Night Light

It was not the the 4th of July, it was not the Olympics, it was not (yet) New Year's Eve but Saturday Night was ūber spectacular! Our prolific family of four joined the throng of people in Seoul. With all the hustle and bustle around, it surely felt like all 12 million of the Seoul  population was in attendance, all headed to the banks of the Han River to witness the International Fireworks Show. We could have chosen a distantly strategic spot to watch it (like from a friend's roof deck) but we stubbornly chose to be perched up on a little hill at Ichon Park. It wasn't so bad, we had a good view, just that every now and then I would uncontrollably and unstoppably roll downhill tagging along with me our two tots (3 years old and 2; They're 20 months apart). The three of us laughed as uncontrollably and unstoppably as our descent. When we'd try to climb up, we'd start laughing that we would just end up at the bottom of the hill again. My husband looked concerned and entertained at the same time, watching us from up there (he always has his feet planted firmly on the ground, I give him that!). While there I was, his better half -falling all over myself- struggling to get a grip! The pyrotechnics was absolutely impressive! A French team, called Groupe F was featured (they performed at the Opening Night of the Hi Seoul Festival 2010). They did the 2010 Dubai "Burj Khalifa" Inauguration, 2009 Paris 'Celebrating 120 years of Eiffel Tower', 2004 Athens Olympic Games' Opening and closing etc., so you can just imagine the grandness of the event! It lasted for 2 hours.

Our boys have a regular bedtime at 9pm every night but that Saturday night. After the fireworks extravaganza, we met up with some friends. Thing 2 (referring to 2nd son) and I retired at midnight but my husband and Thing 1 (1st son) stayed out until 2:30 a.m. Thing 1 surely had a blast, that he wasn't so pleased to find the fun over (so early in the morning let me add!). We told him, we know exactly how that feels (boy! don't we?), but that there is a time for everything, that it is time to sleep. He didn't seem convinced but he must have been too tired to argue that he just crawled up on his bed without another word. The next morning, he wanted to watch the fireworks again. Who didn't?

"Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible". -Virginia Satir (1916-1988) [http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/satir2.html].