Archive for the "Christmas" Category

I love Christmas because…

November 24th, 2009
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When I was a child, I loved Christmas because I love receiving gifts! I always look forward to what my parents prepared for me. Though due to financial constraints, I didn’t always receive gifts from my parents. But still, I was happy. My godparents live far from my hometown so I couldn’t collect gifts from them.

Now that I am an adult, one of the things that I love about Christmas is the joy of giving. I also enjoy finding the right gift and scouring for the best bargains. Now, with the help of the internet, the search for gift ideas has never been easier. The good thing about being here in Singapore? Shopping malls websites are always up-to-date.

How I wish I could buy my mother a pair of shoes or a shoulder bag from Cole Haan. I can’t afford to buy expensive gifts to my loved ones but at least it’s from deep within. ;)

Have you started your Christmas shopping already?

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Christmas

Photohunt: Wide

December 20th, 2008
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I think everyone loves Christmas decors. There’s this one department store in Osaka that has wide display spaces to put up Christmas decors such as this one:

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Christmas, Photohunt

Wordless Wednesday #26: Just another parlor game

December 17th, 2008
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One of the parlor games we had at the Christmas party.

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Christmas, Experiences in Japan

Not only in the Philippines

November 20th, 2008
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In the Philippines, we start to prepare for and celebrate Christmas in September. When it’s “-ber” (September to December) already, then it’s Christmas! As early as September, you could already see Christmas decorations in the shopping malls, small stores, and houses. I’ve always thought early Christmas happens in the Philippines only. However, since October, I’ve already seen Christmas decors in Osaka and Kobe. Most of the Japanese aren’t Christians but I think they love Christmas, too. One of my Japanese friends already put up her Christmas tree last month.

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Christmas, Japan: exposed , ,

Thinking of Christmas

July 18th, 2008
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Christmas Day is undoubtedly almost everyone’s favorite day. That’s why, I couldn’t help but think about Christmas even if it’s still July! I just hope I could go home this Christmas. I’ve spent the last two Christmases away from home. My father may have already left us, but the children at home, particularly Shaynna and Kiera would at least lessen the pain.

Anyway, if given the chance to go home this Christmas, I’d definitely organize a kiddie party and send out Christmas invitations as early as September!

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Christmas, Philippines

Christmas Countdown

December 25th, 2007
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A few more minutes and it’s gonna be Christmas. As I laid down on my bedroom floor, beside me were 5 empty bottles of beer, I thought of home…

Nah, I didn’t drink even a single drop of something alcoholic. First, I only drink when I badly need sleep, but I no longer do that. Second, how could I dwell on my forlorn state, when my little Shaynna completed the Misa de Gallo? I wonder what inspired my 3-year old to wake up at around 2:30AM, to attend mass at 4:00am, for 9 consecutive days! I’m proud, impressed, and humbled that Shaynna was able to complete this novena, while I was never near completing it. A miracle, or an angel at work?

Aiza, my younger sister, also completed the Misa de Gallo. When asked by our mother about her wish, her answer really humbled me. Here I am, very busy trying to solve everything on my own, but Aiza reminded me that it is indeed impossible to take on this quest, solely relying on what I thought was my strength. I should admit defeat. I couldn’t face my battles alone.

Now back to the Christmas countdown…

Minutes before midnight, my family already left for church, so Skype was silent, and my flat mates were still out. Trying to shove away homesickness, I decided to clean my room. But it’s too small that I was done with the task a few minutes before the countdown. Thankfully, my flat mates came back before midnight. At the stroke of midnight, we were busy eating our ice cream bars.

At around 1:30AM, Japan time, my family and some relatives called me through Skype and they “shouted” out their greetings. I could hear firecrackers in the background. They just came from Church. But Shaynna was already very sleepy and was very grumpy that all I heard from her were shouts of irritation. Nonetheless, I went to sleep smiling…

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Christmas, Sentiments, Shaynna

Christmas Eve 2007

December 24th, 2007
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I went out this afternoon, not with a Japanese guy, but with a Japanese gal and a friend, Akane-san. Since most of the Japanese are not Christians, Christmas here is celebrated not like the way I am used to.

Indeed, some Japanese families now practice gift-giving but for those who are single and/or available, Christmas day here seems to be lovers’ day. Akane-san and I couldn’t help but notice that everywhere we look, people are “moving in pairs”. We went in for a chat at a cafe and splurged on the delicious cakes – I had my favorite tiramisu. Later, we met our date, Nicholas Cage, at the cinema. Thank you, Akane-san for the early birthday gift. :)

“National Treasure 2″ is as good as the first one. It is indeed worth watching at the theater. I was really glad we opted to watch that movie instead of “I Am Legend”.

I planned on meeting up with the other Pinoys after the movie and go with them to the mass. However, another “girlie” mishap made me frantic, embarrassed, and left me feeling-stupid. I had no other option but to go home. That surely ate up my time so I decided to stay home and do the Christmas countdown alone…

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Christmas, Friends, Things I love

Christmas Decors

December 24th, 2007
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Christmas decors I always pass by here in Osaka:


Merry Christmas!
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Christmas, Simply Osaka

Christmas Rush

December 23rd, 2007
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What always happen at home on Christmas Eve:

06:00 – 07:00 My mother and other family members wake up

07:00 – 08:00 Have light breakfast and heavy chit chats

08:00 – 10:00 I clean the house as ordered, and my mother leaves the house for other tasks.

10:00 – 11:00 I cook the brunch, again, as ordered.

11:00 – 12:00 Brunch and chit chat with family.

12:00 – 13:00 Dear mother and I get ready for our trip to the wet market to buy necessities for the Christmas dinner

13:00 – 14:00 Mother and I head to the city

14:00 – 16:00 Shopping for food at the wet market and a detour to the department store to buy gifts for my mother’s godchildren.

16:00 – 17:00 Head back home.

17:00 – 18:00 As ordered, I start all the peeling, cutting, and mincing while she goes to a grocers in town to buy something we forgot buying in the City.

18:00 – 19:00 I’m done with the preparation of the ingredients and wait for my mother to come home, I’m pretty sure she’s somewhere in the neighborhood chatting with neighbors.

19:00 – 21:00 My mother finally arrives, then we start cooking.

21:00 – 22:00 Dress up, while shouting to my younger sister to hurry up, my father tells my mother to hurry up. Then we “run” to church for the Misa de Gallo, but leave some of the ingredients uncooked.

22:00 – 23:30 Misa de Gallo. My brother just meet us up at the church.

23:30 – 24:00 Head back home, while being terrified by the fire crackers everywhere.

24:00 – 01:00 Finish cooking the “necessary” dishes, but it’s already too late to cook everything. So, we just pile up the uncooked ingredients in the refrigerator.

1:00 (December 25th) Noche Buena starts

For as long as I can remember, we’ve always been on the rush every Christmas eve. You may have also noticed that it’s always my mother and me – I am, after all, my mother’s right hand.

It’s weird, really. When these events are happening, I’m irritated at my mother’s “habit”. But I think this is one of the factors that make our Christmas even more exciting? hehe I actually miss being part of this Christmas rush. I wonder who’s my mother’s right hand this year…

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Christmas, Family

Thursday Thirteen #6

December 20th, 2007
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Here my Christmas wishes for those who are closest to me:

1. A trip abroad for my parents. My mother have always wanted to have a passport and a “stamp” on her passport. Also, they haven’t been to a holiday ever. So this would serve as their 30th year honeymoon!

2. Little playhouse for my Shaynna. That playhouse must have many little racks and cabinets. She’s really fond at categorizing/organizing her things. (Unlike me! hah!)

3. A new cellphone and a 500-peso prepaid card for my younger sister. Her now overused cellphone is her constant companion. She usually spends long hours just sending text messages to everyone in her phone book.

4. For my younger brother, honestly, I’d rather buy a handcuff. I’ve always wanted to chain him, gag him and pour out all the hurts, everything that I’ve wanted to tell him. I want to beat the sense out of him. But then it’s Christmas, so I’d set those aside for now. I hope he will have a whole set of new wardrobe. When we were still in high school, he’s really fashionable, I think.

5. For Keira Alexis, my brother’s new-born angel, I’d give her loads of baby toys.

6. For Lola Eyang, my mother’s mother, I’d take her to the mall and let her choose shoulder bag, a Sunday dress, and a pair of shoes. She’d really love to have something new when she attends the Misa de Gallo (December 24th evening mass). For a 70-year old lady, she’s really fond of sunglasses so I’ll add this one, too!

7. A Cebu-Manila roundtrip ticket for Lola Eyang, again. She keeps on telling me that she really wants to try boarding on an airplane.

8. A new TV set for my cousin, Manang Gina. She’s Shaynna’s nanny. This would serve as a gift of appreciation for taking care of Shaynna as if she’s her own. (I’m really thankful, but a little envious.)

9. For Kimkim, a cousin who’s really bent on finishing an engineering degree, his school tuition from this semester until his 5th year. Despite his family’s financial incapability, nothing could stop him from his dream and is now in his third year as an engineering student.

10. Jayde, another cousin is also serious about getting a college degree. She recently got a scholarship at a technical school, but I’d rather have her get a degree at fine arts or architecture. She’s got our family’s artistic trait.

11. For Junriel, Jayde’s older brother, an airconditioning business. He had finished a technical course in arconditioning but as an assistant technician, he’s earning so little, even if he’s based in a rural area.

12. Loads of toys, clothes, and school supplies for my little cousins, nephews, and nieces.

13. A sumptuous Christmas dinner with family and relatives. Lechon, chocolate cake, and icecream would surely be served.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

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Christmas, Family, Thursday Thirteen

What If?

December 14th, 2007
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This was a pre-Christmas tag from Rolando, then Sani just recently tagged me with it.

What are the 5 gifts you would buy for yourself this Christmas, if you had unlimited income?

Unlimited, you say? So here goes not just my Christmas wishes but these have been my dreams…

1.) Sponsor anyone’s education if he/she deserves it. Better yet, establish a good university and provide free education. I have many relatives in mind who dream of finishing college but due to financial constraint, they don’t go beyond high school, then marry at an early age. Sadly, this cycle has been going on for years and I want to make a difference.

2.) Establish a company and employ anyone deprived of chances to have a better life, regardless of their educational background. I would also offer opportunities to help them improve their skills and education.

3.) Settle the land issues of my relatives, divide the land accordingly, and construct apartments for them. But, I require them to pay me back, not for money reasons. I just want them to become better persons.

4.) World tour with my family.

5.) Host an international Bloggers’ Conference!

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Christmas, Meme

Thursday Thirteen #5

December 12th, 2007
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Time to self-inflict homesickness again, so I scanned through my memory bank for 13 gifts that I could still recall receiving. Truth be told, I haven’t received much “material” gifts from parents and family members because we didn’t really practice buying gifts for family members. But the love our parents shower us is just priceless. My brother and I used to make Christmas cards for our parents.

I have 3 godparents and they live far from my hometown, so it was hard to collect gifts from them. Thankfully, the godmother who lives in Cebu had something for me almost every Christmas, giving little Shiera something to look forward to at this time of the year.

(1) My only godfather gave me a pair of garnet earrings on my first Christmas. But I didn’t get to wear that until I had my ears pierced when I was 9 years old.

(2) I was about 5 years old when my auntie-ninang (godmother & aunt) asked me to choose between a bracelet and a necklace. Without hesitation, I blurted out that I wanted both. She laughed and gave me both!

(3) An aunt was an ukay-ukay merchant. One Christmas day visit, she told me to dig to my heart’s content and gave me the pretty blouse and skirt that caught my eyes. I loved rummaging through a huge pile of ukay-ukay and I still do.

(4) Christmas 1998, my parents gave me a toy tea set. Everything was tin-made – so extraordinary compared to my usual plastic toys, so I kept it hidden for months instead of playing with it. Unfortunately, my little sister found the hiding place and lost many of the little tin cups. I cried for hours.

(5) I think I was 9 years old when Ninang Lanie, my godmother from Cebu, sent a yellow dress. The dress was so pretty that I always wore it to church almost every Sunday.

(6) The following year, Ninang Lanie sent me another really pretty pink dress and I wore it to the year-end ceremony. At that time, grade 5 girl students were required to wear pink dresses. I didn’t wear the dress before that ceremony so that I could still consider it as new.

(7) When my father was still working in Saudi Arabia, his one-month vacations were usually from May to June. He went home one Christmas and gave me a Swatch wristwatch. That was the only Swatch watch I ever had. Now, I don’t even have a wristwatch!

(8) Christmas 2001: my first Christmas away from home. I was terribly homesick and was desperate to receive a card from my family. When I opened my mailbox, I got a card from Florence! She was just next door and yet she chose to surprise me by dropping that in my mailbox. My family sent me a card but it arrived days after Christmas.

(9) Christmas 2001: Ting’s gift arrived days earlier. She was in Tokyo, Florence and I were in Kagoshima. She sent me a very cute, silver bookmark through the company’s inter-office mail.

I could no longer recall any more gifts, so allow me to include here the gifts I got from Kris Kringle and from the companies I’ve worked for:

(10) When I was with company #2, I got 2 Friends VCDs, through Kris Kringle. I wish I could buy all the seasons in DVD in the future.

(11) Guia, from company #3 gave me a Bench lipstick – her gift for our Kris Kringle’s “something sexy”. I think that was my first lipstick. I always wear lip gloss only.

(12) Companies in the Philippines usually give out Christmas goodies to their employees. When company #3 gave us those Noche Buena food basket, I had to store the ham in the office’s refrigerator until the night I left for my hometown.

(13) Company #4 gave us Rustan’s Gift Certificate. I used that to buy stuffs for Shaynna and my family.

How about you? Can you still recall many, if not all of the Christmas gifts you received in your whole life?

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Christmas, Thursday Thirteen
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