Wishlist Partly Granted: Our Christmas 2011

Christmas this year was, for me, very long and rather expensive . Haha! Well, it's the first Christmas I spent with a job (and therefore a healthy bonus + 13th month pay). Therefore, it only follows that there would be rather a lot of spending. Oh well, what's Christmas without the shopping and the gift-giving, right?

There are lots of stuffs that made this Christmas really good for me and my friends and family. For starters, my friends and I got together for lunch care of Paula (as her birthday's already near that day), which reminds me: I don't have a copy of the photos yet! And a Christmas party-ish night at Angge's. We also invited three additional people: Dave, Nike, and cute little Saab!

(Sorry, this is the best photo of Saab I could snap that night :|)

The best part of that night? Of course, the exchange gifts! Hahaha! I don't think most of us got what we wished for in our Christmas lists (or was given the right stuff, Paula?) but it was kinda fun 'cos I think it was the first time a lot of us has given in our entire years together. Also, Saab got to bring home a lot of gifts for herself, much to the envy of her mother. Haha!

At home, Christmas was also cool. I remember posting last year about our little (or not so) decors that are really cute. And here I am, making up for that promise about a year later. And with not so well-captured photos. Sorry! Anyway, here they are:

Our sparsely-decorated tree

Santa holding a lamp (you could actually light that candle he holds) and his dog, which I never could understand how it ended up there

A coffee table centerpiece with an elf and a reindeer

(Yes, that's our Christmas wreath along with Chinese ornaments--don't ask me why)

(Mr Snowman himself riding a sleigh)

(And our belen made of Precious Moments dolls)

We hardly decorate, because we don't really spend lots of days at home to appreciate them. Plus, we don't like the ligpitan part after the season. So, better to just set up a few that could easily be boxed afterwards.

Day before Christmas was rather exhausting. We did our last-minute shopping, because I was the one who would be providing for the finances (bleh) and that Saturday was the only free day I got from work (more bleh). I shopped with my sister and also my parents and paid for their finds, sadly.

Ria trying on a gray polo and getting disappointed that she's already at a medium size. Haha!

So she just settled for this lace-adorned top (because it's expandable!!!)

Noche Buena was even more of a blur because we had my nephew over and he was superbly energetic and chaotic. Food also came and went without so much of a second to spare. Which was why I only got to snap a photo of my favorite on our menu that night:

Leche flan with Macapuno!

Christmas Day itself, we overslept. True! We got up later in the morning than what we intended to do so. Hence, our trip to Tagaytay was uber delayed.

Yeah, we went to Tagaytay like we had been doing the past three years or so. Our actual stop was only the Pink Sisters Chapel. Boy, was it so cold in there that day! Maybe it was the pine trees or just the very abundance of plants.

Or maybe it was because we were at a high place geographically. But It.Was.So.Cold. Like I was already wishing I didn't wear a sheer polo or that I had put a cardigan over it. Gawd.

Anyway, after the Church, we went to get a bite. It was somewhere very special and dear to our hearts, especially my nephew's (who's the real reason we ate here): Jollibee!

(Kheeno was either uncharacteristically camera-shy that day . . .

Or really impatient over the length of time it was taking his bucket meal to arrive.)

But over all, regardless of the fact that the next day already meant work for me, it was a happy time spent with my entire family at a place that was filled with so much of the Christmas spirit.

It was also great that I got my hands on some of the really important items on my wish list:

(A pair of red flats from my mom!)

(Millennium Series' 2nd book: a gift to myself)

(And the 3rd as well--yeah, this too.)

(Finally, a non-movie tie-in covered copy of One Day: Thanks, Ms Jen!)

(Note: I didn't get to photograph the yellow and the black blouses from Jona and Paula. Sorry, as of writing time, both are still in the laundry. They fit well, though! Super thanks!)

In the end, all I could say is that Christmas 2011 was a very enjoyable event for me. It gave me the chance and the means to see my friends again (which had been an entire year, I think, after we graduated) and to see to it that my family had a really great time, too.

All of these happy things have made me look forward to an even better Christmas on 2012. That is, regardless of how others keep on saying we are not likely to see through another December 25 next year. I believe in God's promise to Noah, that's why.

Anyway, next post coming up is my year-ender. Hopefully, I get to post that before the end of January. Haha!

Have a safe and happy holidays!

Let's all go for a sleigh ride

Just dropping by to greet everyone a happy and loving Christmas! Enjoy the day with your family, greet your friends, and remember to great Jesus a happy birthday!

PS. Sad to be really sleepy and actually thinking of missing Noche Buena already . I wish I haven't had work yesterday, which meant no rest enough to have the right amount of energy to spend for the merriment of the season. I hope you're not like me!

PPS. Good thing I've already hauled in my presents, so nothing to miss much when the clock strikes 12mn. Hahaha :>

Photo Source

Please, please, believe me when I say this will be the last . . .

Let me begin by saying I have not the slightest idea why I'm even bothering to write about this. Somehow, I guess people expect me to. Heck, I even have the inkling they are just waiting for me to come up with all the necessary words.

But the truth is, I'm sort of unsure about my own feelings.

I know I'm hurt and yet I don't feel that hurt. Sometimes it's even like I feel I'm hurt because I know I'm supposed to be. There is still that nagging feeling, the regret, the would-have-been. But maybe due to this feeling being so much of a permanent resident in my heart, the pain is quite lessened.

In some ways, I wonder if I am already numb.

Sure, I feel pangs of it--sharply. Like the time I watched Breaking Dawn and saw Jacob and Bella's dance at her wedding. Or the time I got a call from him jokingly asking me if I haven't changed my mind yet. Or those little moments when my friends are asking me about it (especially that one time a close friend of mine even asked about how to find him on FB, gosh I didn't think I need that).

But after quite some time, hours even, I realize I hardly care at all.

And then just recently, I have come to the point of accepting a simple fact. That I'll never get over the idea of that one who got away but that I'm now able to move on. With a slowly but surely repairing heart and lots of new learning that would allow me to go through several more heartbreaks in a stronger way.

So now maybe it's time to finally say goodbye. No, I won't goodbye to that person. I'd simply say goodbye to how I feel--or have felt--about him. As I say over and over again, he is and will always be my best friend. He'll always, always have a special part in my heart and life.

But it is now time for him to be part of someone else's life and that much I know and accept. And so I'm letting go of everything: stupid conversations, cuddles, jokes, late night phone calls without talking, loud singing together, and ice cream fights. I am letting go of everything we have been before, to make way for what we separately are today.

I'm not saying it would be easy now, when I know it's never been all these years I've said goodbye again and again but still unable to stick to it.

All I'm saying is that I'm a whole lot stronger now and that I'm very much hopeful it would be enough to let myself out of this mess.

Hence, I'll end with a simple message for him:

Thank you for everything. Thank you for being my everything. You have shown me both pain and happiness and I'll forever be grateful for that. You will forever be in my heart, you will forever be loved by me. You still are and always will be the older brother I've never had and my best friend. I love you. Always have, always will.

Photos from: Uncomfortable Soul