One day before his birthday, on Monday April 26th, I was enthusiastic to get two new English books titled "Let's Learn English Student's Book 2" and its associated "Workbook 2" as a birthday present for my son,for Tuan had repeated several times that he liked them. Additionally, because Tuan still had to go to school on his birthday, he had asked his Daddy to buy in advance for him some parcels of coffee-flavored candy and some other various kinds, together with one big bag of sweet gelatin cakes, so that he would share all these (to be considered as a small birthday party) with his teacher and classmates in the breaks at school. Seeing Tuan so excited and delighted to bring these tiny things to school in the morning of his birthday, I realized that happiness for children is so simple but important for encouraging their spirits.
After that, I was glad to arrange the yellow roses that Thang had bought early in the morning into our most beautiful vase, watered to make them fresher, and then put this on the main table in our living room.
The flowers looked so bright and became an attractive focal point in our home. I did not forget to put one flower in a smaller vase for decorating our kitchen, too. All of us, both family people and home furniture, especially the things in Tuan's corner, seemed to show high inspiration to join my son’s special happiness this day.
Tuan’s birthday home mini party was held in the evening within our family. Also as recommended by Tuan, we had a simple dinner with only a boiled chicken followed by cooked chicken vermicelli, both of which are Tuan’s favorites. This mini party was also special for the participation by my father (Tuan’s external grandfather).
Such a simple meal, finished by a light dessert including various fruits: mangos, apples, mangosteens ..., without champaign or wine..., was still joyful with our merry wishes and smiles for its important meaning of a new start of my beloved son’s age 10. I wished him all the best for his upcoming period, the best luck for his good health, full happiness, progressive study, and good friendship too with his classmates.
With the resonance of my pleasant mood from April 27th, I woke up quite early on the April 28th. Nearly lunch time, after finishing my usual housework, I rang Ha Tron, one of my close friends, to inform her that I would come to her place soon to get those Amway products which she had bought for me. Then, at her home, after our business talk, Ha Tron invited me to a café nearby. For both of us looked healthier, had better spirits, especially for both got new good friendship with some foreigners, we decided to go for lunch at Pepperonis Restaurant, our usual favorite Italian restaurant. Though the restaurant was very crowded and the food was not very delicious, we both felt happy to join each other after a while of distance.
The next day April 29th also passed happily with so many email greetings and regards from my new online friends living in USA, UK, and some other nations.
The April 30th came to our family as a special day because it was a public holiday being the 35th anniversary of the Liberation Day when our country was completely liberated from US army. Besides watching the festival activities on TV on this special occasion, during this day, all of us in our small family were excited to look forward to the fire-work show in the evening.
After a quick dinner, around 7.30pm, Thang, I and my son set out a motorbike trip to the central area of Hanoi city for feeling clearly this holiday atmosphere and then watching the fire-work show. A nice surprise for us was all the streets much less crowded than normal days. I felt the air much cleaner and fresher with such a thinner population.
In pending the fire-work show to start later, we went into an ice-cream shop for Tuan to enjoy some favorites. Each of us chose a different ice-cream, but all of us were happy. Such going-out activities are really beneficial for us as a good change from staying home almost all the time everyday.
Leaving the ice-cream shop, Thang took me and Tuan to the highway along the Red River. Why so ? I quickly understood that he wanted to avoid the crowded people near the Hoan Kiem Lake (Returned Sword Lake) where the fire-works would be shot from. On the highway, a bit far away, we could still enjoy seeing the fire-work show quite clearly and with much fresher air.
At 9pm sharp, the fire-works started to appear in the sky. The show was more and more beautiful with plentiful colors and lights: green, red, violet, yellow, white and so on… The sky became brighter and brighter with continuous clusters of colorful fire-works looking like glowing flowers.
Hearing and watching the brilliant and resounding fire-works in such a merry public atmosphere, Thang showed much happier for this encouraged him to memorize his past glorious days around 1975 when he was in the Vietnamese army as an engineer of tanks. I myself and my son Tuan were also happy partly for sharing my darling's joy, but mainly for the fire-work show was much more wonderful than last year.
Finally, after the enjoyable show, on the return way, despite the crowded people in the streets, we still kept happy until getting home. And in such a good mood, that night, surely all three of us had happy dreams.
Through last week, we wish to have similar cheerful days more often so that we can smile and laugh more for keeping our souls younger and more affectionate for life.
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