Hippie Holiday!

Seasons of Love

6^th day of the Christmas month

19 degrees recorded atmospheric coolness in urban air

It’s time to experience my favorite season of the year again.

I don’t know, but it feels like everyone is taking it slow during holidays.

We don’t mind the traffic

We often max out on our money power

Just to give the best gift to our loved ones

It’s the time when giving is a trend.

I like the cold weather

I like the glowing decors everywhere

I like the Christmas songs playing in anything audible.

I like the waking up for the 9 mornings.

Though it happens every year,

We still seek to have a better definition of Christmas all the time

This year has been challenging for me

As it has been challenging to our country.

A prayer can equal to the most expensive gift man can ever afford

A prayer especially for the innocent people of Maguindanao.

A prayer for the people who survived the storms.

A prayer for everyone – May we all have a blessed holidays this year.

A happy season of love to you all!

MY CHRISTMAS

Finally, I have this opportunity to blog again. For the past few days, my blogging was a little erratic because of work and urgent preparations for Christmas. I know Christmas is done and over and its quite a sure thing that all of us had a blast- still I would like to greet you all a very warm and happy Christmas!

It has been my mother’s aim to always hold a family gathering in our house every Christmas day. Well, this is only the second year that we held a sort of Christmas party in our house and we are all looking forward to keep it as a yearly holiday tradition. It’s nice having fine time with relatives who have been away not just because of proximity but also because of time. There may be a mix of sad and happy stories on the talks, but the idea of sharing moments and year-long anecdotes are simply priceless. Now, to make the gathering a little tummy-friendly, we prepared meals which are western-inspired. My eldest sister took the place of our head chef and cooked roasted chicken, spring rolls, tomato and mushroom pasta, garlic bread, some chicken soup, and macaroni salad. The night before, we had red wine and cheese just to stay up until midnight of the 24^th.

Now, our house was filled with kids who can’t wait to open their gifts. Good thing that I am wonderfully armed with gifts for grown-ups, kids, “inaanaks”, family, friends and neighbours. I went a little away from my set budget but I ignored the wallet slimming because I always find join in giving. A warm gratitude and a genuine smile will always inject positivity in me. I especially enjoyed the moment when kids gone crazy as I hand them loot bags of candies and chocolates as my final gifts to everyone.

A find this long holiday break so nice because I can rest and catch up on my tons of readings and yeah, blog away. Also this can give me moments to reflect on how 2008 went about and how can I make 2009 a better year for me. Opps, New Year is a different thing, so better cap this off with a hope for merrier Christmas next year. I hope you guys had a really happy celebration, and of course took time to visit the church along with all the eating and drinking.

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE AT HOME

Hello everyone! Feeling the Holidays yet? Well me, definitely! Seeing Christmas trees makes feel Christmas in a whole definitive way. Its very concrete and its like the lights and colors are telling you the festive season is in again. From last year's 3 feet tree, we now upgraded to a 5 feet giving us more room for colors and decors though we opted to scale down the accents to 4 kinds only. This year, we decided to have bright orange as main color.

Everyone, meet Khalel- Holidays 2008 official Christmas tree of the El Claves households.
The total cost to have this kind of tree? Hmm, a little less than two thousand bucks. So you, can you show me your tree?

ABS-CBN CHRISTMAS 2008 STATION ID

Whenever I would see this new Christmas themed station ID of ABS-CBN before the late prime time news,no other thought will really be conjured but excitement for the holidays. I don't know if i have this bias or anything, but I believe that ABS-CBN always outwit their rival in making quality station IDs. More than the visual treatments and the concept, I think its the genuine message they relay that makes it very pleasing and highly felt.

I hope you guys will be inspired more by Christmas spirit after watching this.