Soulful Thoughts of Rachel

Q: What special Christmas memories do you still cherish as the years pass by?

I have many wonderful Christmas memories when I was young.   Here are some memories that I would like to share with you:

• My brother and I loved writing letters to Santa. We would put the letters inside our respective stockings and to our sheer amazement, the letters would be gone the next day.
• My most memorable gift from Santa was a beautiful Barbie doll in a pink top and denim pants.
• Attending “simbang gabi” with the whole family.  I remember eating bibingka and puto bung bong after mass.
• My brother and I enjoyed putting on our new clothes when going to mass on Christmas eve and New Year’s eve with my family.
• I will always have fond memories of our Noche Buena and Medya Noche.
• One of the wonderful highlights of Christmas eve was the opening of gifts under the tree and Santa’s gifts.

I was walking in our garden when I spotted this tiny mushroom. It has a translucent kind of cap. When I was a child I was fascinated with them. There was a time I associated mushrooms with Smurfs.

Do you remember the cartoons about those cute blue creatures? The Smurfs live in mushroom houses in a village hidden deep in the forest. It was one of my favorite cartoons when I was a young girl.

When I saw the mushroom in the garden it brought back some wonderful memories of my childhood. Life was so simple and carefree back then.