Season to be jolly!

This year, we spent the Christmas at home in Manila, and it was awesome, even if we spent it alone, with no other relatives around.

I so loved our Christmas menu, and I served myself well with these Christmas treats! :)

Some photos of how our little family spent the first half of the holidays:

Preppin' the feast

Ref cake ingredients

Frying the chicken

Beef um teriyaki (?) w/ broccoli 

Mom's finishing touches

Yuuuum

Ginataang hipon yum

Ref cake with grapes & pinya chunks as toppings! (waha I made it! It was awesome)

Carbonara. I was also the one who cooked the sauce for this. (Haha proud)

Merry Christmas oh yeah!

Hehe <3

My YOUNGER sister who's more dalaga than I am. I wonder why I always get behind when it comes to this phase.

Merry me! 

My mom who has a more pandalaga body than mine

Kuya and his... well, I don't know what that jump was for.

Gale's feeling celeb poses and smiles

Family pictures!

  

    

Hoping everyone spent their Christmases well, too! Falala. See you again in 364 days, Christmas.

Celebrating Love

It's almost Christmas and, probably, we all are preparing for it the usual way: foods, gifts, parties, etc. And, as usual, someone's gonna tell us that the real essence of this all is the birth of Jesus. Yes, it is.

Anyway, I just wanna share something I've learned a few days ago from the book of Isaiah, chapter 7.

Background:
1. Israel, God's people, is again in her sinful ways. People disobey God. They go on with their own rebellious businesses. Tribes against tribes. Etc.
2. God was angry.
3. God promised redemption.
4. The promise is Jesus.

Why? I always wanna ask God why? Why does He love us so much that He has to be the one to send us the answer for us to be forgiven? The logic in our world, is when someone hurt us, it is so hard to forgive, we neglect them or something along the lines. But God! God proves His true nature: LOVE. And this Love, I know this Love is more than anything could measure. Many will bother to explain, but this great Love, I know, that we'll never really get to the depths of it.

When we make mistakes against another, we try to make ways for our relationship with that someone be repaired. In our case with God, He made the way-- He provided the way. And it is Jesus! (John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.)

We are inspired to live a life full of love because we have been redeemed by love. We are compelled to live a life of challenges because someone who loves us so much died for us, so that we can be saved. He came not just for some, but for everyone: the whole world (John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life). And we ought to make this love known.

Every year, just when Christmas is about to come, I hear people say that their Christmases will be cold because they're without "someone", but, Someone has always been there. And He is the reason for this all. We don't have to bring our dates to His birthday party because He will be our date! :) And Jesus has better hands and arms to hold us.

And this is the main idea of this whole season. This sweet idea!

Happy holidays! And remember to celebrate Love moment by moment!

Preparing for the Christmas Season

Fa la la la la lalalala

Hooray for the holidays! Yipeeee, me is happy.

I adore the holidays. For me, it is such an awesome time of the year. Why?

-Well, for one, I/we get to rest in the middle of a semester, and the illusion that we've tricked the semestral calendar (to become shorter) works for me.
-I also love the feeling that almost everyone I know is getting fired up for the Christmas and New Year holidays.
-And though we've never had a chimney at home, I always have this picture in my head--of a couch by a chimney with a family reading by it (Little Women style). Meaning, I always imagined this time of the year as the time when we cozy up and rest from the demands of our world.

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Anyway, I am an enthusiast for planners/todo-lists/to-buy's/& stuff same (note: I just love doing/writing them, not always able to do what's on the lists). And I have big plans for this coming Christmas break, and here's how I'm preparing for it:

1. (Never-ending) Christmas list (of people I'm gifting to & their gifts)
            I love giving gifts! Yes, I do. But, I haven't been always able to give gifts religiously esp when budget doesn't allow it. Here's the catch: Yearly, I write a list of people to give gifts to (regardless if I'm able to give or buy the gifts). Haha.
            For this year, I decided to give people personalized items! Haha and I'm afraid they'll get frustrated if I won't be able to do it right, but I'm still pushing to create these crafts. It'll take so much of my time, but I'd still love to do it.

2. Christmas playlist
            What's Christmas without its season's music? I remember when I was younger, my Dad would always buy the latest Christmas albums so we'll play the latest Christmas grooves (and I have to admit that these are really um weird (?) novelty Christmas songs), and it wasn't until I was already able to download and create playlists that we stopped playing the last album my Dad bought. Haha, so it's been a lot of years that we're stuck with the 2004 Christmas trends. Anyway, the last years, I played my fave bands' versions of Christmas songs, and the older people didn't like it, so for this year, I downloaded classical Christmas songs, ugh and it's really lovely.




3. Films for the break
            Ok, of course, it's gonna be some time off from the busy world, so it's movie marathon time. I just dunno if my family would be so glad with the films I chose to prepare (download) for the season, because they're all classics. I thought that it would be really charming and cozy to have classical films on while we're slicing the hamon de bola (either that or Christmas songs on). Hehe, esp that I am collecting classic films of classic novels. Hmmm exciting!

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4. Personal Wishlist
            I quite love myself a lot, chos, haha. Nope, lately, I haven't given myself presents for the Christmas, hahaha, I think it's important to save some for myself, too. So, I listed my "surprises" to myself. Er. My wishlist for myself consists simple requests, and I'm excited to have them all. Waha. My #1 wish: CRAFT BOX w/ craft materials in it (ehem, friends, who'll get to read this, you prolly can help me a lil with this, ehem) Oh well, I really need to give myself this soon, so I can start creating my gifts to other people.
     

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5. Christmas reads
            I haven't listed my Christmas reads yet, but I really wanna read a lot for the break. I want to feel the season with what I am gonna read, and I'm planning to read Christmas-themed novels or just happy reads if they won't be about Christmas. Actually, I'm planning to pick A Christmas Carol by Dickens up, whew, it's always been in my to-read list, I hope I can get started with it soon!

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6. Christmas Eve programme
            I'm quite the planner and organizer in the family, and I plan to have a plan for our Christmas eve. Yearly, it's always waking up at 12mn and eating and exchanging gifts, and some talent show if we're with our relatives. This year, I've heard it's going to be just us sibs and mom, and so, I'm thinking of creating a mini-party for us. And it wouldn't hurt if we do it the classic way. Hahaha

7. Christmas shopping
            I think we're going to miss a real lot if we forget or didn't care to shop during for this season. This is the activity we're gonna be sharing with millions of people, bumping against other humans in the malls, and buying and window shopping nice items-- I think it's valuable for all its worth. Ha. My family already cancelled our supposed-to-be first Christmas shopping because I'm sick this weekend. I wish to get well by next week, so we can already start the "shopping" next weekend. Shopping sure sounds luxurious, but it doesn't need be. Hehe, especially if there's Divisoria! :) Ain't Christmas shopping more fun in the Philippines?

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            These photos make DV look a lot like a pain when it comes to shopping, but for those who haven't tried shopping in this kind of crowd yet, ha, you should try it. It is really fun. Tiring, yes, but there's some kind of Christmas-y fulfillment in it. :)

8.  Christmas decorations
            We haven't decorated our home ever since we started spending our Christmas breaks in Pangasinan (since we do the decorating there), but for this year, that we have a rough plan of spending it here in Manila, I hope we can, at least, put some decors on. For me, decorations shouldn't be too annoying and flashy, I prefer the simple yet sweet feels of Christmas decors around the home. Hehe.

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Really giddy about it. Of course, I am, because I am lady ehehehem. A lady must want this season very much LOL JK.

What's important though aren't the items nor the parties nor the foods, what's always been important for this season is to know its essence-- the real reason why we're all called to celebrate this awesome.

(Playing while writing this post: Classical Christmas music)

Happy holidays!