I blame Butch Dalisay for the La-Z-Boy which I gave as a Christmas gift to my husband. I showed Butch’ La-Z-Boy entry to my Butch and ever since, my hubby kept asking “so will you buy me a La-Z-Boy?”
Read More »La-Z-Boy Rocker Recliner, A Relaxing Gift for My Husband
Merry Christmas to all. Happy Holidays to all my readers. Here are a few photos of Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Photos updated as they come.
Before going to Midnight Mass- December 24
Setting the holiday and festive mood through traditional red-green-gold Christmas Decorations
Read More »Christmas Day in Photos
You are not in the minority if you find yourself in a less-than-ideal holiday. How easy, but untrue, to tell ourselves the rest of the world is experiencing the perfect holiday, and we’re alone in the conflict. A holiday is one day out of 365 days. We can get through any 24-hour period.
Read More »Holiday Greetings from My Family
Parties are so much fun. Even if I am not actively involved in their party, I enjoy hearing Lauren and her friends laugh and cheer which is so reminiscent of my teenage parties at our home in Cebu. Have some fun, right?
This year, I limited the parties that I attend, not because I am anti-social. Driving to and fro the venue can be a pain in the neck. A party is supposed to be fun so I make sure I am in tip-top shape to celebrate. I allow my thoughts to think “Have some fun”.
Hi everyone! This is Lauren ghost writi- I mean, guest blogging for my mom today. I wasn’t actually planning on attending the UP Lantern Parade yesterday but since I had activist things to attend to at Vinzon’s Hall, I figured I’d stick around and take a couple of photos. Plus, I’ve never been able to catch the lantern parade; I tried to when I was in college, but my classes would end too late and I’d get there only to reach the tail end of the parade. This year, as you all know, is UP’s Centennial anniversary and the 2008 lantern parade is supposed to be a bigger spectacle than the previous ones. I’m not sure what time it ended, but the parade was still far from over when I left at around 7.
My first mistake was bringing a point and shoot camera instead of my mom’s DSLR. Despite the crowd, I was able to take fairly decent pictures of the first few lanterns but my photos started getting progressively crappier as the sky got darker.
Palma Hall was too crowded for me to get a decent view of anything, so I walked over to the front of the Faculty Center where I could still worm my way up to the front.
The twinkling rice lights of our Christmas Tree gleam in our living room. Along the staircase, traditional red and green Christmas ornaments drape the sides. The girls’ stockings hang near the landing, as if waiting for small gifts on Christmas day. One thing that you will hear in my home are Christmas carols streaming in every nook and corner. There’s nothing like setting the mood for my baking chores or simply when I am busy with office work. It’s what drives me to glamorize the house a little bit for Christmas without noticing the great tasks ahead. Whether I hum along with the church chorus, the melody and the simple lyrics will never cease to mesmerize and attune me to the holiday mood.
Let me share 4 playlists I organized from this online music site.
The playlist of Filipino Christmas Carols below, I collated for you to add more joy to your Christmas celebration. The first song in the track is Pasko na Sinta ko sung by my two girls and three other members of the Manila Children’s Choir in 1999. The second track is ““Kasadya ni Takna-a” the original version (Pasko ay Sumapit) as sung the way it should be.
Last night, my nephew, the son of Oscar, my late brother asked me if I knew the notes of his dad’s award winning composition Pangarap ng Musmos (Dream of the Youth) which was played over 30 years ago in an Ateneo College Music Festival. I told him I didn’t have it but if he can hear the notes, it is easy to take it down. Honestly, I haven’t heard my brother’s composition for a long time now and decided to turn it on again. As I listened to “Pangarap ng Musmos”, the tears just rolled down my cheeks as the lilting music streamed through my bedroom. As I watched a video of my brother playing Love Story on the piano, the more I sobbed. What irony! He was dying of leukemia as he played the melody.
I missed my brother so much and listening to his music made me feel he was right there in the room, playing it for me. The heartfelt passion as he played every note in the piano moved me so much. I also missed my other brother Reuben and my dad and mom. I counted 4 deaths in my family of origin. not counting my own son. Five deaths in my immediate family.
It is easy to count what we do not have.
I cannot ignore fleeting moments of nostalgia. In my sadness, I assessed what I had. I counted my blessings.
So what makes me qualified to talk on ANC’s Shop Talk in today’s episode about Christmas Decorations? I tell you, it’s the search engine’s fault.
I am sure you all have uplifting and eye-catching holiday decorations and are experts on your own.
I stick to affordable, recyclable and festive looking decors.
Meet Casey, one of the first generation net kids. If you have read my daughter’s blog (then online journal) when it started in 1996, then you might have met Casey in a few of her entries. Casey is not his real name. I first met Casey and a few of my daughter’s online friends in 1996 because I was an internet safety head of World Kids Network. Back when modems were cranking screeching noises and webpages screaming with blinking fonts, I was a Web 1.0 designer where I built hand-coded HTML pages as the structure to house the content of our websites. I didn’t have an online journal. I thought it was for kids. Lauren and Casey were one of the few kids that started an online journal in 1996.
It’s his first time to use Skype so he has this huge smile written all over his face. I panned my macbook around my sister’s home so he could say a quick hello to them.
Then we got to talk.