A few weeks before Christmas, I was telling myself that I couldn’t wait for it to be all over. From the numerous get together, last minute shopping, and more, I got so tired and stress that I want for this season to be over and just relax and rest.

But now that Christmas is over, I can’t wait for the next Christmas season to come. Weird huh? What I love about the Christmas season is the overflowing of love, joy and gratitude. It is only the chance where we get to see and spend time with friends and family members that we don’t spend that much time with.

As for our Christmas, we had our usual family traditions. We all heard mass at my alma mater and then we all went to our home for our Noche Buena. On the morning of Christmas, all my relatives went to our house too for our family reunion and gift giving. We initially planned to go to my in-laws house but they went out to watch a movie.

The kids are ecstatic with their gifts and they can’t contain their happiness as they received a lot. As for me, we did not find the time yet to get my present but I am checking out kraftmaid kitchen cabinets here as I am thinking to ask this as my Christmas gift from hubby.

It was a very meaningful Christmas for my family. Hope you had a fun and memorable celebration too of Jesus’ birthday.

Now that we are done with one of the biggest expenses we have for 2012 which is our daughter’s 7th birthday party, we can finally start with our house renovation project that we postponed for a year now.

Hubby is excited as he has a lot of projects lined up for the house. He wants to repaint the whole interior and exterior of the house plus he also wants to have the flooring done.

We would have wanted to use granite or marble for the flooring but we are working on a tight budget but thankfully there is a better alternative and that is polished concrete.

With polished concrete, we will be able to achieve the look of granite, marble or terrazzo flooring without breaking our bank account. Aside from the price, another advantage of polished concrete is it is very easy to maintain and is environment friendly too.

Polished concrete can also be stained to achieve different colors and different styles and designs can also be incorporated to imitate the look of traditional floorings. Hubby is really excited with my discovery and he has already contacted Forrest Concrete, one of the best contractors in the market for polished concrete, so he can have a meeting with them and discuss the projects that he is planning for our home sweet home.

Will I see you again?

Hopefully soon…if this happens, it will be the best Christmas, birthday and anniversary gift ever. I am not putting my hopes up but hubby is positive that this will push through. But I am getting excited already just thinking about it.

Howell would want the kids to come but I don’t think we will be able to afford it if all four of us will go and besides Bela has school and she can’t be absent for 2 weeks, minimum.

I am just too happy about this news that is why I am sharing it here but still, let’s wait and see if this will really push through or not.

This is one of the highlights of my 2012: 

This picture was taken during the Meet and Greet session when the Prime Minister of Canada, visited the Philippines last month. He was gracious enough, despite his busy schedule to allot a time to meet the staff here in Manila.

We were instructed that we would just have a group picture with the Prime Minister. The security was really tight in the room. They must have checked a wide selection of stanchions too to provide barricade and security post inside the room.

But we were all surprised when the Prime Minister announced after his speech that he could have individual pictures with all the staff. Everybody got excited and we really appreciate this gesture. I was one of the first few who lined up right away and had our pictures taken with the Prime Minister.

It was really one of my most memorable events for 2012.

This will be one of my busiest weekends. Just look at what’s lined up for me:

• My friend from Qatar is here in Manila for vacation and she sponsored a Saturday feeding today in Ulingan. Howell and I will fetch her and her boyfriend at Manila Hotel and will accompany them in Ulingan.
• After Ulingan, we will go out for lunch with Vanessa and her boy friend.
• Hubby will also try to see if we can squeeze in our schedule, the birthday party of the kid of his high school friend.
• Our last booking for today will be the Project Pearls Christmas party, which I am sure, will last the whole night.
• For Sunday, I plan to go to Robinson’s or Lucky Chinatown Mall for more shopping.

Just looking at this list makes me feel tired already but I am happy because it involves meet ups and get together with my closest friends which is the perfect way to celebrate the holiday season.

The household is preparing for this: 

My brother subscribed to Sky Cable’s Pay-per-view of the Pacquiao-Marquez fight and so all my relatives, from my cousins, aunts, uncles, will be coming over today to watch the fight live and in HD.

My aunt will be cooking lunch so we can all feast on my Tita’s home-style specialty after the fight.

Hope this fight will end the saga between Pacquiao and Marquez and hopefully, we will know who really is the better fighter.

Male relatives: Check

Female relatives: Check

Bela’s Classmates and teachers: Check

Officemates: Check

Godchildren: Check

So I guess I am almost done with my Christmas shopping list. The only ones that I need to buy gifts for are my husband, Bela and Cobi and my parents.

Among these individuals, it is hubby that I am having a hard time deciding what to get. My friend showed me some nice michael kors perfume and watch for men but hubby is not the type of person who cares for these kinds of things. He would rather get a toy than an expensive watch.

As for the kids, I will order everything online so it would be cheaper than buying it from Toys R’ Us. Bela is definite on what she wants and Cobi said he likes robots. LOL.

I can’t wait to finally tick everything off my shopping list.

This is the current wallpaper on my laptop:

Our latest family picture courtesy of our photographer friend, Jojo Francisco taken during Bela's 7th birthday party.

So what’s up with us? I have not been able to blog lately as we have been really busy. Well for one, I am so up to the neck with workload for my sideline work. This is very exhausting but I am thankful still as I really need this extra work to help hubby with all our expenses. Then we were also busy attending get together and advance Christmas parties specially last October to November where we attended 3 parties excluding Bela’s 7th birthday party. And of course, one of the major thing that kept us busy the past weeks was preparing for Bela’s 7th birthday party.

But the craziness of our schedule does not stop there as December is yet another busy month for us as we juggle from holiday shopping to attending parties, reunions and more.

So hopefully in between this, I can still get a chance to update this blog.