Le famille spent the hols in Baguio from Decemeber 22 to 26. We were 45 in all including the kids. Half of us rented a transient house for five thousand a night. The other half stayed in my sister's house in Baguio. Then each of the adults contributed 550 pesos for food. We had a party on Christmas eve, we exchanged gifts, had parlor games and sang Christmas songs. The kids were happy with the toy gifts they recieved and wanted to play with their new toys the whole night. Mum offered a long closing prayer then we chatted while sipping coffee until after midnight.

We also went to church last Sunday then had lunch out afterwards. We went in groups and I ended up joining my eldest son and his family at Yellow Cab. Soon after my other nieces found us and joined our holiday lunch out. I was hoping son will invite me to have coffee at Starbucks come evening but he didn't. I want to have coffee at Starbucks in Baguio as I love the ambience of the coffee shop and the fact that it's very cold as the wind blows in there.

Mum's birthday cake

Le famille

It's urgent I should blog before December ends. Mum's birthday bash was a big success. Her guests were so blessed by how well we tried to make Mum happy on her 80th birthday. My comic brother in law composed and recited a poem in praise of Mum. Then with the help of his two daughters he sang Only You to Nanay.

We were dressed in our finest and in all imaginable shades of purple. Even the three layer birthday cake was purple and white. Beautiful!

Of Nieces and Party Dresses

One of my nieces, Carla

I promise to blog more often this month of December. I really haven't found the time yet to put links on my blog, invite friends, and join blog explosion so I can generate traffic to my blog.

Anyways, I have already finished the party dresses of my nieces Nimai, Sara, Carla and Dianne and the dresses of my granddaughters Betina and Chloe. Nimai's and Sara's dresses were lavender pink tafetta with chiffon and organdy combination. Carla's and Dianne's were a daring violet shade. I think Betina's and Chloe's dresses will be the knockout ones as I even told their parents Bird and Chi that the design of their daughter's dresses were Tessa inspired. The style is not only daring but fearless that only my granddaughters can carry with aplomb (?).

My sister and her family arrived last Thursday from NZ to spend their month long holiday in the Philippines. And know what I got as their pasalubong? A pocket talker! This is an assistive listening device, a sound amplifier and I'm learning to use it now. I wore it at church this morning and some church folks were looking at me, maybe wondering why I should wear an ipod at church. I didn't bother to explain that it's not an ipod but a pocket talker. I can now hear sounds and speech altho I still miss some words, it's better than not hearing anything at all. I'm able to hear music as well and I find myself tapping my feet to the music. I think I will have to write in a separate post my feelings about hearing thru the pocket talker.

Tomorrow I will have to work early so I can finish the dresses of my other nieces Trisha, Jillian and Janna. There is a dawn watch at church beginning tomorrow until Saturday, December 8. I hope I can join but I have to finish the dresses. Sad.

It's already quarter past 11 in the evening here but I am not sleepy yet as I had an evening coffee to go with the donuts my future son in law brought here early this evening. I pray to God the tomorrow will be lovely, stress free day and I will be able to finish the dresses I'm making and my nieces will be very happy. I ask God for strength and joy without grumbling I may be able to work for His glory.

To scrub or not to scrub, that is the question

It's two weeks to go before mum's 80th birthday and there are lots of things more to do. I have been waking up very early one week now. This morning I woke up at 4:30. Tossed in bed for one hour and decided to rise up a 5:30. I did some singing and praying to the Lord but I can't say it's quality time as my head was full of so many things. The design for the children's dresses, the walls I have to soap and scrub. Should I scrub or should I sew dresses first. If I scrub all these walls I'm afraid I might develop a frozen shoulder. This happened to me before. If my shoulder gets frozen, how can I sew the dresses. If I hire my sister's househelp to do the scrubbing there will be soap and dirt all over the house and the dresses I am sewing will get dirty. Besides I'm really not good at giving instructions and supervising a househelp. And the dining chairs I have to upholster. Arrrgh! And mum's being fidgety already. :(

Sentences

Pesky mosquitoes are under the computer table biting my legs.
My Chinese brother-in-law was confined to the hospital. He had dengue.
I bought a delicious pomelo for 85. pesos.
I am making party dresses for my nieces and grandaughters.
I have to scrub and soap the walls of our house before mother's birthday on Novemeber 30.
The motif for the birthday party is lavender but it isn't easy to stick to one shade and I ended up buying a blue violet lace material for my dress. It looks black. Fits me well as I am some sort of a black sheep and a prodigal daughter.
But because of God's severe mercy I am now an ordinary sheep not black anymore.
I have to re-upholster our dining chairs as the old upholstery is 15 years old already. I can do upholstery, all it takes is common sense.
I dont know when I can invite my friends and my sisters to read my blog. They are very conservative and serious people.
I want to make a sweat shirt with grey and maroon colors, the colors of my blog. Then I will have it printed with joysandblessings.blogspot.com at the back and Blessings and missing the sound of rain in front.

Sleep

It's ten in the evening here and I'm yawning already. All day my mind was full of lots of things blogworthy but all these thing are gone now. How I wish I had a laptop so I can blog in bed.

I'm trying to change my sleeping and waking time and last night I was already in bed at ten quarter. I usually sleep around 12 midnight and I wake up at 6:30. I think I'm losing much sleep and I'm worried it will have a detrimental effect on my health. So I was able to sleep at 10:30 last night but a woke up at 4:30 this morning. It's good to wake up early, though. It's pleasantly cold and I was able to pray and study my bible without anyone disturbing me. So they say, early to bed, early to rise, makes you healthy, wealthy and wise. Ok,ok.

Goodnight for now, sleep tight, sweet dreams.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Tessa's Eyelashes

It's raining outside and coffee tasted better this rainy morning. I have just arrived from the talipapa a block away from our house where I bought fish and veg for lunch and a heavy bunch (2 kgs) of bananas for breakfast.

I have finished studying Lesson 9, days 1 and 2 of the Book of Exodus. For my morning prayer, I will do it before lunch. I suddenly remembered I should have bought a newspaper so I can read about the mall mayhem. Daughter asked me what mayhem mean. I told her to just derive its contextual meaning from what she sees on TV. Speaking of TV, I was able to see the Celebrity Duets last Sunday where Tessa Prieto Valdez won. ( She said she will donate her 1 million prize to her ten charities). I always see Tessa on paper as she writes a weekly column for their family owned Inquirer newspaper. Well, Tessa was never afraid to be herself on broadsheet and on TV. We're no longer under a dictatorship anyway. But I have yet to decide whether to like Tessa or not. Her dresses, her lifestyle, and her guts and her eyelashes... well they're outrageously controversial. But Tessa has a right to be herself. She gives to charities anyways. And the fact that Tessa has one cool husband proves Tessa could be a cool person herself. Onstage while Tessa was delivering her eternal thank you's her husband kissed her gently being careful not to brush his face against Tessa's magic eyelashes which looked like tiny wings of a fairy. You gotta be a really cool husband in order to accept and kiss a wife wearing such kind of eyelashes. Remember Martin was never cool when he called Pops a slob as she had a habit of leaving her false eyelashes in tthe sink and everywhere according to him. But Tessa I think will not leave her eyelashes in the sink. I think she will put it in a case as they were fairy wings.

Daughter rented a cd of The Pursuit of Happyness and I watched it twice and cried twice.

Outside I think it's still raining but all I can hear is the incessant monotonous low howling inside my left ear and the sound of my typing in this keyboard. I can't even hear the click of the mouse. I will have to go down now to pray and open the day to the sunshine of God's blessings. It's alright even if I miss the sound of rain. God loves me and I love Him back.