Welcome, 2012!

Let us welcome year 2012 with a positive attitude!

I am not really the type of person who wastes time trying to come up with a list of New Year's resolution knowing  that I will only be faithful to them until the later part of January. Since I really can't keep them (and I have this feeling that nobody does) I might as well save myself from the trouble of listing them down. 

Instead of composing my New Year's resolution, I just welcome each and every new year with a prayer asking Him to be with me, and with the people I love, all throughout the year and the years to come. I believe that no "Feng  Shui" can guarantee anything and that we are living in the world where there was really no assurance of anything. The best thing that we can do is to PRAY. Let us pray for His guidance. Let us pray for His protection. Let us pray that He strengthen our faith and that He will be with us as we take each and every step ahead. With HIM by our side, we can never go wrong.

Have a blessed and a prosperous new year, everyone! XD

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Tonight will be the Christmas Eve. Although this is not the merriest Christmas to some people, especially to those who suffered unimaginable loss because of Typhoon Sendong, let us still give some time to commemorate the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ. Let us also thank Him for all the blessings He had showered upon us this year. 

Merry Christmas, everyone! Stay safe and God bless us all!

Typhoon Sendong --- A Tale of a Broken Christmas

The streets were dazzling with Christmas lights and were adorned with Christmas symbols like belen and Christmas trees. The air was filled with Christmas songs. The city's sole shopping mall and the leading shopping centers were all buzzing with shoppers who, amidst the absence of abundance in terms of financial aspect, were trying to make both ends meet just for the spirit of Christmas. Houses are never without Christmas decorations like parol and Christmas trees. Everybody was, indeed, busy preparing for Christmas. No one really knows what was bound to happen. 

On the night of December 16 (for those who do not know, December 16 marks the start of Christmas here in the Philippines --- that's the first day of Simbang Gabi and Christmas caroling officially starts on that day, too), it rained so hard. As a city that rarely experience a typhoon, the people here never expected that the worst calamity this city will ever experience was bound to happen that night. 

The heavy rain which was accompanied with very strong wind didn't stop that at around 1 AM the next day, December 17, rivers overflowed. In just a matter of seconds, the muddy flood water ran higher than the houses. People had to swim for their lives or stay on the roofs of their houses to survive. And I am not only talking about adults here but kids and babies, too. The agony didn't stop there. Big logs were also going with the flow, knocking houses and people along its way. One whole subdivision is, in fact, wrecked by these giant logs, killing more people.  


The flash flood lasted for a few hours. And when it finally went down, the damage was unimaginable. Millions of properties and hundreds of lives were lost. 


The past few days had been a shock to everybody. They were spent saving survivors and finding the bodies of those who weren't able to survive. Victims were jam-packed in evacuation centers where they have nothing decent to wear, nothing comfortable to sleep on, no foods, no potable water and no decent comfort room. They only have to depend on the help that were coming in the form of relief goods. And yes, they are sure to spend the upcoming Christmas Eve this way. 


As I watched the news last night, I learned that almost 500 people were confirmed dead and that's aside from another 500 missing people. And that's from the city I am living in alone. That doesn't include the victims of a neighboring city who suffered more loss as much as we did. Now tell me, what kind of Christmas awaits these two cities?


Life must go on, yes. But for those who lost their properties and their loved ones because of this calamity, life will never be the same. :(

The Prettiest Mom!

We were on my four-year-old's Christmas party when his teacher asked to bring her the "prettiest Mommy around" during the "Bring Me" contest. Without a second thought, my son looked at me and exclaimed, "You, Mom!" 

That was pretty touching. 

Admit it, when the kind of responsibilities we faced on a day to day basis, sometimes, we hardly had time to comb our hair. But remember, no matter how we look, we are always the prettiest moms in the eyes of our kids.

And hey! Kids don't lie. *grins*

Advance Merry Christmas to all the pretty moms out there! Stay beautiful! :)

Quotes on Parenting (II)

Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.

Larry Wilde

Christmas Is Here!

Finally, December is here! It only means one thing --- Christmas is just around the corner. All these Christmas lights and Christmas decorations and Christmas songs from the radio are all making me excited. But know what excites me all the more? To see that my kids are thrice as excited as I am! Seeing the excitements straight from their eyes reminds me of my childhood Christmases where opening gifts full of sweets feels like heaven. 


Ahhh... Those were the days...