Looking Forward To 2020

So this is the second day of Christmas. And it will last till the Baptism of the Lord. It is the shortest season in the Catholic calendar. That would be in January 12 next year.

How was your Christmas celebration? Ours was a quiet one with the family. I like all the reflections during the nine days of Simbang Gabi.

We exchanged gifts on the 24th. I like all my gifts. They are thoughtfully given. Nate and I played with his two water guns at the garden. He was the Blue Boy (with the blue gun of course and I was the Orange Lady. Precious moments with Nate.

I still can’t figure out how to attach photos here since there are no pictures in this tab’s gallery. They are all stored in my new phone. ♡☆. I am still finding it hard to navigate this gadget and update here on WordPress.

Do you also look forward to 2020? May the winds of change create a positive outlook for all of us.

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What Can I Give You This Christmas?

Whoa! I am reminded of this song every time Christmas comes.  Giving gifts  will always be a part of the Christmas celebration  and no matter how simple or how small your gifts are, they are appreciated.

♫♫♪What can I give you this Christmas?
Something sparkling to go with your eyes
I’ll give you the light of the Yuletide star
From the cold December skies

What can I give you this Christmas?
Something soft like the sound of your name
I’ll give you the hush of the falling snow
As it settles to the ground”♪♫♪

Are you still excited receiving snail mails during the Christmas season? Do you feel that sudden leap of the heart when the doorbell rings and the postman delivers them?   The lovely tradition of sending and receiving Christmas greeting cards has slowly been replaced by  more advanced  means like e-cards, video calls, Skype, Viber, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. It is far easier to get in touch with friends and loved one nowadays via social media. Gone (or almost gone) are those Christmas greeting cards lovingly chosen for their amazing and beautiful messages and  for their colorful designs. Hallmark cards are always the best when it comes to buying a good greeting card for all occasions. They have that lovely messages that fit every known celebration be it Christmas, birthday, christening and what not.  They always have several designs meant to entice  us to buy.  Nowadays though, I noticed that the shelves in some bookstores only allot a small space for this .

I still enjoy and I am still excited receiving snail mails be it during Christmas or on ordinary days when I  get lucky to get one instead of bills on utilities that I  have to pay.  My brother who lives in Tulsa religiously send us Christmas  greeting cards every year, a picture of the family so you can practically compare how the kids have grown from the previous years. A friend who now lives in Canada still send me occasional letters with Christmas greetings, a sort of summary on what they did and where they went for vacation during the year. It is always nice to hear from them even if we regularly communicate via phone calls and through the free sites like Viber. As long as one has an internet connection, it is so easy to get in touch. One could not replace their physical presence though.

What can I give you this Christmas? My special thoughts and prayers go to all of you my online friends.  May your Christmas celebration be a blessed and a happy one.

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I Love Sundays

Come, Lord Jesus.  Come and visit your people.
We await Your coming.  Come, O Lord.

It’s the fourth week of Advent, the final week that we have been waiting for.  It’s Christmas Eve in three days and then Christmas, the mixed feelings of sadness, of joy, remembering Christmas past with awe and wonder. A friend asked me once why Christmas sometimes makes her feel sad despite that the season is supposedly for rejoicing and feeling happy. I sometimes feel that too, feeling alone despite the people around you. There is nothing like the Christmas celebration of old, the times when you were younger and the wonder of Christmas filled your spirits with joy. Oh yes, I remember.

I remember the days back in our hometown when my cousins and I would attend Misa de Gallo or the dawn mass which we now call Simbang Gabi. Electricity was only in the town proper so  we would bring torches made of empty bottles with kerosene.  We had to walk more than a kilometer to reach the Church but what joy  were those days. We would sing Christmas carols along the way, shout to high heavens that it was too cold but the highlight of our mornings after  the mass would always be buying native sweets like suman and drink salabat (ginger brew) or rice coffee from grandma’s kitchen. It’s a far cry from how we celebrate Christmas nowadays, with all the commercial exploitation attached to it.

For some, Christmas is just another ordinary day. For kids, it’s another opportunity to have new gadgets to play with, more toys to collect and maybe  some money to put in their piggy banks. For most of us, there are financial burdens that we have to face, conflict with families or friends, endless problems  that make us wonder, where is the joy in celebrating Christmas?  It does not really matter how simple the celebration is, as long as we remember and be ready to receive the Christ Child in our lives – the message He brings, that of hope and love.

Josef and I attended the morning mass at St. Jude Thaddeus Parish and we were surprised to find the image of the miraculous Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary from Manaoag. It’s been ages since I visited the shrine, now a Basilica in Manaoag, Pangasinan.The church is one of the Philippines’ most widely visited Roman Catholic Pilgrimage sites. Pangasinan is my home province. There were vendors selling religious items outside St. Jude Parish. Josef bought  a St. Benedict cross  and I bought a ring rosary. We have them blessed right after the mass. The cross (a necklace actually) is for me while I gave the ring rosary to him and told him to put it in his bag all the time. I make rosaries too out of hematite beads and Swarovski crystals  and I was fascinated with how these vendors make the rosaries from plastic beads and twines. I love to learn that and it was nice talking to them in our native dialect. I got some discounts because of it.

It was a busy weekend and I look forward to seeing Nate again on Christmas Eve. A  blessed and joyful Christmas to all of you.

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