Thanks to all who visited my blog during my bloggy break, especially to those who dropped holiday greetings and comments! To all my friends and family out there, especially those who follows this blog, have a great 2009!

Matthew’s Christmas Tree Photos taken Dec. 21, 2008

We spent the Christmas Holiday in Florida. (Hence the bloggy break.) We had a great week there with hubby’s family. It has been years since hubby and 2 sibliings were together. (He was the one always missing.) My in-laws can’t be happier about this grand reunion. All the grandchildren with Matthew as the youngest were around too.

We were the first family to arrive and the first task was to put up Matthew’s own Christmas tree. I thought it was a great idea that Mother-IL got him his own Christmas tree to prevent him from messing playing around the big Christmas tree with very delicate and sentimental ornaments. So everytime he comes around the big Christmas tree, everyone would ask him to stay away from Grandma’s tree and directed him to his own Christmas tree, which he delightedly obeyed (most of the time).

I am pleased that my energetic 2-year-old Matthew really did good with regards to damages. He didn’t break any ornament or caused any major damages until our last night in Florida when he took the candy bowl from the counter and dropped it while walking away with it. It’s one of those Christmas themed glasswares that his Grandma have had through the years. However in perspective, for an energetic 2-year old, the damage wasn’t a big deal according to Mom-IL, which I agree!

So our Christmas was almost a  week long celebration composed of Karaoke singing, drinking and a lot of cooking, eating and a whole lot of picture taking. (Click the photo to enlarge the photo.)

Left Photo taken on taken Dec. 22, 2008 Right Photo taken on Dec. 25, 2008 Did I mention there was Karaoke?! We brought our old MagicSing, which is a little deffective since Matthew dropped the microphone. On Christmas Eve, the new model of MagicSing arrived thru UPS. It’s hubby’s Christmas gift for me. I had been hinting that I wanted a new karaoke machine. And hubby never fails!

Christmas Gifts, Photo taken Dec. 24, 3008 These are all the gifts for 12 people. There are mostly for the grandchildren. The biggest on the left is for Matthew from Grandpa and Grandma – a John Deere tractor. The smallest gift under the Christmas tree is for me from hubby. It’s unexpected because I thought I got my gift already – the MagicSing that came early. And it took me sometime to get over my shock after I unwrapped the gift. It’s a diamond earring! Apparently, hubby got the diamond earring after not finding the karaoke machine anywhere. He thought the earring will be a great substitute but he didn’t settle. Even after getting the earrings, he went online to buy the MagicSing and ordered it to be sent thru UPS next day shipping! Not too practical I know, but I can’t be more grateful! Like I mentioned earlier – he never fails to amaze me!

Christmas Morning, Photos taken on Dec. 25, 2008 On Christmas morning, Matthew needed help waking up! He had a rough time the night before! He has seen the gift being set up the night before and he couldn’t settle going to bed! Everyone is on their own opening presents, well except for Matthew who can only rip the wrappings but couldn’t remove the toys off their boxes, but Daddy is always to the rescue. Those darn toys are always well fastened to their packaging!

Christmas Day Party, Photo taken Dec. 25, 3008 This is one of those funny photos that I took. Being busy running around and getting through the festivities, it is hard to get these three siblings together. So this is a rare photo opportunity. However, while Tom is looking nice in this photo, his older brother Mike and older sister Sheila can’t help themselves from clowning about.

Christmas Day party, Photos taken on Dec. 25, 2008 Believe me or not, out of the more-than-300 photos taken during the entire week, there are only 6 photos that included me on it! These are 2 of them.

Morning after Christmas Day, Photos taken on Dec. 26, 2008 It took a long time to charge the batteries for Matthew’s new tractor, courtesy of Grandpa and Grandma. So Matthew was able to ride it the morning after Christmas day. After tryng to drive it, well, let me say – he needs more getting used to drying it himself. Maybe in a few months, he will be able to get used to it and he will be more able to control the accelerator! In the meantime he enjoys riding at the trailer-wagon.

We’ve been back since Sunday but putting down the Christmas decorations, home repair, organization and general cleaning, laundry and other chores took priority. Just so for a great start to 2009.

Last night, for new year’s eve dinner, I made my very own home-made pizza. It’s overloading with peperoni and mushroom just like how hubby wants it. And we had quiet time welcoming the new year over a marathon of Battlestar Galactica.

This post was originally published on December 7, 2007. I received a good feedback from this post that I thought it’d be great to publish it again this year.

There was a time in my childhood, when I really believed in a magical Santa Claus, who comes at Christmas Eve and fills up my favorite ‘sock’ with chocolates. All our questions about Santa Claus were dealt with by my parents by simply replying ”… magic!”. We would imagine all sort of stuffs, like, he would transform into thin air to get thru the little opening in the door to get in. (We didn’t have chimney.)

At Christmas morning, my sister and I would rush to the homemade Christmas tree that my mother made, where we hung our favorite ‘socks’. I remember being so excited and delighted with a handful of chocolates we got. We compared chocolates. I remember my father teasing us about who got the most number of chocolates. But of course, it’s the same number. I guess, that was his way of joining in our excitement.

One Christmas came. I think I was 7, my sister was 5. We had to stay with an aunt due to a family crisis. My father was stabbed early December that year. He was in the Army, and it happened when he was on duty. He was hospitalized and in critical condition until Christmas time. My mother was with him. It was a difficult time.

At Christmas Eve, after attending Midnight Mass with my Aunt, she told us to get ready to sleep. I remember telling her about Santa Claus coming later that night and that we need to hang our socks. She said sort of in panic, “Di ba natanggap mo na nga yung gifts mo galing kay Santa Claus?”(Didn’t you receive your gifts from Santa Claus already?!). She was talking about the Christmas Family Get-together earlier that day, when we received our gifts from my grandparents, aunts and uncles.

I didn’t argue with her because Mama told us to behave. And at that time, I kind’a figured out already about the concept of Santa Claus. I was learning about St. Nicholas in school and sharing that to my sister. We just never got any confirmation up until my Aunt spilled the beans.

That Christmas, we didn’t get our Christmas ration of chocolates from Santa but we got the most number of Christmas gifts we have ever received. My sister and I became the recipients of all the unclaimed Christmas gifts my aunt prepared for her god-children who didn’t come to see her at Christmas Day. Not to mention, the overwhelming help we received during that family crisis.

That Chrismas I learned the reality of Santa Claus. That from magical, he becomes real, as he is personified by our loved ones and those who truly care and make our Christmases extra special.

Aloha Friday originated in Kailani’s An Island Life. If you would like to join in the fun, simply answer the question as a comment. You can leave your link if you are participating. However, your answer and comments are still welcome even if you are not participating.

Matthew and Santa, Photo taken Dec 18, 2008

So we went to visit Santa today. I wanted to get him a Christmas attire for the photo with Santa but I didn’t have a chance to get one. So I settled with his monkey shirt and jogging pants! I thought, his hat will make up for his lack of Christmas attire.

There wasn’t too many children lining up to get a photo op with Santa so we didn’t wait to take our turn. It’s definitely a better experience compared last year. He called out ‘Mommy! Mommy!‘ a few times when I placed him in Santa’s lap, but I didn’t go too far so he didn’t really cry. He wasn’t kicking and screaming at Santa (like last year) when the photos were taken but it did take quite a few shots until that perfect photo.

Here are a few trial-and-error shots:
(Click the photo to enlarge the photo.)

At the mall, except for his outburst of energy going through wall to wall and every corner, it was quite exhausting, he was otherwise okay and he seemed to have a lot of fun.

Thanks to Lori and Kimberly for tagging us along!

Click here to view Matthew’s Photo with Santa in the previous years.

All my orders online have been received. Online shopping is so convenient! But the waiting time is long, except if you are willing to pay for extra shipping.

All the gifts are made, bought, packed, wrapped, and sent (for long-distance loved ones). Most of the gifts I have now are just waiting to be given away. They are sitting by the Christmas tree, but I am thinking of taking them to the garage where they will be safe from the tinkering hands of my curios toddler.

What’s left in my Christmas list is getting Matthew a Christmas attire and getting his photo taken with Santa. And reparing our Christmas costumes. I think that about it for now.

We will be spending Christmas in Florida with hubby’s family. All his siblings will be there. It will be the first time in so many years that all of them will be together. It’ll be fun!

There has been an ongoing debate about gift cards. A few people I know did ask for a gift card as a gift. And I don’t mind receiving one. I think it’s practical but it is kind’a like giving cash but to a more specific spending. Come to think about it, I don’t mind receiving cash either.

There are advantages to gift cards is it is liberating for the receiver and easy for the giver. And it is practical for both sides.

The disadvantages are gift cards are that there is a big chance that it will become a forgettable gifts to the receiver’s end compared to something tangible. And gift cards will make the giver appear lazy and thoughtless.

We have received gift cards thru the years. The truth is most of those times we didn’t know what to do with them especially if it came from a loved one. Yep, we didn’t know what to do with our gift cards. I always have something going on in my mind that we have to use it for buying a more thoughtful item, something that will remind us of the giver of the gift card and not just for anything that we really don’t care for. But as soon as the expiration date nears, we end up using it for casual spending, which makes the gift card a forgettable gift, in our case anyway. But we are always grateful of the giver, whom we still think of as thoughtful just for remembering.

As of giving ‘cash’ or gift cards, they are actually the last thing I prefer to give but I have given them in the past because of time constraint or if I absolutely have no idea what to give.

Aloha Friday originated in Kailani’s An Island Life. If you would like to join in the fun, simply answer the question as a comment then visit Kailani’s An Island Life for more details. However, your answer and comments are welcome even if you do not want to participate.

Busy, busy week! More decorating, packing, wrapping and other Christmas chores including my regular chores.

I have never realized that a fishing line can be very useful for Christmas decorations. I’ve used it to hang garlands and stockings to the ceiling. With it’s transparent color, it’s almost invisible that the decorations looked like they are floating in space. I’ve used it to hang Christmas cards by the windows too and I am so please by the turn out. I’m planning on using fishing lines rather the wire hooks to hang the ornaments in the Christmas tree. A few of them already are but maybe next year, I’ll get it completed.

Last Summer, we went to Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland. It’s a Christmas shop, where you can find anything Christmas. There, it’s Christms all year round. From there we bought a 12-days of Christmas Ornaments Set. It’s 12-pieces of wood carvings of a partridge in a pear tree, turtle doves, french hen, .. (you know the song)! I just love it. When I hung them in the Christmas tree, they didn’t popped out with all the other ornaments in the tree. I mean then would look better in a smaller tree with specialized ornaments not on a chaotic tree like what we got. Oh we have a pretty big really nice Christmas tree (I think ) but with all the ornaments we have, it’s pretty chaotic as well. Anyway, I wanted my 12-day of Christmas ornament to be visible so I hang them to the garland in the ceiling. It’s perfect!

With all these decorating and Christmas preparations, I found out that excess Christmas ornaments make perfect temporary stocking stuffers.

And I am going to write about the Christmas wrappers I got! It has Christmas Tree and Snowflakes design and it’s red on one side and green on the other side. For a price of 1 roll of regular wrapping paper, it seems like I got 2 rolls since I can use either side and it comes 40-feet long – double the lengh of a regular wrapping paper. Also, it’s thick and has a really smooth shiny finish. It’s definitely very high quality wrapping paper. I am just so happy about it. When I showed it to hubby and told him about it, he said without looking at it “That’s nice!”. He paused and asked if it is easy to tear. Then he looked closely and made a small tear. With a grin he said, “Ah, It’s easy to tear!”. Apparently, a wrapping paper should be easy to tear. I’m just glad to please him, this wrapping paper is easy to tear as well.

Chirstmas Ornament Update. At of this writing, Matthew has broken 2 major ornament from the Christmas tree. One of them, a glass ball with a japanese origami doll inside it. He stole it from the tree, ran away and when he heard me coming to get it back, he smashed it to the floor. The other one, he thought that it’d be fun to swing a stainless steel spatula to the biggest Christmas ball. It broke into pieces. I am not even counting the other ornaments with missing or broken parts. I’m so glad the 12-days of Christmas ornaments are up in the ceiling.

Well, we are back from our Thanksgiving Vacation! It was wonderful. From the moment we stepped in my in-laws house last Sunday, we did nothing but eat! It felt like it was Thanksgiving Day for the whole week long that we were there, but I really can’t resist eating for they were GOOD food, just delicious! And we really did have a great time.

Thanks to my In-laws for having us, and to BroIL Tom for giving up his room for us. Thanks for Aunt Rosie and Uncle Greg for having us in their home for Thanksgiving Day feast.

So we are back here in Alabama! I already put up a few christmas decorations, and planning to put some more in the days ahead. We have a small apartment with very few surface areas so most of the decorations are up in the ceiling hanging like a few garlands and our stockings! Well, except for the Christmas Tree, of course. (Now, I wish we have a topsy turvy Christmas Tree. It will save some floor space.)

But even with the few space to decorate, I feel that this year, I had more difficulty with the decorations, for I feel I did almost everything myself! It’s because hubby started working and busy. Although, he still managed to help me a little bit, it wasn’t like the previous years when he was around all the way. But i still had fun with the decorations for Matthew was more than helpful. A few times he tried to hang what seems like his favorite ornament in the tree. He can’t seem to decide where exactly to put it! It was also fun to see the excitement in his expression about the colors and the lights!

So far, it doesn’t seem like I will have a hard time keeping Matthew off the Christmas lights in the tree or the delicate ornaments. I think he now understands that he is only allowed to look but not to play with or around the tree. But then, it’s maybe still too early to tell …