Christmas greetings!

Image courtesy of Viber

Kids, don't forget that, more than the gifts, the food and the festivities, the true essence of Christmas is in the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. He has humbled Himself to be with us and save us from our sins.

I pray that every Christmas, you are reminded that "no one is too rich that he cannot receive and no one is too poor that he cannot give". May you be grateful for all the blessings showered upon you, and in turn be a blessing to others. Finally, may this season be always a time to celebrate with family. Do not forget your aged parents who love you and who will always be here to support you.

I love you kids! :)



Read about our Christmases past here.

Our Christmas Break 2014 - Day 2

Thoughts for today.

-oh em gee we slept in late! Woke up at 10am. No time for morning walk now.

- active play within the yard then vitamins time.

- bathe all kids! Mantra is Ligo. Kain. Sleep. I think I did a good, organized job with the kids there.

- everyone is sleeping now. Time to cook spaghetti sauce as promised to Kuya.

- Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 2!!

- kids are awake already so I have to stop watching now. Everybody prepare for church!

- dad is a bit grumpy today. Did we do anything to anger him? If he will get mad everytime we go to church, might as well not go anymore. Err.. no, that's a bad idea. All the more that we should go and hear mass.

- maybe one day, I'll keep walking away and won't turn back.

- dinner time! Everybody sleep after this!

- finally some me-time. I think i'll finish my movie now. I have the book beside me so I can reference to while watching the movie version.

My simple joys.

That day just breezed by! We have such a crazy crazy family and I love it just the same :)

A very manly Christmas

A few days ago, I chanced upon DIY gift tags that Jolina Magdangal used for their family's Christmas gifts this year.

Pinterest-worthy :)

I thought it was a really good idea, but didn't actually plan for it this year. One night, when I was wrapping a gift for lola, I decided to just wing it. Unfortunately, I don't have colored stamp pads so black ink will have to do. We put in Kuya's thumbmark at the middle, Iya's on the right and Miko's on the left.

This is how it turned out...

Uhm... they look like little uhmm.. what do you think?

Here's a closer view.

I may just be green-minded but that looks phallic to me

Needless to say, we'll just use these tags within the immediate family okay?

And note to self: buy colored stamp pads. Or think of better designs.

You may also want to read about the 2nd day of our Christmas break

Our Christmas Break 2014 - Day 1

Finally a break from work. Our company supports a long Christmas break so I take the opportunity to rest and be with family during the holidays. Chos.

But seriously, imposed a.k.a. "highly recommended" or not, I have already set aside key dates where my paid leaves are to be used. Those dates include the Christmas season, Holy Week, the week covering your dad's birthday and our anniversary, and birthdays ofcourse. So leaves for attending school events, watching over you when you are sick, or days when there are tons of errands to do -- those are unpaid leaves that get deducted from my pay. I just wanted to be clear on that. So, God forbid, you play hooky in school, I hope you find time to think of all your dad and I have sacrificed to provide for you. (Oh God, I'm sounding like your lola)

So today is the start of our 2-week long vacation. Yey!

Goals for the next 2 weeks:
- eat healthier in prep for my gall bladder removal surgery soon (will talk about this when I find time to do so)
- move around more to try to lose some pounds
- potty train Ate and Kuya. Kuya since he is turning 6 already (Kuya pls pls pls let's make this work) and Ate in preparation for her starting school in June. Yey!

So what exactly did we do in Day 1?
- Ate and Bunso woke up too early. Thank you kids *insert sarcasm here* so we walked a bit on the streets early in the morning.
- Kuya woke up shortly after we got back from our walk. Diapers were removed and IT IS ON!
- I had my nails done. Yey! Dad had his toenails cleaned as well.
- We slept a lot in the morning. I was able to squeeze in a nap too. I wish it was longer tho. Still, sleep is a treasure and I am grateful to dad for letting me rest.
- Every 2 hours or so, we'd ask Ate and Kuya if they need to go. Kuya will always say no, but will still pee when he is brought inside the restroom.
- We had a stroll in the afternoon too. I think that Kuya can see from the corner of his eye. He reacts whenever we come near parked cars. Hmmm... I see God moving in very very mysterious ways here. I am intrigued and thankful. *note to self: visit another optha soon*
- During our stroll, I wanted to jog/run since I read about these visually impaired kids running in marathons. We tried it a bit and kuya scraped his knee so crap. Maybe tomorrow, we can do it better.
- We watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I tried teaching Ate the incantations but I kept laughing at her because she's so bulol.
- We made gift tags with your thumbmarks. I wanted each of your thumbmark to have a different color but I just had a black stamp pad. Your thumbmarks looked like... uhm.. let me post it here and you tell me what you think. <Read about that story here.>

A full day no? Much to be thankful for and many many funny memories were shared. Thank you for never failing to make Mommy smile. I love you chipmunks.