home improvement

Renovations continue at home so off my mom and I went to Home Depot to check out new blinds for our bedroom window.


Also had to look for tiles to match the current bathroom tile above. Visited 3 home improvement superstores in Ortigas before we found something that um, kinda matched.

SM afternoon

After looking for bathroom tiles and venetian blinds, Mom and I dropped by the smallest SM Mall in Metro Manila -- SM Supercenter Pasig in C-5. This is the view from the Coffee Nook. Was waiting for Mom who had to replenish our toilet paper stock at home -- oops, that's something you didn't need to know. Hehehe.

happy to belong

Due to my severe coughing, colds and laryngitis (and last weekend lang, diarrhea) since January 1, I obviously failed to attend the start of the Centennial celebrations. Such a shame. Thank God for good friends / MA classmates who got tons of pictures to immortalize the day. Again, Happy Centennial to an institution I have learned to love and respect.

I think that I shall never see...

An update on our real Christmas tree: yep, it survived -- barely. Thanks to the loving care of our helpers. I took this picture New Year's Eve. O say niyo.

World Pyro Olympics?

People, if you've attended the World Pyro Olympics at Mall of Asia, you would know what it means to see the entire sky light up with fireworks. Last New Year's Eve,

Ciudad Grande Vill was bombarded by fireworks, one bigger, louder and more colorful than the next! Kaya yun, while we were all at the second floor terrace enjoying our 360 degree view of the sky, poor C.M. the dog refused to come out of the dining table all night.

Below is one of the videos I took of the fireworks display my dad prepared that night...

treasure hunt!

Right after the fireworks, we all went to the sala para simulan maghanap ng pera all over the groundfloor. But before that, nagpasabog muna kami ng confetti to officially start the activity. Looks great sa picture, di ba?

For several years already, instead of actually hiding the coins all over the place, we have been hiding other stuff with written amounts of money on it. This way, mas kakaunti ang chances na may actual coins na hindi na makita, ever. This year, I used decorative white stones and hid them all over the house. The total amount of the coins were over P1,000 so it really took me about an hour to hide everything in every nook and cranny. People really go wild while looking for these things. Kesyo bata or matanda, wala munang kapamilya sa treasurehunting -- kinakarir talaga eh! As usual, ako din ang redemption center.

Media Noche feast

Sorry guys, I didn't take a picture of all the dishes but here are some of the new ones. (From L to R, clockwise) Pica-pica bowl of hotdogs, squid balls and kikiam while we watched the fireworks from the terrace; one of the lasagna dishes c/o Gladys of course; the chocolate coins my mom scattered all over the house (I had to gather those before we went to bed kasi kasing laki ng pusa ang mga daga sa groundfloor namin eh); and lumpiang shanghai. I didn't get to take a picture of the soup prepared that night by Auntie Lea -- chicken in cream of asparagus (naubos agad kasi eh!).

My dad made his famous kare-kare (the one he makes every New Year's Day), based on a recipe my Lola Mamang passed on to him. Since he made enough for one barangay, we must have consumed that thing for one whole week (and to think ang daming binigyan at pinadalan!). Hindi ko na siya nakunan ng pic kasi nagkasakit na ako January 1 pa lang. Hehehe.

Last Friday of 2007

Got together with Chet and Julie at The Podium. Chet treated us to Roma Mia -- finally establishing that the place has replaced Bon Appetit in her heart. We walked off what we ate hanggang napapunta kami sa mga couches littering the mall. People-watch muna kami.

We helped Chet check out the competition so we had coffee at Segafredo, the Italian coffeeshop on the second floor. Check out the picture of a "Christmas pizza" Julie's holding. The "sale" sign behind me and Chet is an Addidas outlet. Chet bought gifts for Christmas 2008 there, can you believe it?

Ayaw pa namin umuwi, so we had dinner at Sanctuario in Metrowalk. It was crowded so medyo diyahe kami magpictorial. Still we couldn't resist taking a picture of Julie in, uh, red. (blurry ang picture, but you get the joke, right?)

It was the last Friday of 2007, super daming tao sa Metrowalk. We walked around for awhile after dinner and saw these uh, human statues hamming it up in front of a restaurant. Since Julie and I had a hilarious incident with one of these people a couple of years ago, I took out the digicam and asked Gladys to take a picture of me and Julie with them. Curiously, they gravitated towards Julie instead of me, echoing the funny (but true) story I shall call "Julie and the Eastwood Human Statue".

just us girls

Kahit kakaunti lang kami nung Pasko, us girls still made the most of it and did everything to make the holiday as fun and as memorable as possible. Kaya kailangang may picture din kami. Hehehe.

for the boys

My nephews Curt and Lance asked us every half hour since they arrived for Christmas Eve dinner if it was time to open the gifts already. Since Curt couldn't read yet, his kuya Lance read the gift tags for him. Hindi talaga sila makapaghintay. Hehehe.


Para ma-divert attention nila, I gave them bubblemakers. Sadly, that didn't hold their attention for long. In the meantime, Wig and Pico played the memory game with some Disney cards. I told them that the winner gets a great prize so go na rin si Pico even if he knew he'd most likely lose to Wig. At yun nga nangyari. Good sport talaga si Pico. Hehehe.

Mom and Gladys also gave little "extra" gifts to the boys every hour till midnight. Buti na lang, mababaw ang kaligayahan ng dalawa. Hehehe. The picture on the right is Lance pretending to sleep after he got all his gifts alreadly. Gusto na niya umuwi. Hehehe.

picture picture!

Unlike past Christmas Eve pictures, there were only a few of us in this Dec.24 '08 shot. Here's why in a nutshell: Auntie Kris is no longer with us, Lola Auntie was sick and couldn't make the long drive from Quezon City anymore so her sons Uncle Jule and Uncle Mar decided to stay with her, JR was in bed with a fever (we thought he had mumps at that time so we even quarantined him in his room -- poor guy), my cousin Coco had to work that night, his wife and bunso were with her family, Pico's wife is in Singapore, and my dad was already back in the bedroom watching TV when we took this picture. Di bale, masaya pa rin naman kami sa picture, di ba? Mga bagong kain eh! Hehehe.

P.S. Sorry readers, got sick again so ngayon lang ako nakagawa ulit ng blog entry. Anyway, more holiday pictures to follow....