Bambi's Thoughts
If you are interested, below you can find a three-minute YouTube video of a Medley from a Christmas concert presented worldwide, featuring Mr. Amine Hachem (tenor), along with Mr. Brian Holman (music director). Bambi hopes you will enjoy it as much as she did.
Thank you Mr. Hachem (et al.) for singing “Petit Papa Noël” in your fabulous concert :).
Merry Christmas to you and long live your immense talent, which makes both Lebanon and the United States of America proud!
Mr. Jean Ferrat’s real name is Jean Tenenbaum. For those of you who may not know him, he is one of the greatest French songwriters, poets, musician-composers and singer-performers of all times. Bambi is devoting a second post to honour his memory because she is fond of his talent.
Mr. Ferrat was born on December 26, 1930 (in the region of Hauts-de-Seine). He took his last breath on March 13, 2010 (in Ardèche). His personal/familial story is moving. Indeed, when he was eleven years old, his (Jewish) dad was deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz where he died. If Mr. Jean Ferrat survived, it is because he was hidden by good men (https://shorturl.at/qfzFu). Thanks to them for their humanity in the darkest of times. They allowed us to enjoy his musical legacy.
One of Ferrat’s songs , which Bambi loves is entitled “C’est beau la vie [“Life is Beautiful“]. Another one she also appreciates is called “Aimer à perdre la raison” [“To love to The Point of Losing Our Mind“].
Between the love of life and love, we are well served with Mr. Ferrat’s repertoire of songs. Bravo for his poetic and simple yet deep lyrics. His beautiful voice and music transcend death. In addition to entertaining us, the essence of his musical legacy gives us hope for brighter days despite tragedies (just like his own story). May love, humanity, and the power of life triumph over the forces of obscurantism, hate, and evil in our world.
Christmas is about baby Jesus’ birth while Hannukah is the Jewish eight-day festival of lights. As reported in Euro News (https://shorturl.at/92Lav ), Hannukah begins this year on December 25, “marking only the fifth time since 1900 that the two holidays have overlapped“.
Merry Christmas to you, if you celebrate Jesus as the Light of the World ❤️!
Happy Hannukah to you, if you celebrate the menorah as a symbol of light ❤️!
May the double power of the lights of love and hope illuminate our darkened world.
If you celebrate the nativity of Jesus Christ, Bambi wishes you a blessed Christmas Eve.
May the birth of baby Jesus bring hope to our troubled world for healing, peace, and love.
Merry Christmas ❤️!
The Gipsy Kings’ “Amore De Mis Amore” is the only song Bambi knows how to sing in Spanish. Of course, she sings it like a frog and she does not speak this beautiful language.
However, she recalls the lyrics of this famous song, which would be entitled in English “Love of My Loves“. If she is not mistaken, it was originally composed by Mr. Ángel Cabral and known as “Que nadie sepa mi sufrir” [Let No One Knows My Suffering].
Indeed, Bambi happens to know the meaning of this love poem since her youth in Beirut. For fun, at that time, she used to record melodies from the radio [when power would come back :)], pause the songs, and write down their lyrics.
Who knows? Perhaps she likes “Amore De Mis Amores” because it inspired another song she adores by Ms. Edith Piaf (older post shown below). Yes, some of you can perhaps guess that she is referring to “La Foule” (https://shorturl.at/u0Cle).
Gracias/Merci Mr. Kendji Girac for your beautiful talent and unique style. Merry Christmas to you and please keep singing!
—
Have you ever had a song playing in your head when you woke up?
Bambi woke up this morning with a Lebanese-Arabic song composed by the late and great, Mr. Zaki Nassif, on her mind and lips.
The song, with its sweet nature-related lyrics and nice melody, is entitled “A butterfly and a flower“.
Butterflies are known to be a symbol of change and thus of hope.
As for flowers, they are filled with beauty.
If you do not understand Arabic, and if you wish, you can consult an online English translation by Mr. S. Said https://shorturl.at/1upbK).
Like Mr. Nassif, may you know how to appreciate the simplicity of nature.
May you courageously embrace change in your life journey, as needed.
May you wisely use transitions or crises to change your approach or to re-invent yourself.
Most importantly, may you keep learning and growing to move forward.
For the third time, a Toronto Jewish school for girls was the target of shots (https://shorturl.at/hqtC4).
For the second time, a Montreal synagogue was firebombed (https://shorturl.at/Ec4iK).
Terror or threats against any of Canada’s communities is terror and threat against us all.
Enough of violence and intimidation against Canada’s Jewish community!
Ms. Edith Piaf was born on December 19, 1915.
She died 47 years later.
May her memory be eternal.
Some of you may know or recall that Bambi likes Piaf’s “La Foule“.
This brief musical post features this song, hoping you will enjoy the different performers.
Have a good one, everyone!
Christmas is magical time, not just for children.
Indeed, if we want to, Christmas is perhaps the season when we feel the most connected to our inner child, regardless of our chronological age.
For those of us who happen to have children, grandchildren or beloved young kids present in our lives, we even connect with the cute Santa of our own childhood. We even become Santa ourselves.
We cook for loved ones [the “we” excludes deer :)].
We spend time with family and friends.
We remember and cherish our childhood memories.
We offer our loved ones quality time and meaningful gifts. They offer us time and care.
We happily sing Christmas carols.
We may even enjoy watching cheesy Christmas movies [Bambi indulged in the latter almost year-around :)].
By the way, a few days ago, Bambi watched a sweet Hannukah movie on YouTube. It was fun too.
Those of us who are of the Christian faith (not just culturally), we might go to church to enjoy welcoming Jesus, the most desired baby of love in the world.
After all, the joy about the birth of Jesus is the essence of all what Christmas is about.
If we are of the Jewish faith, this year Hannukah starts on the evening of Christmas Day. It ends on January 2nd, 2025.
Call this another reason to celebrate the same idea of light in a rather dark world.
Even if we are not from a Judeo-Christian cultural heritage and, especially if we are not into the virtue signalling of our modern forms of sectarianism like wokeism, we celebrate Christmas with joy. No need for cultural killjoys or even cultural suicide attempts. In other terms, no need to cancel the spirit of Christmas.
Yes, we do not feel the need to stop singing for Santa, and even for Jesus at least on his birth, at our school and daycare so-called Christmas concerts, which resemble anything but their traditional beautiful names. Despite any apparent good intention with such practices, aren’t Canada’s current times sad, not just absurd?
As a contrast to the above, Bambi is now remembering all the people in her birth country who used to rush to decorate their houses at Christmas, even before those who happen to be spiritually Christians. Thankfully, in countries like Lebanon people still wish each other Merry Christmas. They do not feel the need to wish each other the neutral Happy Holidays, despite the 18 different religious sects of Lebanon.
All the above being said, Bambi will stop her own thoughts about Christmas now. She will conclude this post by leaving you with a few songs. She hopes you will enjoy them as much as she did.
Bambi is excited to share with you a name and a social media address to remember if you want to spoil a loved with with a personalized gift!
What is Stitched’N CUTE?
Stitched’N CUTE is a relatively still new yet blooming business, which is physically located in Montreal, but active online. Indeed, it currently delivers across Québec, Canada, and even the United States.
As you can see on the Stitched’N CUTE Instagram page (https://tinyurl.com/2t7kn5b4), there are many products to chose from for all occasions. Depending on the clientele’s needs, personalized item could have writings in different languages (e.g., French, English, Arabic, etc.).
Examples of the Stitched’N CUTE products may be personalized Christmas ornaments, Christmas baskets, hoodies, tote bags, beach towels, house towels, kitchen towels (e.g. with a bottle of wine!), tea towels, balloons, cards, etc.
Recently, Stitched’N CUTE participated in Christmas markets. It also keeps delivering orders to events like high school graduations, proposal, weddings, gender reveal parties, baptism, first communions, other/different religious or cultural events, seasonal celebrations (fall, summer, etc.), seasons of love (Valentine’s Day,) etc.
You name your need or the need of your community and Stitched’N CUTE will be there for you. In addition, there are different new exciting ideas of products to come. Stay tuned!
At the end of this post, you can see a few pictures of Stitched’N CUTE beautiful products.
Who owns Stitched’N CUTE?
Stitched’N CUTE is the brainchild of a gifted owner, Ms. Nicole Kadado. Her unfolding story of creativity speaks volumes about her talent that she successfully turned into business since October 2023.
Ms. Kadado, or Nicole, has always loved offering thoughtful gifts to her loved ones. When we are blessed to know Nicole personally, or even be related to her like Bambi is, we are not surprised by the spirit of her business.
Indeed, caring for others and making them feel good is what Nicole is all about, surely what she stands for. Her beautiful values are well reflected in business idea and in the way she is managing Stitched’N CUTE.
Of note, Nicole has enjoyed creativity since her children were young. Now that they are adults, she took the initiative of making her dream come true.
Driven by a remarkable sense of entrepreneurship, for Nicole, “nothing is impossible when we have a dream“. With both professionalism and devotion, she has nurtured her dream despite/in addition to an already highly busy life. Yes, she made it happen and she enjoys managing it while envisioning its growth. Her hopeful message to potential entrepreneurs is to believe in their dreams. Then they will do what it takes to make it possible. Of course, this being said, one must have a business plan for goal planning, a wise management, and for problem solving.
What can Bambi add about Stitched’N CUTE?
From her observations, both as an interviewer and as a recent client, Bambi witnessed the care, along with the attention to details, that the owner of this business puts in planning designing, and executing her creations. Bravo Nicole, thanks for being who you are (Bambi loves you ❤️), and a continuous success to your inspiring Stitched’N CUTE.
Indeed, Nicole intuitively understands and genuinely honours what her customers want. She puts herself not only in her clients’ shoes, but also most significantly in their gift receivers. She offers choices while working first and last with her client’s own preferences.
Bambi does not know about you, dear readers, but for her there is pleasure in offering a gift to a loved one (perhaps more than receiving a gift and trust that she also enjoys the latter). Imagine when the gift we are choosing for someone we care about is personalized with a name, logo, saying, a language or with whatever is meaningful to the receiver.
To conclude this post, Stitched’N CUTE offers high quality products at an affordable price. As per the title of this post, it is indeed the best choice to shop a personalized gift for your loved ones year-around. Long live this much needed and exciting business!
