It's The (Most Wonderful) Time of the Year Again…

… when I sit down and write our annual letter. I actually got the idea from Auntie Pesing when she sent me their 2003 letter then. I thought it was a good idea to recall and summarize the key highlights of the past year - if not for our friends and family, then for us.

(Somehow, it does remind me of my past corporate life where we had year-in-review for the company, groups and individuals. Those were not necessarily easy or enjoyable times specially if goals were not met for the period. )

As for "our life" newsletter, I really enjoy the writing and adding the personal note, even if sometimes the news is not necessarily all good news. I can't really say the same for the rest of the process (formatting into the stationary, printing, stuffing, labelling, stamping, etc.) It just takes up a lot of time! There must be a simpler way to do it!  

So I've been doing this since 2003 - so that's 5 years now and here's some of my thoughts:

• Today with this blog, the annual newsletter-writing is even easier because the details of what has happened to us within the year has already been written as it happened (or at least within week or 2, give and take). No need to rely on memory to recall what happened.
  
• The envelope preparation has evolved from handwriting all addresses (both return and recipient address) to attaching ready-made return address labels and pre-printed recipient labels. I think the next level is printing both return and recipient addresses on the envelopes themselves.
  
• Buying stationaries after Christmas makes the cost of the best-looking paper 75% less! That is for next year, of course.
  
• I analysed our distribution list and less than 25% do NOT have emails. Makes me wonder if they should be the only ones I send the snail mail newsletter next year… and the rest sent through email. I hope not to do bulk email though as I would lose the opportunity to add the "personal" note.
  

So for those of you who do receive our snail mail newsletter, do you prefer to receive it in email?

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The Christmas Story - For Nothing is Impossible with God

No, this is not a rehash of the gospels' first chapters...

Went to Dallas area two Sundays ago and attended the Stonebriar Church in Frisco. Chuck Swindoll preached about the Christmas Story. He emphasized Gabriel as the messenger of God's message and Mary as the recipient of God's message. Yes, Mary was going to conceive a baby even without knowing a man. For as Gabriel said, "for nothing is impossible with God."

And for all practical purposes, we are either the recipient or the messenger of God's messages, too. As messengers, are we bringing the message? As receivers, are we receptive to the message? Regardless, what encourages me most is that "with God, all things are possible"!

Meanwhile, the church has moved to the its new building which is adjacent to the old one. It's already decorated with the Christmas theme, so we took the photo opportunity. Wouldn't miss that, of course! (The Manigsaca's chatted and took a picture with CS, too...)


After church, we visited Jeff, Leanne and the kids. As usual Leanne whipped up a special meal for the 8 members of the Baranggay Manigsaca - Shrimp in Thai Red Curry and Sinigang na Bangus. And then they researched the directions to the X mark - where JFK was assassinated - but we ended up not going there since our chauffer was feeling sleepy and tired already.

Thanks again, Li! And just drive down south anytime... like when you feel like watching at Rockbox :)

PS. The photos at your house was with Joey/Shiela's camera - I will post it once I get copies from them.

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My Wish List

And another break … this time, from one of our sponsors. :)

Have not decided what to get yourself for Christmas? Not me! I have actually been "using" Amazon's Wish List for some time now to collect my wanna-haves. With online shopping becoming more prevalent these days, Amazon has continuously made it easier.

Anyway, back to My Wish List…I actually have posted this earlier (since last Tuesday) at the lower left corner of this blog. (I didn't place it in a more prominent spot because I am still a little bit shy of telling people what I want to get from Christmas. Hello!!! Now, that IS a great idea!) 

So, Amazon has this Wish List capability so that:

• You can have multiple lists.
  
• You can make each list private (only you can see those you'd like to remain secret) or public (so you can show others what you wish for).
  
• You can avoid spoiled surprises (like knowing that someone got you an item from your wish list) .
  
• You can send the wish list by email (or if you have a website/blog like moi, you can add them as a widget too!).
  
• You can add items from ANY website (not just Amazon)!!! This way, you can keep track of all you wanna-haves in just ONE PLACE. How cool is that???
  

Well, after checking My Wish List, go build your own Wish List in Amazon and post back the link here so that we'll know what what you want! :)

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The Singing Christmas Tree

Here's an idea for next year's Christmas events… Join a production of your local singing Christmas Tree (like the Francis family!) or go watch one (our family!)

Here are 2 videos of the actual show of the 2008 Bannockburn Singing Christmas Tree. This year's presentation was even better than last year's! Enjoy!

Apparently, this Singing Christmas tree is a well-know tradition here in the U.S. So here are some other videos which clearly show that the choir is ON the tree! And how to construct a singing Christmas Tree for those of you, aspiring producers of next year's Christmas shows!

Do you have a video of your favorite singing Christmas tree? Or perhaps any Christmas shows? If so, feel free to drop the link in the comments below.

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Bye, Sally!

We interrupt the "Christmas spirit" of this blog to say good-bye to Jaime and Sally Padilla. Jaime, ex-Intel Philippines, now works for AMD Singapore and has been on a business assignment here in Austin, TX. Their assignment has ended and are going home today. Bon voyage, Jaime, Sally, CJ and Chloe!

Thanks for showing us how to knock-out opponents on Wii boxing. One doesn't need to be as highly skilled as the PacMan, Manny Pacquiao - and not as highly compensated, too. :) I guess we do not need these boxing gloves.

Thanks for bringing out the precious Scrabble, Diamond Anniversary Edition that rotates to face whose turn it is! It makes looking for openings easier… even if Charmaine always wins :)

Thanks for putting up with us in your apartment for our get-togethers. We will miss your great view.

And we will definitely miss all of you. Maybe one of these days, we will stop-over and visit you in Singapore. That is, if you are not back to the U.S. by then! (wink! wink!)

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And More Christmas Decors...

I've successfully conquered the Christmas Tree, so why stop there? :)

I got inspired to decorate our stair banister after seeing a photo on the Real Simple magazine. (Photo on the right.)










Here's my version on the left… not an exact replica, but just as inpired. Whaddaya think?














And of course, more pictures...

As for the fireplace mantle… it was tough to make a choice on which Christmas stocking combinations to hang.


Guess which one won out? Tell me by clicking on ADD YOUR COMMENT below!

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Oh, Christmas Tree! Oh, Christmas Tree!

It's my first time to put a Christmas tree on my own.

Usually, I am just the assistant (read: one who hands the decors)/ supervisor (read: one who critiques) / clean-up crew (read: that one is self-explanatory… the artistic ones are usually not bothered with the menial stuff) for my brother, Oscar or my sister-in-law, Ann Janice. So … I was a bit anxious putting up the tree on my own because I was not sure if it would look as good as when it was done by them.

Well, I think it turned out quite alright…

That is, after putting on the lights, ribbons and decors , taking them down and then putting them back on THREE TIMES! Yes, 3 times! Just to get the right look! I'm not even going to tell you how long I had to do the Christmas tree. I don't have any elves helping me like others, you know (wink! wink!).

What I learned from this experience though are:

1. Control your excitement in hanging the decors. The lights go first. The ribbons and/or garlands second. And the decors come into the picture last!
2. The lower part of tree needs the most lights. My Christmas tree's lower third actually has about 200 lights on it! 

While doing all that multiple put up/take down of the lights, I actually thought to myself that I "needed" to buy one of those "pre-lit" Christmas trees. I did look at some of them in the stores but most have those 1-inch "needles". I didn't see any that would match my current Christmas

 tree's 3 inch-needles which looked like an Austrian Pine (Pinus Nigra) 

...  or perhaps the Philippines' Agoho.

Anyway for the first time, too, our tree is full of red decors. On the previous years, red was banned from the tree (and in fact, from the house!). We usually had silver and blue decors instead. The Christmas tree looks really better with red...

And to complete the look, I dug up some post-Christmas sale "curtains" I got from Ikea and put them as backdrop. Initially, Al said it looks like the Swastika curtains in Hitler's stage. I guess he has not seen a lot of other stage productions :). Eventually, it grew on him and he's accepted it. Actually, he loves it!

So did I do the Christmas tree "right?"? Whaddaya think?

Meanwhile, I'll show the other decors I put up tomorrow!

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It's Beginning To Look Like Christmas!

… even before the oh-so-rare Texan snowfall last Tuesday night!

Dripping Springs, TX (yes, that's the name of our small town) had its Christmas Bazaar last weekend and we checked it out. Not too many booths like the Founder's Day event but there are interesting things to see like:

• Ball décors with the Texas flag designs (Yup, Texans are proud!)
  
• Christmas clothes with Texas map shape designs (… really proud!)
  
• Carriage which Santa's supposed to ride on
  
• Mini-horse dressed like a reindeer :)
  
• Chandelier made out of elk/deer horns
  
• Wood furnitures
  

And of course, there were food booths and live music (after all, live music capital Austin is just a stone throw away) entertaining the bazaar-goers. Not much to see or do, really. So we did not linger much and then off we go...

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