Christmas or commercialmas

What is Christmas to me? Christmas to me is the celebration of the birth of Christ our savior. Christians coming together to remember when Jesus was born. Why is it important? The importance of Christ's birth is the beginning of our salvation. He was born into this world to save us from our sins. I am not a theologian nor am I a religious fanatic but I do believe in my heart that Through Jesus I am saved, that my soul is saved from damnation. I am not perfect nor do I want to be because one can just imagine the pressure of being and acting perfect all the time. I think it would drive me nuts.

It seems now a days that people are giving more importance to the decorations, the food and the gifts to give each other rather than preparing themselves for the coming of Christ. It is the time to give and help the less fortunate. It is the time to relish in the joy of giving rather than on the receiving end. Yes, it makes us happy when we receive gifts but wouldn't your happiness be more meaning if you see other people with so much joy when you extend a little gift to them? I often ask myself this question : How lucky am I?

The way I see it now Christmas had been too commercialized. Stores having extravagant decorations, Santa costumes and all that. I don't have anything against the image of Santa Clause because he inspires people to give and share but shouldn't it be Christ instead of Santa who is given the most credit on this season since it is His birthday after all?Now that the world is in crisis does it mean then that we don't celebrate christmas because we don't have enough to buy decorations, food and gifts? I think not. We can celebrate by getting the family together and give thanks that we are together and still able to rejoice in the birth of our Lord.

Twins!

A friend of mine had twins just last month. We use to live very near each other in fact when you go out the backdoor you can see their house . A lot of family live in that one house. Her Family just occupies one room and they are about 9 in the family including the new born twins now. So they are like squashed together like sardines when they go to sleep there. They are poor and I don't say this to demean them or something like that I am just stating a fact. Almost all of her children were born at home.

We were actually expecting her to deliver this month of December when one day last month she just called me up while I was out on an errand to tell me that she had delivered and that it was twins. I was really shocked to learn when she said she just had them at home. The babies were really small and the old midwife who actually isn't your typical went to school and learned to deliver babies type was surprised when the first came and then she looked down and saw feet poking out. That was the only time my friend learned she had twins. She didn't have any prenatal ultrasound done so that's why she was as surprised as the old midwife. They came to visit me just yesterday and the babies were so tiny that I was afraid I'd break them or drop them. The other one was very small and I told her mom to call her Hope because the other one she called Grace. I really pity the twins because they had lots of mosquito bites and I felt like someone was squeezing my heart literally while I was looking at them. They should be in an incubator and monitored you know but they can barely afford food for themselves what more payment in the hospital. It's times like these that I wish I have all the money in the world so I can help them. Makes me even want to cry right now. Here are pics I took of them yesterday.


Makes me think how lucky I actually am.

Yum yum cookies!

Wow! I didn't realize how long it has been since I wrote something in my blog. Oh well baking cookies has taken all my time now. Since I love cooking I thought of using it to earn money and so I started baking cookies not long ago and then asked my cousin Dominic to sell them at his work place. Wah lah the cookies were a huge success. He works in a call center so I can understand why the cookies were a hit. I used to work in a call center and I found that we like to nibble while we are on a call or on a break , you know just to keep our minds off the pressure of the job and knowing filipinos well we sort of love to eat. Food business will always be a huge success here in the Philippines since the people oh so love their food.

I thank my aunt also for sharing some of her cookie recipes. I just modified some of them to suit my needs and my budget and yet not taking all the goodness and yumminess out of the cookies. For now my cookies are chocolate oatmeal, buffalo chip, chocolate chip and coconut cookies. I have also been baking mini apple pies . They also seem to love it. I have a very small oven which you just put on top of the stove, I wish mine were bigger but when more profit comes them I will buy some. My oven looks kinda scary since the outside is mostly busted up and a bit rusty but not to worry though the inside is very very clean, I made sure of that. And now presenting the cookie pictures and the mini pies too .heheheheheh. TADAHHHHHH!

Ouch!! Sunburn

It was last October 26 Sunday when I went and attended my nephew carl's intramurals / family day at the Abellana Sports Complex. I went there around 9 am as that's what they said the time of their cheer dance would start performing although they have been there since 6 that morning as they still had to do some parade and torch lighting you know like in the olympics. It was quite an interesting day for me. There were dragons u know like in the chinese movies when there is a celebration as he is studying in a chinese school.




I liked the muses presentation as specially the kids bit as they were dressed like super heroes and here below is the picture. ohhhh they are just so cute.
Then some tai chi and wu shu bit also then there was the cheerdance of every grade level. I didn't take a pic of them as I have a favorite cheer team heheheh my nephew's of course.



It was really scorching hot that the rubber was kinda melting and sticking to my rubber shoes even. It's times like this that makes me hate putting something on my face like beauty products it's hell on your face. After the dance we rested a little bit in the grandstand and ate lunch of course.

When I got home I was dead tired that I slept the rest of the afternoon. I just woke up to eat and went right back to sleep. The next day that was when I noticed the sunburn on my neck and chest and on my face.. Ouch ouch ouch.

Cake Mania 3

Since I love cooking naturally the games I play are about cooking and serving so everytime I come across any cooking game I would play it even the ones that I don't understand the instruction since it's in korean or japanese I think. heheheheh. I have always loved playing cake mania and I played the 1 and 2 and here comes the third. It really is nice and very challenging. I'm in the last stage so I'm crossing my fingers. It's hard to keep the dinosaurs happy hehehe I'm in the stoneage now so I hope I can get through. I love playing in mostfun.com as you can play it full feature so it's really really good. I have played a couple there and will play some more.

Missed blogging

Hello everyone! I haven't been blogging for quite some time ever since my stepdad had an operation. I was at the hospital everyday and have been running errands. His operation went smoothly so I don't have any worries there but we still have to watch him because there is a foreign material inside him and his body might still reject it.

Getting sick is so expensive. We paid a total of 60,000 pesos for staying for 3 days in the hospital ward and for the operation too. The hospital alone cost 23,000 and the rest are for the doctors. I hope I will never be hospitalized. The last time I was in I had german measles and I was still a kid. I don't get sick easily but when I do though it hits me really hard. I will attach some pics of my stepdad in the hospital. Althought it was just the ward I'm happy to say that it was very clean and the bathroom specially was clean to that's really good. And yes folks he is wearing a skirt, just for easy access when he pees heheheheh. He can't stand up or walk just yet in this pic so he has to pee into a hmmm actually I don't know what it's called.

To make another one or not?

I have been debating with myself today if I will make another crochet jacket for my new mobile phone. It's good for it to have a jacket so as to protect it from getting scratched and just in case it get's dropped at least it will have some sort of a cushion. It doesn't take long for it to be made maybe and hour tops but I can't decide what color to make. Right now the color is orange since that is the thread that I have available. Any suggestions would be welcome. I took some pictures of it.


I was thinking of yellow since that is my favorite. Hmmm maybe lavender? or a two toned one? Really can't decide.

Big House Lizard

Sometimes it is very annoying when in the middle of the night this big house lizard of ours would make a noise it echoes throughout the room since it is already very quite, it sometimes sound like a big gong. I remember one of the visitors we had last January named Tia (8 yrs old) called it a little dragon. This lizard often roams around the house and while they were here it hides behind the window in the laundry room. Before the kids saw it I told them that it usually comes out in the middle of the night and that's what they did they waited for the time and checked it out and they were not disappointed the big lizard was there just hiding. Everyday they would visit it and tried to take pictures of it. I just don't know if they were able to capture it. It's kinda green with spots on it's body. I don't have a frontal picture of it since he always stay at the top but I did manage to get a shot of it.:



There are actually two of them in the house. The first pic is the one in my my room and the other pic is the one in the living room.

Presents I got from Australia

When my stepdad came home he brought presents and I'm really ecstatic with what he gave me. He gave me a beautiful black hand bag and a flash drive with 8GB since he knows I have lots of pics and videos to store. I haven't used the flash drive as my old one wasn't full yet and I think there is a virus in the computer of some sort I don't know I am not a techy or is it spelled techi well anyway on with my story, I asked for a new mobile phone that I really liked, he wanted to buy it there in australia but then id have to have it opened so I can use any sim so I just chose that he buy it here. My old phone was just given to be by a good friend it was a nokia 3310 and honestly I haven't bought any phone before, all I had were given to me so I'm quite lucky. I was very excited to buy the phone, a motorola w230. I just love it because I can put my own music and use it as a ringtone. Right now my ringtone is Mambo No. 5 by lou bega and my text message tone is Girls just wanna have fun buy cindy lauper. I just love it. I always listen to the radio.He also bought me some shoes but just here in SM. I loved everything so a big thanks to my stepdad. Here are the pics:

My mom and stepdad's 12th anniversary party!

My mom and stepdad celebrated their 12th year anniversary today. It was supposed to be on sept. 15th but since my stepdad was in australia they decided to celebrate it at a later date and that was today. It was just a simple BBQ party almost everything was grilled. We had chicken bbq, pork bbq, longanisa, inasal(roasted pig), and pork belly crispy pata style, then we had rice lots and lots of rice with a little salad on the side. Loads of coke and ice and also lots of spicy vinegar for the dippings. It was a whole day affair of eating and chatting with just the family and some very close friends. Here are the food pics :

Looking at them again makes my mouth water. I think I'm hungry again. I shouldn't, on a diet you know. We ate and we talked and then crammed ourselves in my mom's room as you will see in the pics that follows. Highlights of the party:

So there, that's all that happened to me today. Enjoy.

Everybody loves kung fu fighting!!

Haiiiiiii yahhhhhh ! Say's John. heheheh. I loved the way they took this picture and I just couldn't help but add this to my blog. Another pic with the kangaroos. Wish I was the one challenging the kangaroo. heheheheh.

Who's mimicking who?

My stepdad arrived from australia last thursday hence my absence in blogging. He had tons of pics with him but I actually didn't see them til today and I almost fell off my chair from laughing so hard and when you see it you would understand why. It is just so awesome the way they were able to capture the moment.

I curse you Crispy Pataaaaaaa

I curse you Crispy pataaaaaa! You and your oh so crispy and delicious self should be banned. Darn youuuuuuu (with an echo) youu youu.. You destroyed my diet... Oh it was going so well. You hypnotized me with your crispy skin and oh so yummy and tender meat.... I even forgot to take a picture of it. That just goes to show how much you mesmerized me.

For those of you who don't know what Crispy pata is it's the whole front or hind leg of the pig boiled til tender and then fried until it becomes very crispy... OhYum. grrrrrrrr.Don't worry because the next time I will cook it I will document it with pictures and show you guys.

For now I have to nurse my battered with yumminess tastes buds.... Until we meet again CP.Until we meet again. ohh yeah right I forgot ... I curse you you you CP.

Dominic's word association

As I was eating lunch yesterday Elgen and I were talking about stuff, things we are going to cook. Dominic was seated at the computer area with the headset on and the music was so loud that I could hear what he was listening to. He was on youtube looking for madonna songs. We actually came to the point of our conversation that we were talking about him loudly but he didn's seem to hear it but when we were discussing about what pan to use for the peanut candy he suddenly turned and said what pan? what are you cooking? Heheheheheh I laughed at him and told him " Wow, dominic you didn't hear us talk about you but the minute we mentioned pan you heard it." It was so funny because often times he would grumble that he is getting fatter and fatter by the day. No wonder!

Attack of the killer poop bomb( not for the faint of heart)

I am laughing so hard as I write this blog. Last night as I was finishing something while watching television, I suddenly felt a bit of pain in my stomach then just as suddenly it disappeared. So I turned on the computer and tried to fix my screwed up blog layout when all of a sudden I had goosebumps and felt very weird hehehehe I felt like pooping so I ran to the bathroom and then I realized that my cousin Dominic was taking a shower as he needs to work, so I ran to the other bathroom and I barely made it hehehe. It was like a bomb. Clean up would have been yucky and smelly hehehehe. Thank God for my fast reflexes. After I was done I was like daamnnn whew.

The six hour boxes turned a few days

At long last my boxes are all finished. Just this afternoon I put some varnish on my newspaper covered boxes, here's what they looked like before :

I forgot to take a pic of it in its raw form. The pic you see is of the boxes covered in rolled newspaper. Just imagine I had to roll those one by one and cut them one by one and glue them one by one to the boxes. Here are the boxes with the designs I thought up:

At this point my brain is almost having a seizure from thinking what else to do heheheheh. They look pretty enough don't you think and finally here are the finished products with colors and varnish.Almost everything is made of newpaper and cardboard with little shells.

And here they are all together :

Now I can put my favorite novels in them.

Update

Just an update everyone, been working on my six hour boxes that turned into a few days hehehheh. I am almost done though so as soon as I am done I will try and post some pics. It's 1:00 am and I'm bushed so headed to bed now. See yah all soon.

The six hour boxes

Wow, I just looked at that clock and it's already 8 pm and I started with my project at around 3. Where has the time gone. I didn't know making 3 boxes would take that long. I haven't even covered them up yet. Hahahahah I just looked around the living room and I see papers , cardboard, scissors and more scraps. Will anyone help me tidy the place up? No takers?

Oh well I better get to it then.

Lost

I don't know what it is about Ayala Mall but I always get lost. Well my navigational skill has never been good anyways so I guess that is part of it. Every first week of the month I have to go there for personal reasons.. heheheh.. It's a big secret.

Of course I am not there for sight seeing purposes or window shopping for that matter. Although I am a girl I'm not into shopping. If I happen to go to the store it would be to buy groceries or look at recipe books at National bookstore. I used to be a romantic novel fan but since I have most of the books from my favorite author I opted for recipes.

Just after I had lunch I went to ayala to have a print out of my pictures for scrapbooking. So I went there gave my disk and payed then was told to come back at around 2:35 that's about 30 minutes of waiting so I went to the department store and I browsed. I bought a loofah by the way. I was walking around ohh sipping strawberry shake, hmmm I almost forgot to tell you guys that so anyways I walked and walked until it was time to go back. I don't know what I did but I ended up circling and circling to find the store inorder to get my pics. Whew that was hell on my feet but at least I burned some fats I think. Not sure thought as I don't feel any different. hahahahahah.

Well that has been my day. I wonder what I will be doing tomorrow. Ta ta.

THE TALKING MUNCHKIN

Last night while I was crocheting and watching our teleserye "dyesebel" at the same time I was craving for something sweet like a cake or a cookie. Most of the time I would just whip something up but then when I checked the cupboards I was out of flour. BUMMER!

Ching Ching thats the sound I heard in my mind. I'm going to ayala tomorrow I thought to myself.. Hmmmm I wonder what goodies I'm gonna get. So the characters were fighting in the tele and then I thought AHA! I'm gonna buy some doughnuts. Ohhh thinking of that sweet strawberry filled dunkin donuts and that choco butternut hmmm made my mouth water and so I looked at mom with my droopy puppy eyes and said " Mom can I buy donuts tomorrow? " One look at me and she said " YES" and then I said yes yes yes but only in my mind hehehehehe.

When I got to ayala they were out of the choco butternut which was my favorite but my eyes caught the little round munchkins... It was talking to me saying " I'm a choco butternut, buy me pleaseeeee". Who could resist that and so I bought a box of munchkins which cost 99 pesos for 35 pieces and what do you know it's almost all gone as I am writing this post.

Yum yum . (Sticking my tongue out licking the little speck of powdered sugar at the corner of my mouth.)

SPINSTER ?!#@%

SPINSTER. I dread hearing that word. Is it in denial? I just don’t know. My mom would often tell me that I’m turning into one. I laughed at it but then realized as I am holding a thread and a crochet needle crocheting the day away.. I AM TURNING INTO A SPINSTER! Boo hu hu hu! Is it really so bad though to turn into one?. At times I tell myself that it is a fact in life but then again I long to have a husband and kids to take care of.

I am happy with my life right now, to be able to take care of my mom is such a wonderful thing. It makes me feel like heaven to do something even an ounce I can reciprocate what she has done for me and my sister. So I ask myself again when did this start? My becoming a spinster that is.

I look back into my younger years. I am 31 right now and at the last stage in the calendar as what we mostly refer to and then I’m falling of the grid so to speak. I did have boyfriends but then I never once thought of having sex which was what the girls my age where pretty much doing. I don’t know if I am just plain weird or is it because I was informed or educated by my mom about sex and all and I could ask her anything and she would answer me in details. I am thankful to my mom for doing that as I have witnessed my friends or girls I don’t know suffer and go through unwanted pregnancies.

Being irritable and short tempered are the signs they say of becoming a spinster. Let me see… small things irritate me and then I get off the handle sometimes with every little things… Oh my God I am turning into one… I was beginning to think that I am just a late bloomer, but alas my dreams have been shattered. Hahahhahahahah . Kidding aside I don’t think turning into a spinster is such a bad thing, for one I can be irritable and short tempered and blame it on that.

But in the farthest region of my mind and heart I still have hope that somewhere someone will claim me to be his bride.