Merry Christmas

And before the day starts, I  want to greet you all a very Merry and Blessed Christmas!  And Christmas clock says it is 18 hours, 53 minutes.

Thank you for another year of journeying with me.

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Still Counting

It’s a wet, wet Sunday morning.  It’s been raining since I woke and it looks like it’s gonna rain come Christmas day. A bed weather indeed.

It is the fourth Sunday of Advent.  So what season comes next after Advent? You’re right, it’s Christmas.

Last night I attended the 8th Simbang Gabi and it is also an anticipated mass for today. I was praying the rosary before the evening mass when my bracelet rosary chain broke and the swarovski stones were scattered on the floor. The elasticized chain gave up on me  after so many years of continued use.  I normally wear it when I go out.  Good thing I still have four more rosary bracelets made of different materials and were gifts from close friends.  I make rosaries as gifts but I also receive several ones from friends as pasalubong  (souvenirs) from abroad  mostly from Vatican, Siena, Spain and from the Holy Land.  I even have a  ring rosary sent by a friend from Italy.

I went out for a while to buy some fruits from the village store. Local fruits are more expensive than the imported ones, the latter mostly from China.  Mangoes, papaya, melons,  pomelo –  they have it all there.  Pears and apples are plenty so with imported oranges.

And the Christmas clock says, it’s one day, fourteen hours to go before Christmas 🙂

 

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It’s Getting Near

Remembering Christmas past.

This would be the first time that we won’t be complete on the 24th which is Christmas Eve. Josef still has to report to  work on the 24th but it is a special holiday here.  Nissa, Obet and Nate are coming over though but they won’t spend the night here because Christmas day happens to be Tuesday and they will spend  it with my son-in-law’s family. The following day is a regular work day.

In the past we would be busy preparing for Noche Buena  right after the evening mass and wait for 12 am  (Christmas day) to partake of the food on the table and open the gifts afterwards. We would always sleep late and wake up early again to attend Christmas Day mass.

I was looking at some of the photos I uploaded at  Photobucket and found  some Christmas photos.

We didn’t put up this Christmas tree this year because we have Oreo now.  He would play with anything he could reach and those Christmas balls would be added attraction to him. It’s a seven-foot tree. I don’t miss it much though because it is a little hard to dismantle it afterwards and clean all those decor before returning them back to their boxes. It is always exciting of course to put up a tree. Sadly,  we have never experienced having a real tree because we simply don’t have them here.  Even stores except for S & R and probably Landers now don’t sell real pines.  Next year, I’d like to decorate a small  one that would fit a side table.

And I’m in a quandary to take out or even display the gifts for the family this early. Oreo might play with them too. He played with my indoor plants last night 😦

This morning, I went to the wet market to buy some fresh ingredients for my pasta. I was thrilled when two of my sukis gave me a pretty small utility bag and a big bottle of patis (fish sauce). Such generous gestures. I receive gifts from them both every year.

Christmas clock says it’s two days, fifteen hours to go before Christmas.

 

 

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Quiet Musings

Remembering the image of our front garden years ago when we still had those Koi fish swimming in our small pond. They are all gone now and the Pandakaki, Fukien Tea plants and Gold Dust plants have grown. The carabao grass had become a little sparse.  I have replaced some of my plants with new ones.

I miss my Koi. I miss their  golden bodies  swimming back and forth and the sound of flowing water made them seem to dance.

Sometimes, you long for the quiet moments – moments of reflection, moments of contemplation, moments that you love remembering time and again.

And the Christmas clock says, it’s three days, 11 hours to go before Christmas 🙂

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Four More Days

The Christmas clock says it is only 4 days and 15 hours to go before Christmas as I write this.

Looking forward to Christmas Eve too when we will again  attend the Christmas Eve mass before we prepare something for Noche Buena.  I am planning to cook some more  recipes in advance so I won’t be so busy when the time comes. Would just want to celebrate the time with the family. Just made two kilos of embutido a few days ago and they are now kept in the freezer. You only need to reheat/steam  them again before eating.

I was looking at my earlier  posts on Facebook’s Memories on this same day until last year. They have also made a video on how 2018 went based on earlier postings. I found this photo I took of our Christmas tree years before.

I used to make these memes via my Canon Ixus camera but now my camera is gone and I haven’t replaced it yet.

And this too:

When I think of the years I’ve written about life, the beauty of it and all its angst, I sometimes wonder where I am coming from. The beauty of life, we celebrate it. We smile at those memories that come and go leaving us breathless at times. We embrace the life the way we should, anticipating another lovely day to celebrate. Yes, life is a celebration.

This paragraph is an excerpt from one of my earlier posts here at WordPress but I could no longer remember its title.  Senior moments, really!

After gardening  yesterday and an early scheduled  washing today, it is time to relax and just enjoy the Christmas music I am listening to from YouTube. Yes, I just love the Pentatonix.  I love this best, the Little Drummer Boy.  Oh but I love them all. Enjoy the music.

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Spelling Christmas

I always see these words everywhere. It seems as if the whole word is so hard to type that you have to write, “Merry Xmas”.   Christ with an X.  It’s just like those shortened version of text messages that sometimes you cannot understand.  How long will it take one to write the proper word with six letters compared to the four-letter word?

Accordingly, X can mean so many things. For example, when we want to denote an unknown quantity, we use the symbol X. It can refer to an obscene level of films, something that is X-rated. People seem to express chagrin about seeing Christ’s name dropped and replaced by this symbol for an unknown quantity X. Every year you see the signs and the bumper stickers saying, “Put Christ back into Christmas” as a response to this substitution of the letter X for the name of Christ.

There’s no X in Christmas

First of all, you have to understand that it is not the letter X that is put into Christmas. We see the English letter X there, but actually what it involves is the first letter of the Greek name for Christ. Christos is the New Testament Greek for Christ. The first letter of the Greek word Christos is transliterated into our alphabet as an X. That X has come through church history to be a shorthand symbol for the name of Christ.-  (Legonier Ministries)

I still prefer writing the word Christ though in Christmas, no abbreviations for me. It seems the meaning is lost when you just write X. Same thing with greeting someone with “Happy Holidays”.  Of course we know it is a holiday but for us Catholics, it’s a Holy Day.

So X is just the first letter of the Greek name for Christ.  Cristes Maesse or  “Christ’s Mass” is an old English term for “celebration of  Christ”.

Beyond the traditional festivities that we observe during December, Christmas reminds us of Jesus’ birth.  We start our nine-day Novena masses on the night of December 15 (for anticipated mass) and dawn masses early morning of December 16.  It’s a tradition for us. We call them Simbang Gabi or Misa de Gallo.  It is a unique Filipino celebration of  Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I’m Counting, Are You?

Santa says:

Right now, there are 
27 days
until Christmas 2018!

Really, how time flies and before we know it  Christmas is here. There is one thing that I’ve noticed though, Around this time in the years past, our subdivision and its environs were full of  Christmas decor and the houses  were brightly lit at night. This time around, most of the Christmas decorations that you see can be found inside large malls and those traditional places that they choose to erect huge Christmas trees  and those ostentatious decorations in their  areas.  Although our street has Christmas lights and lanterns lit at night, gone are those parols and decor that I see in each house that I pass. Signs of the times? Or is it too early yet  to put up those decor?

If you are an ordinary working employee earning just much nowadays, you’ll probably set aside buying decoration and spend your money on more needed grocery items and food. Gosh, everything has gone up from the lowly Christmas balls on the sidewalks to the more expensive trimmings in the malls. Groceries have gone up by as much as 20% and I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next twenty or so days, they would jack up the prices more. Such is the reality we have now.

Oh, they still have those weekend sales but then some unscrupulous and well-known department stores change  their price tags to higher ones then  put a 10% or 20% off on the item. If you are not clever enough to see it, you’ll be doped into buying higher than the original tagged price. They do it all the time and the unsuspecting buyer thinks he or she has gotten a bargain in the process. Sad, isn’t it?

I need to wrap a few more gifts that I bought earlier. I bought an additional one for mom. I bet she’ll be spending not just Christmas with us  but for a long time yet.

I’m counting, are you?

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Weekends Are The Best

Went to the mall again yesterday. I  bought some groceries, more ribbons  and  I am finally done with my Christmas shopping.  At last!

The Christmas clock says it’s 43 days  and  13 hours to go before Christmas. SM East Ortigas looks so festive and there was even a show for kids at the lobby of the mall. I enjoyed  looking around and finding those gifts I  would like to give to some friends this Christmas. I love the piped-in Christmas music. I think this is the best time to enjoy the season before  the shopping frenzy. Some are stocking up  on groceries too. If you would look at those families and people from all walks of life enjoying and eating at the many restaurants there, you would not even think that our economy  is going down the drain ( no thanks to the poor management of the present administration). Maybe some of them have already received their Christmas bonuses. Online, there are promos everywhere.

I love the glitters and the wonderful Christmas decorations in each store. I love the Christmas trees full of twinkling lights. I love the new items  displayed at their windows to lure shoppers. Window shopping is a nice pastime (sometimes).  You don’t have to spend your well-earned money left and right. The best thing is for you to have your shopping or grocery list and stick  to it. There are plenty of days more to check what you lack in your pantry before the big day.

Every Sunday morning before they go to mass, Obet and Nissa take Nate on a bike ride for morning exercise.   Those few hours of bonding and enjoyable moments.  Look at the world with a child’s eyes – the simplicity of things, enjoying the wind on your face, enjoying the ride. How lovely it is to feel free like a child again.

Morning exercise

Happy Sunday all!

 

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52 More Days

And here I thought my tab with pre-existing Facebook upload when I bought it was not working right  the past several days although I could still use it for my Moonreader.

Come to think of it, I could not log off from Facebook when I am using my tab. I read somewhere about Facebook issues with Android phones. Finally, it is now working again. I could now upload photos then copy them to my documents.  I didn’t bother to check  that there was a problem of Facebook with those using Android phones. I  receive this message always, Facebook  has stopped. I still use my reliable old PC when posting except when uploading  photos.

My kids didn’t grow up actually believing in Santa. They’ve known since they were old enough that Mama and Papa bought all those gifts under the tree. It is nice though that the image still brings the magic that kids  nowadays always look forward to.

I am not done yet with the decorating. I am just so excited to put up the garlands I bought yesterday. Josef has to secure them with thumb tacks.  I am thinking, do I have to put up  later the Christmas tree or not? It is hard to place something that Oreo can reach, he will surely play with it. He is fascinated by blinking lights as it is.  You can’t hang a tissue in the tissue holder without him playing with it so what I did was to buy a separate tissue holder and place it at the to of the tank where he can’t reach it. One time, I discovered that he played with one of my pencils.

And did I say, it’s 52 more days to go before Christmas? Advent is the next season I really look forward to.

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Saturday, Saturday

Perhaps you won’t believe this. I am finally done with Christmas shopping for family members and  my god-daughter. I had the chance to go back to the mall this morning  and made use of the time to roam around and buy Nate something for his birthday too.  They’re all wrapped and ready 🙂 Gifts for close friends will follow.

There is an advantage when you buy gifts early. The crowd is almost non-existent. You can choose gifts in your own sweet time  without having to hurry and fall in line at the counter.  Some areas  and stores have  brought out new Christmas decor already and believe me, they are more costly than last year.  Inflation rate here has gone too high and might be even higher come Christmas time.  Maybe next month, I’ll do the Christmas shopping for groceries that we will need come December.

The afternoon was spent at the garden trimming and pruning. The weather with a slight breeze is just right for gardening. I am not done yet though, there is still the carabao grass to cut.  Every month, we have to trim it.

I set aside reading for a while. Maybe I’ll try to catch up tonight.

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