Day 6 - Post-Christmas Post

My sister did send these out before Christmas. But because the Philippines is the Philippines, and she lives so far away, I wasn't able to get my hands on this parcel until today. And I had to go to the post office to claim it, too. Why is our postal service so weird?!

Anyway, I'm glad these Christmas cards are here now. I don't think my relatives will mind that they're late. Anyway, these twins are cute enough to wait for. ;)

Day 184 - From the Top

It was cloudy (and sometimes raining, hence the umbrellas) the whole day on our first day in Davao that we didn't feel like swimming at all in the beautiful beach and swimming pools of Pearl Farm Beach Resort. Instead, we rode the electric car and went around the island. The driver of the electric car was very nice. He offered to take this photo of us. :)

In this photo, me, my dad and my aunts are at the top of a hill in Samal Island (where Pearl Farm Beach Resort is located). The cheapest rooms are located here on account of they're not "beach front" and are very far from the restaurant and swimming pool area, but you do get the view, which as you can see, is spectacular.

P.S. Pearl Farm Beach Resort was still in Christmas mode when we got there, hence the partial bamboo Christmas tree in the background. (However, on the day that we left, I saw some people disassembling said trees.)

Day 183 - Family and Holy Family

I put off taking a photo of our house's belen, thinking there'd be plenty of days to do it, but as is per usual with procrastination, I ran out of time, and now this is the only picture of it that I have. And it's got us in it. Not that that's a bad thing. And BTW, we only took this because some of us would be leaving for Davao soon and we knew that the belen wouldn't be there anymore by the time we got back. Christmas season is over. :(

In fact, this was taken just after the "Christmas is over" party we had at our house AKA New Year's Day Party Take 2, which we only had this year because when it was actually New Year's Day, my aunt and uncle were overseas (Macau, specifically). Also, since I'm in the picture, I should give credit to the person who took this photo, my brother's girlfriend M.

Day 175 - Santa Claus?

Wearing red? Check. Giving gifts? Check. Big belly? Check. Beard? Sort of... So, check. My dad has officially become Santa Claus. Hehehe!

Today is Christmas Day! I went to my grandfather's house in Makati and celebrated (in other words: ate a lot) with my family. We exchanged gifts, sang oldies on the Magic Mic and made funny faces to make the new baby in the family (my cousin's daughter, she's 9 months old) laugh. More details in my main blog.

P.S. Because I'm such a loser, I wasn't able to take any pictures on the 24th. Sorry about that. It's just that... My nieces and nephews in the Christmas party that we went to then were so noisy and hyperactive that I forgot all about taking pictures. -_-

Day 174 - Friends and Gifts

(Click on image for full view.)

I went to meet and exchange gifts with my oldest and closest friends today at Greenbelt 2 in Makati. We had dinner at Cyma (Greek food!) and dessert at Bizu (where these pictures were taken). To entertain ourselves while waiting for our chocolate cake and coffee, we decided to take a picture of each of us with our gifts. To be even more entertaining (at least, in our opinion) we decided that the person with the gifts wouldn't be the one the gifts are from. So clockwise -- that's J3 with the gifts from J2, me with the gifts from J1, J2 with the gifts from J3 and J1 with the gifts from me (Pulburon! Previously mentioned in this entry.) Confused? I am, too, sometimes. You see, my three closest friends have names that all start with the letter J. Actually, two of them have the exact same name (granted, spelled differently, but basically the same). But, that's the craziness of the world for you.

P.S. Hindi naman ako mahilig sa collage. Hehe. It's just that there are always a lot of pictures during the holidays. It's difficult to choose just one.

Day 173 - Anatomy of a Family Christmas Photo

(Click on photo for full view.)

First: Gather round your family members. You do this by yelling "O picture na! Picture na!" Some people think that the louder and more annoying their voice is, the more effective this "call" is (I think not, but maybe that's just me).

Second: Find a spot near the Christmas tree.

Third: Make yourselves fit, no matter how many you are, and how small the area around the Christmas tree is.

Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the actual photo of all of us on the stairs, because, well, because I was holding my camera while I was sitting in the middle of everyone and it was too difficult to move (or breathe). But I did take pictures while we were trying to fit ourselves in the staircase, while sitting down, and while we were getting out. I took a photo of the "photographers", too (That's the photo on the bottom, 2nd from left). Can you count how many cameras there are?

Edit (1/4/2011): As my cousin has uploaded the pictures from their camera, you can see the finished product of this photo here.

Day 172 - All Wrapped Up

ONE DOWN - the first batch of Christmas gifts to give for the first of the family Christmas parties. There are two to go.

Ever since my sister moved to New Zealand, I'd been the one to wrap the gifts that our family gives to relatives on Christmas. I'm not as good at gift-wrapping as she is, but my mom doesn't really have a choice as I'm the only one left whom she can assign this task to.

These are for the Christmas party at my aunt's house in Pasig. They're not a lot, but maybe my mom will give me more gifts to wrap tomorrow, you know, a few minutes before the party. We're usual victims of the last-minute thing.

Day 170 - Pulburon

I think the easiest way to save money during Christmas is to make your own gifts instead of buy them. Unfortunately for me, the only thing I can make is this -- pulburon. But I guess it's really not that unfortunate since these are delicious anyway. How can you go wrong when you put flour, milk, butter and sugar together?

Day 169 - My First Gift

The gift surrounded by the Christmas toys is the first Christmas gift I received this year and it came from someone I never expected would give me a Christmas gift -- my classmate in my Nihongo class.

It's unexpected because my classmates and I aren't really that close. I mean, we only see each other once a week, and for only 3 hours each time. Also, all of us in the class are so shy that we hardly ever talk to each other (really almost never) unless we're doing something class-related. It's actually kind of funny. All of us in the class are girls (even our teacher) and we all seem to just not like talking much, so we're pretty quiet, even (or especially) when the teacher's not around. We make ourselves busy by reading our books or anything else really, except talk to each other. Honestly, it's really my kind of class. :) And way better than my last set of classmates who were so "close" that they felt the need to ostracize the new students (namely me and 3 others).

Anyway, it was such a happy surprise when my classmate A handed me the gift. It makes me feel like there's hope for humanity yet (Is this proof that I'm overdramatic or what?) because it's possible that people who barely know you can still be so nice.

Day 168 - Coins for Carolers

Caroling season has begun! Or, it's supposed to. I still haven't heard actual carolers though. Is it me or are there less and less kids in our village who are interested in making extra money during the holidays? Granted they'll only get a few coins per house, but when I was a kid, by the end of 10 days, my friends and I would've collected about P80 each, which, you know, is pretty big for a kid back then.

Anyway, we're at least prepared if ever carolers come by our house. These are the coins we put near the front door. They're not much now, but maybe my mom will put in more when this supply runs out.

Day 167 - Christmas Coffee

Because I am a social loser, even at home, you're unlikely to see me in the living room or the kitchen (public places, you know). I just stay in my room, and bring everything I need so I wouldn't always need to go out.

This is my Starbucks Christmas mug that I bought around December of 2 years ago, and it's what I use to bring water/coffee into my room. It's placed on the small shelf beside my bed, because that is one of the few flat, solid surfaces (aside from the floor of course) in my room.

Day 166 - Bago Ang Belen

OK, so 'yung mga piyesa hindi bago. Pero bago 'yung bahay kubo nila. As you can see here, this is the aftermath of the making of the belen house, courtesy of Ate M. Ang galing niya, marunong siyang gumamit ng itak at magtirintas ng dahon ng niyog!

These were eventually sweeped up after the Belen (Nativity Scene) house was finished. I was going to post a picture of the belen itself, but I want to save that for another day.

Day 164 - Christmas Choir 2

I will now assume that SM malls have a choir perform Christmas songs at least every Saturday for this and last month. This is another one that I had a chance to watch/listen to today. They're pretty good. :)

I actually took a video of the song they performed after I took this shot (sadly they didn't sing a Christmas song on their next number, Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika, but they did have dance steps) but the video from my cellphone sucks (as do the pictures, actually). I really shouldn't forget to bring a proper camera when I go out of the house next time.

Anyway, I was a bit more fascinated with this choir as opposed to last time, because this choir had more people in the audience. Or maybe that has something to do with the time, because this performance was around 6PM. The other one, I took that photo around 3PM.

P.S. I'm sorry I skipped a lot of days. There's just not much to take pictures of at home.

Day 161 - Christmas Party!

Because I'm now an ex-employee and have no office Christmas parties to go to, I volunteered for the Christmas party to come to me. Haha! :P

These are my friends from the office I used to work in. They went to my house after the company Christmas party to exchange gifts and play board/card games. Lots of fun. :)

P.S. The company Christmas party was actually last night, but they got to my house at around 1AM today and stayed here 'til 9AM so this counts as my photo of the day for December 4 Saturday and not Friday night.

Day 159 - Day Before December

I don't know when you're supposed to start putting up Christmas decorations. For other households, it's pretty early, around September-October. As for us, we usually start today, the day before December.

That's a picture of the not-yet decorated Christmas tree in our living room. I think... it's our 3rd Christmas tree that we've bought. The first was plastic with detachable leaves, the next was a bit bigger, which we gave to my grandfather because his Christmas tree got stolen (or something, we're not really sure what happened to it. One day it was just gone). And we weren't even supposed to have this if I hadn't complained and whined like a spoiled brat about how we just can't not have a Christmas tree in the house.

Afterwards, this tree was decorated with orange/gold/bronze Christmas balls, ribbons, and Santa Claus stuffed toys at the bottom. Maybe that'll be my photo of the day next time. :)

Day 152 - Candy Christmas Tree

This is the Christmas tree displayed at SM Southmall today. I don't know if its only there for a program or if it's their decoration for this year. Anyway, candies!

Day 149 - Stars and Chimes

The first Christmas decorations of our house are these orange stars that we put above the porch outside. I don't know why we put them up so early. We usually put decorations on the first day of December. I think it's because our house is feeling a little jealous. Our two neighbors have already put up their Christmas decorations for the year, so we figured we should put them up, too.

As for the wind chimes, well they've always been there. At least for the past 12 years or so. My mom loves them.

BTW, the orange stars are homemade. Ate M made them with ordinary glue, barbecue sticks and orange plastic. Looks professional 'eh?

Day 148 - Toy Soldiers

Why are toy soldiers considered as Christmas decorations? What do they have to do with Christmas? Is it because of The Nutcracker? Anyway, it's the main decoration for Ayala Malls this year. These are the ones at the entrance of Greenbelt 5 (obviously) but I also saw some soldiers at Glorietta and at ATC.

I went mall-hopping with my friend J today. We started at Greenhills where she picked up a toy she ordered, then passed by Megamall, Glorietta, and I was picked up by my mom at Greenbelt. You'd think that the same stores would be in all these malls and that we only needed to go to one to get everything we needed, but they really actually have different things to offer. Hence all the hops.

Day 146 - Starbucks at Christmas

I don't know what year the "fad" started but for the past ones, it's been a tradition of Starbucks to reward their customers with Starbucks Planners if they buy at least 18 drinks during Christmas season. This is a picture of the drink I ordered today (Caramel Cream Affogato) and the booklet to which the baristas put a sticker on to indicate how loyal a customer I am.

I used to have more enthusiasm for this "promo", but I'm not happy about the Christmas drinks this year. It seems there's a conspiracy to keep the Christmas drinks that I hate--Praline, Toffee Nut, and Peppermint, and get rid of the ones that I loved--Gingerbread and Dark Cherry. At least in the previous years, at least one or the other (Gingerbread or Dark Cherry) was available. But now, they're both gone and so I don't think I'll be able to collect enough stickers this year. Which is just as well because I'm planning on saving money anyway, and I'm actually not too impressed with the planner design for 2011.

Still, you never know. So I'll keep my options open.

Day 145 - Santa Claus and Manny Pacquiao

TV in the mall attracted a crowd because it was playing reruns of Manny Pacquiao's matches. It's just a coincidence that the Santa Claus decoration is facing the TV, but the thought of Santa Claus watching a Manny Pacquiao match amuses me. Look at his face, he's so happy. :) And his arms are raised as if to cheer for the people's champ. Hehe!

The country has Manny Pacquiao fever right now because he has a match this Sunday (11/14). And of course, Christmas fever as well, because it's November already. Can't wait for both.