Christmas 2011

This is a late post. I've been meaning to post this a few days ago and when I had the time the internet was too slow. It's a bit faster now thank God. Hubby and I spent our Christmas in Baguio, our third since we came back here in my homeland. We went there on the 21st traveling by passenger bus. We spent five days there and came back in the lowland on the 26th.

Baguio was so crowded. There were lots of tourist there this time of the year. It's still cool there but when we went to SM, my gosh that place was so crowded. We only ate there on the 22nd and after window shopping in the department store I felt hot and dizzy. We went to get a taxi and went to the public market instead and bought some fish and veggies.

On Christmas eve, Glo and family were the ones who prepared for our Noche Buena. They ordered cake and pancit palabok from Tea House, fried chicken from KFC and she made macaroni salad and bought carrot cake and empanada. I bought Spanish bread and pandecoco. At 12 midnight, George had a short devotion about the birth of Christ and after that we ate the foods that were prepared on the table. Next was the giving of gifts and picture taking of course. I went to bed around 2 AM that night. Happy birthday Jesus!

Taking Care Of My Face

I noticed lately that when I smile, I see the fine lines around my eyes. Oh my, my age is showing already, lol! I need to do something about it. It's really my fault because I've been too lazy these past few years to use anti-aging light therapy treatment on my face. I have bought one a couple of years ago, used it for a little while then I got lazy to use it afterwards. Now the result are these fine lines around my eyes.

I know that all of us will age as time goes by. We can't prevent that but I want to age gracefully. How I wish I have a fountain of youth to maintain my skin's youthful glow but that's just wishful thinking. I started using age-defying cream again a couple of days ago. I intend to do it regularly now. I hope to slow down the aging process of my skin. I thank God that He gave me all these years in my life and all His countless blessings and provisions. I pray that He will add more years in my life so I can serve Him longer.

Our Church Christmas Celebration

Our church had our Christmas celebration yesterday. We were supposed to start the program at 10 PM but it ended up at 10:45. Hubby said we were so late. I was so busy preparing all the gifts, wrapping and everything. It's a good thing one of my relative was incharge of the cooking of our lunch. We had chicken adobo, bottle gourd squash, rice, bananas and orange juice for all of us. All expenses were courtesy of our church fund.  Hubby and I prepared gifts for the kids and also for the mothers. We decided to give some chips for the kids and a bag of groceries for the mothers.

We started the program by singing Christmas songs. Then some kids sang a special song The Little Drummer Boy in front. The mothers did a duet Christmas In Our Hearts and then 4 moms rendered a couple of Christmas songs. I also sang Whispering Hope though my voice was not great. It was all for Jesus because we were celebrating His birth. 

Then we ate our lunch that was prepared by uncle Rudy who was in-charge of the cooking of our lunch. We had chicken adobo, bottle gourd squash, rice, bananas and orange juice for all of us. The expenses were from our church fund but the rice was courtesy of uncle Rudy.

After lunch, we had the parlor games played outside which were joined by the kids and adults. I was the one in-charge of the parlor games too. I let the the kids play first the "Fanning the Fan" and then the adults. That was a fun game and both the kids and adults enjoyed it. Then the kids played the all time favorite "Trip To Jesrusalem"  followed by "The Hot Item" Then we went inside and the kids had the Memory Verse contest. There were 5 kids who competed and the 8 year old Melissa won 1st prize. She was able to recite 30 verses. The 2nd prize went to 10 year old Dominica who was able to recite 15 Memory verses followed by Aiza who won 3rd prize who recited 14 verses, then Joebelle and Freddie won consolation prizes. I gave them cash prizes each, P70, 50, 40 and 20 respectively.

Then I distributed the gifts to each of the kids whose were present and the they were all 31 of them. Next hubby and I gave away the bag of groceries to the mothers who were there. We prepared a total of 13 bag of groceries for each families in our church. I've seen how happy those families were upon receiving their bag of groceries. I know it help them out because most of them come from a poor family.  

Shopping With Hubby

Three years ago, hubby and I together with my step-daughter and her family went to Traders' Village in Grand Prairie to shop. It was an hour drive from our place. There were lots of shoppers and merchants there and they sell all kinds of products ranging from clothes, furniture, groceries, vegetables, fruits and a lot of more. The reason I love going there is that there were trade show displays worth seeing and the price there is a lot cheaper than in the malls or stores. In fact, that place was so crowded and most merchants there are Mexicans. Our grandson call that place Little Mexico, lol!

We roamed around the place and I’ve seen a lot of gadgets like cellphones, MP3 players, etc. on a table top display in some of the market stalls there.  There were also a lot of shirts on sale with Texas prints in it so I bought some and sent it to my siblings in my homeland. They were cheap. I bought 3 shirts for 10 bucks. Not bad at all.

I’ve also seen some table covers on sale there and I thought it would be nice for our church to have that and use it during our fellowship, meetings and special occasions. They can be printed in rich colors and we can add our church logo. It's really cool!  

There were directors chairs on display that were made of hardwood. They were used for seating because logos can be silk screened onto them. It could be used in the house too specially in the patio. We can sit there while drinking coffee on a lazy day.  We went from one stall to another and we feasted our eyes looking at the merchants’ displays. We ended up buying a few stuffs and it's good hubby was with me because I can't carry it alone.

Where To Buy Nursing Scrubs

When I was in grade school, I dreamed of becoming a nurse when I grow up because I wanted to wear white uniforms, lab coats and scrubs. This dream did not materialized because as I grew older, I developed a phobia of going to the doctor and hospitals. Just the mere sight of a needle, blood and medical equipments made me nervous. Maybe you would say I’m weird but that’s me and I can’t help it. Whenever I see people working in the medical field, I feel jealous because they have the courage to work in that field and they get to wear those nice scrubs. I was wondering where do they buy those until I came across Blue Sky Scrubs. I guess that’s where they buy those nice and all cotton scrubs, designer nursing uniforms, and other scrub related apparel. Blue Sky Scrubs has a vast collection of scrubs which are made of a poly-cotton blend and are very lightweight but durable. They are made using the highest quality fabric designed to be stylish, even flattering on anybody. The scrubs are chic, professional and comfortable.

If I were in the medical field I would definitely order from their site at http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/categories/Scrubs/Scrubs-for-Women/Original-Scrubs/ because I like their style and colors. Blue Sky Scrubs are chic, professional, comfortable and on top of that, it’s made in the USA, It’s easy to find and shop for medical scrubs online but it’s difficult to find scrubs made in the USA. Most scrubs they sell online now were made overseas and the difference is astonishing. Blue sky scrubs have quickly become a must-have accessory for doctors, nurses, surgeons, and other medical professionals worldwide. Blue sky’s scrub clothes are not sold in any retail store, they can only be purchased online at their website.

Shopping and Eating

Today my hubby and I together with my 2 nieces and my youngest brother went to the mall. The main purpose was to buy a new cellphone for hubby because his cellphone quit working. We bought a cherry mobile cellphone with a very reasonable price. Hubby can use it also for facebook and e-mail. Hubby is not very particular with other features as long as he can call or send and receive text messages then it's fine with him. I was the one who picked the cellphone that he bought.

Then we went to buy some groceries and after that we went to eat to the newly opened restaurant inside the mall called Panaderia Antonio Bakeshop and Restaurant. It was our first time to try their foods there. I ordered spaghetti with toasted bread and chicken for the two girls, sizzling burger with veggies, mash potatoes with gravy and rice for me. Hubby ordered polloslab chicken with rice and veggies and my brother got a chicken barbeque with rice. We just ordered water because they didn't have ice tea. I sent my brother to buy us some ice tea in the grocery which is just behind the restaurant.

When our foods were served, I said wow! The foods look delicious and yummy. When I tasted it, it was so good! Hubby said he got so full after the meal. It's all worth it. We will surely eat there again and taste the other menus.

Here are photos of the foods we ordered:

 polloslab chicken with rice and veggies

sizzling burger with veggies, mash potatoes with gravy and rice

spaghetti with toasted bread and chicken

chicken barbeque with veggie salad and rice

Planning for the most special church Christmas play

Guest post written by Lily Goodman

On top of all the extra work at my job and all the preparations for our family's Christmas, I like to help out with the church Christmas play too. Now, the adults' choir have a special Christmas musical that they do. But I think that everyone, including the people who sing in that choir at church, always look forward to the kids' Christmas play a whole lot more. I'm helping out with the play and even though it's already turning out to be using up a whole lot of my time, it's by far worth it.

I've been looking for some tips though to help us make the Christmas play even better. While I was looking online for that, I ran across some information on a hearing aid and after I looked through it a little bit I decided to go and get fitted with one.

We're almost through making all of the costumes for the play, but now about all that I have to worry about is making sure that all the kids have their lines memorized in time for the play. Sometimes that's the most difficult party anwyay. But they've still got time before we have to start worrying about that too much!