Carl & Ellie

My grandparents were like this when they were still alive, simple and happy. I want that.

It's Christmas!!

Yay! It's Christmas! ...and, I have work. Sad. Sigh.

Oh? Bongga! Got to love SM. Ü

I LOVE CHRISTMAS! I really do. I feel like a child again, really excited when hearing Christmas. That's why it's sad for me to work. Well, actually I don't have work on Christmas Day but I have work on the 24th, which really blows because I love preparing anything for Noche Buena. But, itchowkey... I have to get a nice performance at work anyway. Ugh... Adulthood.

I feel very happy talking to baby Jesus in my prayers. I picture him very fragile and cute. I feel problem free talking to Child Jesus, it's like the world is so new again now that he is born. So advance Happy Birthday! I love you! hehe

Hi Baby Jesus!

Also what makes me happy every Christmas is Family. I love my Family! We are not the picture of a happy and perfect Family, but I love us just the way we are. Our Family drama makes it perfect for me to appreciate the small and good things.

[INSERT HAPPY FAMILY PICTURE HERE]

Of course, friends... They make me happy and blessed. I wouldn't be who I am now without them. What I love about them is that they're really understanding and sweet. Even though we don't get to see each other as often as before (juvenile times... woot!), I know the friendship is there and it stays... Just like Family.

BUT... what makes me happy (as well..) when Christmas is here is the GIFTS!!! (Yay!) I love giving gifts and having gifts for Christmas, that's why I have made a tradition for myself. Colleagues and friends usually give their gifts weeks before Christmas, some open theirs the minute they had gifts but not me. My tradition is I always TRY to open them on our Noche Buena Feast, it's something I look forward to when the clock strikes 12. Not weird, it just excites the inner kid in me.

Photo not me. hehe Ü

This Christmas, I have received a lot of gifts from my new office and friends. I left them still unopened and I can't wait for Noche Buena!

Another Christmas tradition of mine is to give myself a gift. I just think of it as a gift from Baby Jesus. My first gift for myself this year would be a planner. And this FILED Planner is so CUTE!!! I cannot wait to write on them and color the doodles! I discovered it at Saab Magalona's blog and she's having a contest for the planner. But I think I'm not the luckiest when it comes to contests and raffles, so I'll just buy instead. Here's their website.

Filed photos are from Saab's Blog

Isn't CUTE?! there are doodles inside you can color.

It has a pen holder too. NOICE!

  Another gift I'm so obsessing about is the KOR Hydration Vessel. I love using tumblers, unfortunately my favorite one from Starbucks was gone. It made me really sad because it was a Valentine's gift from Honey. But itchowkey... I found a replacement! hehehe I'm  getting myself the small KOR Delta so I could easily bring it anywhere (and it's a cheaper! *wink). What I love about this bottle is this is not just a bottle... it's a hydration vessel! hehehe Seriously, i like it because its design, very futuristic yet chic. And I'm obsessed with any colored purple (it's not obvious in my blog design... right?) I wish I could get one before the year ends! Here's where you can order.

This bottle, because of it's price, would be my only drinking container for 2012. Choz!

Cute!

Another thing I'll buy myself this Christmas is the Swatch Bracelets!

Cute Right!? I want all five of them! (...as if I could wear them all at the same time?!?!) I just wish Swatch have them here in the Philippines. I saw it on their website and it's a bit pricey for this kind of bracelet. So if ever Swatch have them here I'm just going to buy the red one first... hehehe. My friend has a bracelet like this, a black one, but she found it in Greenhills Tiange. So if I can't afford all of these I'll just go to Greenhills. *wink 

I know Christmas is very near, like 5 days near - and I can't buy this in one spending galore just for me to have something on Christmas day. I'll just have them on my list and probably get a hold of them by the end of the year... or by the end of January... Or Feb. Arggghhh! I just want these stuff for Christmas! So If you are really true, SANTA?! This is what I want inside my Christmas Stockings, OKAY!? hahaha

Advance Merry Christmas People!!

Still Singing Pabasa.. Still The GREAT Pandesal!

I adore traditions! Yeah... I do like contemporary things, but there's something about traditions that make me feel a Filipino or part of something cultural or part of anything else. Just the feeling that I belong to this certain kind of people who did the same stuff, that kind of feeling... I think... makes me love doing traditions. It's also like giving respect to the elders who were part of these events. I also think there is this classy feel to doing traditions because you know it'll happen again and again and again. Traditions reminds us of where we came from and it helps us understand why everything around is this and that. Well that's how I think it is.

 One of the traditions I love doing is helping the Tanaga Circle. It's a community thing in our place in Bulacan where young peeps (ehem..) do stuff like what our elders did during their youth days. I think Tanaga Circle is almost 70 years (?), that's why it's a big responsibility for us to preserve the organization and it's existence. One of our first event for the year is the Pabasa.

People From Our Community Reading the Pasyon

We are not SLEEPY ...yet. zzz.

   Pabasa is a Holy Week affair in the Philippines where you sing the whole book of Pasyon or Passion of the Christ for a day without stopping (well... you can actually stop but make sure there's a reliever). Pasyon is a verse narrative of the suffering of Christ, so obviously no one can finish the whole book in one seating. But reading the Pasyon is actually fun because you sing the verses while refreshing your knowledge about the story of Christ (so it's not really boring at all, especially if you're around with cool people [ehem..]). This is also my means of sacrifice and giving back to Jesus, remembering what He did for us on His journey to save humanity (naks!).

 Of course in every Filipino event food is always around. As I have said earlier, Pabasa is a whole day thing and we, as committees, have to at least prepare something to empower the readers. Tanaga Circle is well supported by the community that's why food were just coming and coming and coming in. People there donated eggs, dinuguan (pork blood stew), Puto (steamed rice cake), coffee and sodas and a lot more for the midnight chow. Many of our neighbors also gave food for lunch, but I wasn't able to attend because I was still sleeping (I stayed up late for the Pabasa).

Eggs Section

Tanaga Members preparing food

 Because of work, I came in late at around 11 PM. People already started reading when I arrived there, so I sat in and tried to catch up with the beat they were singing. After a while I went to the food area where friends and relatives prepared food. Eggs were served sunny side up or scrambled, depending on your request (breakfast buffet style! haha). The dinuguan was great! Steaming hot and tasty... perfect when paired with Puto. Then comes the steaming, freshly baked Pandesal!

Mauricio's Pandesal... Classic but still the best

 I rarely eat this Pandesal because I live in Manila and it's only best eaten when it's freshly baked from the Pugon (wood fired oven). They only sell this I think at 4:00 AM, and you can buy it straight from the Pugon or from the delivery boys on a bike with their slightly annoying little bike horns. I have tried a lot of Pandesals already from Pan de Amerikana of Marikina to Pan de Pugon, but nothing beats the kinalakihan (shoot... hard to translate...) or the Pandesal you grew up eating since childhood (? hehe). Yes, Pan de Amerikana's Pandesal is tasty and HUGE same with the Pan de Pugon and the rest but Mauricio's Pandesal is different in its small ways. It may be small but it's very tasty. There's this slight crunch on the crust and a very soft and a little chewy feel on that white area of the bread.

This Pandesal is part of the traditions we do in Bulacan. A bite from this humble bread reminds me of my Lolo and Lola preparing breakfast. Another bite would be a memory of some funeral (funeral...  because we sometimes stay up and wait for the fresh Pandesals). Another bite would be a memory of me and my cousins cracking up eating pandesal at 5:00 AM drunk (hehe). And last would be the Pabasa where people I know from our community is actively joining, helping and singing to preserve our Catholic and community tradition.


x
Mac Clemente