurel,pine,holly and yew and decorated with pine cones,nuts and seedpods. The circle of the wreath has no beginning or end symbolizing the eternity of God.
Four candles are placed in the middle of the wreath to represent the four weeks of Advent. Three of those candles are purple and one is pink and they are lit, one at a time, on each of the four Sundays of the Advent season.
On the first Sunday of Advent, the first purple candle is lit. This candle represents hope and is called the "Prophecy Candle".
On the second Sunday of Advent, the second purple candle known as Bethlehem Candle is lit.This candle represents love.
On the third Sunday of Advent known as Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday, the pink candle is lit. This pink candle is called the "Shepherds Candle" and it represents joy.
The fourth and last purple candle which marks the final week of Advent, is called the "Angels Candle," and it represents peace.
Advent ends on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day marks the beginning of the Christmas season until the 12th day after Christmas.

*Picture from Pinterest.

Malay Bersanding Ceremony

Today my mom and I attended a Malay 'bersanding' ceremony. Bersanding means the bride and groom sits on the bridal couch and family members and relatives sprinklers them with scented water as a sign of blessing.

The couple walked into the wedding hall accompanied by kompang music.

The bride was pretty as a princess wearing a tiara on her head and a beautiful gold brown outfit.The groom was dressed the same color as the bride and he wears a head gear.

The bride and groom is known as king and queen of the day.

The wedding reception was grand with lots of sweets and cakes to choose from. My favorite was the buffet sweet table of course.The wedding cakes and all the other cakes were baked by the groom's sister from FAIRY LITTLE FINGERS. My favorite is the tiny cakes topped with caramel. 

After we had all eaten it was photo time with the groom. I got to sit next to the bride on the bridal couch. It was a beautiful ceremony with lots of beautiful decorations. I did not understand a lot of it because it was conducted in Bahasa but I still managed to understand a lot of what was happening.

                                     The bridal stage

                                    The groom and the bride-king and queen for the day.

                                       Bride and groom cutting one of the 4 wedding cakes.

                  The 4 beautiful wedding cakes made by the groom's sisters-Fairy Little Fingers

                           This tiny cakes is topped with caramel and they were yummy!!

            More cakes at the buffet sweet table-made by the groom's sisters-Fairy Little Fingers

                                        Me and my wedding favor after the ceremony.

                                                        The wedding favor

                                                    The wedding invitation card.

                     Me sitting next to the bride with my mom and the ladies from my mom's book club.

BLESS THIS MOUSE- (Book Review by Caitlin Smith)

Bless This Mouse by author Lois Lowry.

Hardcover, 160 pages

Published March 21st 2011 by HMH Books for Young Readers 

This was my bedtime read-aloud book with my mom.

This book is about a colony of church mice trying to keep themselves hidden and safe in their home at St. Bartholemew. 

The main character is Mouse Mistress Hildegarde, Roderick(who likes Hildegarde very much & tell her all the gossips) Ignatius who used to live in a library so he knows lot of stuff from chewing through a great number of pages and Lucretia who wants to be Mouse Mistress.

This story is about keeping all the mice safe especially during the Feast of St.Francis because on this day all the animals that people keep as pets is brought to church for a blessing. If it rains it means the blessing will take place inside the church and that is dangerous for the mice especially since there will be LOTS of cats around.

The feast is St.Francis is not their only worry, they have to keep away from the church during the Big X because one of the church ladies had seen a mice and went 'Eeek' and Father Murphy had to call the exterminator. 

There is suspense too in this part of story that you will need to read to see if they will all live or will they be able to still call St.Bartholemew home. That was my favorite part of the book.There is a lesson too about teamwork and forgiveness and that showing kindness to a bully can turn them into being a nicer mice.

I enjoyed this book a lot and there was lots of giggling reading it and the illustrations by Eric Rohmann are beautiful. I especially like the illustrations that explains the parts of the inside of the church and the proper terms used for them.

I would recommend this book for children around 8-10 years of age and anyone who likes animals should read it. 

My story in The Star.

The story I wrote about my visit to PIT STOP COMMUNITY CAFE appeared in The Star newspapers today (25-11-2016). It was a pleasant surprise seeing it in the paper and the prize too-2 books. I look forward to reading them all.
    

SAM THE STOLEN PUPPY- (Book Review by Caitlin Smith)

SAM THE STOLEN PUPPY by HOLLY WEBB. 
This is a very easy paperbook with 128 pages. The black and white beautiful pencil illustrations is by  Sophy Williams.
It's a lovely book to read,especially for kids who love dogs like me. This story is about a girl called Emily who gets a Labrador puppy for Christmas She really wanted to name it Fluffikins (I would have named my dog that) but names it Sam. Emily really loves her dog and sometimes gets jealous that she has to share it with her little brother Jack.
I like the part where Jack teaches Sam to sing row row row your boat. It's just what I would do with my own dog some day. 
One day Sam goes missing.It did not run away but it was stolen by a gang of dog-nappers just like kidnappers, and Emily knows who they did it but no one believes her. This story tells of Emily's worry and determination in finding her puppy Sam. You will have to read it to find out what happens.
This book was very easy for me to read but I still enjoyed it.
Most suitable for kids aged 6 to 10 years.

Book purchased from Big Bad Wolf Books.

Another visit to PIT STOP COMMUNITY CAFE

A week after the ART FESTIVAL and selling 6 out of the 8 paintings I had put up for sale, my dad, mom and I went to over to the PIT STOP COMMUNITY CAFE in Jalan Tun H.S Lee to hand over part of the proceeds from the sales as promised. It was a small amount but I was happy to hand it over as it was my very own contribution to them. 
This time around I met Ms.Andrea another volunteer along with Ms.Joyce.
She was happy to see me and I was happy to be there but we were not able able to help out this time as there was already a BIG group of volunteers that day, so I just chatted with Ms.Joyce. 
She told me about a new project they wanted to start to help to raise funds and also to give the street friends a kind of income. They want to collect broad sheet newspapers. The project is called:The Newspapers for Food Programme.They want to collect Junior Broadsheet newspapers to sell at the Selayang Wholesale Market to get money to help supplement the income of the Street Friends by buying the newspapers off them and Street Friends they will be paid RM 1.00 for every 2kg of broadsheet newspapers they bring in. It may not be much but that RM 1.00 is a lot of money for them. A lot of them are old and frail so they won't be ale to carry a big load so the minimum they are required to bring is 2kg.
I know what 2 kg feels like because when I got home I carried grandma's sugar bag that weighed 2kg and it is heavy to carry around.

Ms.Joyce is also looking for eggs and bananas. They serve about 150 eggs everyday.These are high protein natural foods needed to give especially the old and the children as much nutrition as possible.

Next time I go there, we will bring along eggs or bananas or both.

Me and Ms.Joycelyn

 

                                                            Me and Ms.Andrea

MY CHRISTMAS WISH LIST

This year instead of writing a letter to Santa with my wish list I decided to write to all my family and friends with my Christmas list. I started early because it is not a short list and not for me-it is for my Street Friends whose home is the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

This year after my ARTS FESTIVAL and raising that little money for PIT STOP COMMUNITY CAFE, I told my parents I wanted to do this project. So after much research as to the things needed, my mom and I came up with a name.
It's called BLESSING IN A BACKPACK @ PROJECT TIKAR- for the homeless on the streets of K.L.
My target is to collect via generous donations from family and friends 100 of each item (more is a blessing)

This is what is needed: 
1. Backpacks or Canvas Bags - MUST be weatherproof.
2. Mosquito coils
3. Lighters (for the mosquito coils)
4. 500ml bottled water.
5. Individually wrapped crackers.
6. Light bath towels (bath towel-size good morning towels)
7. Tooth brushes for adults and kids
8. Travel size toothpaste
9. Small bars of soap ( soaps from hotels are good)
10. Small bars of washing soap for clothes.
11. Wet wipes-travel size
12. Ponchos -adult and kids size
13. Disposable shavers
14. Small plastic combs
15. Deodorant sticks
16. Band aids
17. Panadol strips
18. Blankets (aeroplane type/ IKEA)
19. Foldable single person tikar
20. Ziplock bags
Last date for collection 9 DECEMBER 2016.

Anyone  who wants to join me in this project is MOST welcome.
You can help to collect or donate the items yourselves.

You may donate any items on the list or make up a bag with all the items. All items collected will be passed on to Pit Stop Community Cafe and they will distribute them to the Street Friends 

Project Tikar is a project that was birthed to provide tikar (rattan mats) to the homeless in KL. Giving out the mats to these Street friends means that he /she will not have to sleep on cold concrete that night. It will mean a better night’s rest without water seeping through their cardboard beds. It will mean that they have an extra layer of comfort plus all the other small essentials to make life on the streets a little bit more tolerable.

My first ARTS FESTIVAL

My very first ARTS FESTIVAL organized by the Home Schoolers Tribe was held at the Pusat Kreatif Kanak -Kanak Tuanku Bainun on Sunday 6th November 2016.
I was excited because I got to showcase all of my drawings for the first time. I even put up some of them for sale and part of the proceeds went towards PIT STOP COMMUNITY CAFE who feed the homeless. I started preparing for this festival a month before. I did a lot of drawings over the months and I was also making book marks called Stay Calm and Color, Christmas cards and gift tags as well as pegs with tiny snow man on them. 

I was super excited. I made sure mom invited all of our family and friends too.
I also had to time to participate in the color parade dressed in the most colorful outfit I had and a blue mask.