Our Christmas 2007

How was your Christmas?

Ours was very hectic, busy, tiring but definitely happy and fun Christmas.

Pre-christmas dinner was spent with my in-laws and celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary. We just had simple dinner and exchange of gifts.

By 10pm, we all gathered at hubby's ancestral house in Pasig. It has been a tradition to spend Christmas eve cum reunion of all clan: Soriano-Bunas-Bugnot-Jose-Camacho-Santos here with the traditional gift giving, kris kringle and raffle. This year's party theme, RED and GREEN! (as if may xmas color choices pa!lol.) Again, since this is a potluck feast...I brought my ever-yummy chocolate fountain... another big hit with the kids and adults! Hahaha!

Sam got bike (again) from my in-laws, while Kuya Ico got semi-mountain bike from Tito Willy. Oh we got so much Christmas presents too...we got ang-pao's from our very generous Tito Willy and we won the Christmas raffle twice! Hahaha! Went home by 4am with three big plastic bags full of gifts. Kakatuwa! :)

Christmas day itself, I prepared two simple family meals in one day. Lunch for my immediate family wherein we had shrimps and baby back ribs fiesta. And dinner for Mike's relatives with grilled feast: liempo, pinaputok na tilapia, talong, ihaw dalag and nilaga for soup. Really yummy! And for desserts... bought supper yummy mango torte from Conti's, tiramisu cake, hubby's macaroni salad and Mommy's home made fruit salad.

Gosh...I can imagine my post-Christmas weight now?! hahaha! Really pigged-out this holiday season.

How about you, care to share how you spent your Christmas day? :)

Traditional Christmas picture by the tree

At my in-laws house: wacky family picture with Daddy,Mommy and cousin Dannah

the boys in red and green theme : brothers Kuya Jay, Robin, Mike and cousin in-law Winner

before noche buena. uuyy... my yummy choco fountain again!

Sam busy collecting her gifts

the grand matriarch.. Lola Serya and ever-generous tito willy (our Santa)

Christmas day. Lunch at home. With conti's mango torte! mmm... uuyy..may choco fountain ulit!

Craving for Razon's halo halo

While bloghopping around 7pm, I saw Vina's post on Razon's halo-halo.

Suddenly, I missed Razon's... I craved for their halo halo!!

I called hubby immediately and begged him to buy halo-halo before going home...

And so he did...

At exactly 9:06pm, hubby arrived with my halo-halo!! Yummy!! yummy!! bait bait ni Mike! Love talaga kita!! lol.

By 9:25pm, ubos ko na!!! (Bakit mabilis maubos pag take-out halo halo?!)

And now, it's 9:44pm ... I am posting the pictures na here in my blog. hahaha! almost real time ba?! lol.


Sammie here slowly scooping her halo halo... and yes, we allow her to eat inside our bedroom! I am one bad momma! lol.

Christmas List Goodies

Yup, start of the -ber months again... time to pick some Christmas goodies for our family and friends.

My Top Christmas goodies list: --actually, whole year round goodies!

1. Becky's Kitchen - for those oh-so yummy walnut fudge brownies! I love giving this for Christmas! So chewy and very affordable too! Nice packaging also. If you plan to give this for xmas, place your order weeks in advance.

Price: P280/box or P140/half --- ata! forgot the actual price na!

Try to visit their branch at Zobel Roxas St, Makati or better or check them out at Valle Verde 1, Pasig.

2. Adelina's Ham - One of my favorites! I love their boneless ham. Try buying the scrap ham too. Ideal for "baon" or "merienda". Very juicy! You can find them at Tiendesitas or Greenhills. But their main branch is at Kalentong, Mandaluyong (5316833)

3.HOPS (House of Polvoron) special pulvoron - think they have carts available at all SM malls. I love their bite-size polvoron. Price also affordable at P100/box or P50/mini box. Try getting the assorted polvoron flavors. Real good! :) My fave, polvoron with cashew nuts! :)

4. Conti's Mango Bravo - heavenly mango dessert! Affordable too at P700/box. Do check this out at Serendra branch.

5. Mary Grace for super soft ensaymadas and delicious cheese roll. Never fails to delight my clients whenever I bring them box of cheese rolls! hehehe! :)

6. Lord Stow's Bakery - I fell in love with Lord Stow's four years ago when my bestfriend forced me to buy 1 box of egg tarts. Actually, she forced me to bring the egg tarts as our "baon" for our all-girls movie date. It was P25/pc back then and it was really love at first taste!! I love how smooth and creamy the egg custard was made, and the softness of pie crust. Really addictive! My shopping visit to Podium or Glorietta will not be complete without buying Lord Stow's egg tarts!

You can get them at P35/pc now in boxes of 4's, 6's, 8's and 12's. Oh, you'll enjoy them more if eaten slightly warm! Makes the custard more soft and creamy! Yummy! :)

7. Krispy Kreme - Another winner for tokens/give-aways! Really loved their freshly-baked glazed donuts! Think I can eat 3 donuts in one sitting! Very bad! :)

What about you, do you have any goodie finds you can share? :)

Bed Weather Day

When I woke up this am, thought it was still dawn. I can see from our bedroom windows that the skies were dark and the neighborhood was very quiet. And thinking it was still early for me to get up, I decided to look at my watch and was surprised that it’s already 10:15am. Gawd!! Can’t believe I slept that long! I am not used to waking up late despite staying up ‘til the wee hours. Yet still I did … blame it on the cold weather outside! :)

As I looked at my daughter who was lovingly snuggled with her Dad, I am pleased from what I saw. She looks so peaceful and contented clutching her pillow and probably dreaming on a far away land. Hubby looked calm as well and in deep sleep after hitting the bed at 3am from a drinking spree last night here at the house.

I got up slowly and as quietly as possible, afraid to wake them up. I went to the kitchen right away and checked our menu for lunch. Hmmm… chicken afritada. Not bad. But I craved for different food this bed weather day. As I open our kitchen cupboards I saw something that made me excited. How about tuyo for lunch?!? I love tuyo and I miss eating tuyo so much! Perfect food for the rainy weather.

As I am typing my entry now, we haven’t decided yet if we will go out for dinner. For the past few days, we have been very lazy to move a muscle. We spent the long weekend watching videos, lazing around and just sleeping. Truly relaxing!

What about you, how did you spend your bed weather day?

Thank Heaven for Food Take-out and Deliveries

Don't you just love food deliveries and take-out food?!

Since it's a long weekend break, we've indulged ourselves with food deliveries and take-out food. I've been quite a lazy cook for the past few days and my ultimate solution: dial food delivery! It makes mom's life easier and stress-free with simply dialling the magic delivery numbers and presto... food ready right infront of your doorsteps! :)

Note our weekend indulgences below:

Thursday:

While watching "Ocean's Thirteen" DVD, we called Mc Donald's delivery at 11pm. Mc Donald's is the only 24-hour food delivery near our place.

Anyway, look at Sam's picture happily munching her favorite chicken nuggets from Mc Do!




Friday:

Due to typhoon, My mom and my sister's family stayed with us for the night. While enjoying our videoke concert, we again had sudden craving for late night snack. Pizza Hut delivery the only number to go! :) Got pizzas with stuffed sausage and cheese crust! Yummy! Don't you love Pizza Hut Palm Cards "Buy one, take one!" hehehe :)

Saturday:

We got call from my FIL that we will be hosting dinner for relatives from Canada. Hmmm... that was really spur of the moment advise huh!?! Again, since we got the advise quite late, I've decided to dial food delivery for dinner. I called Lola Idang's for 2 orders of kare-kare and crispy pata. Then I called the famous Ado's Panciteria for Miki Bihon Guisado pick-up. Bought pork barbecues along the way and MIL offered to bring ice cream and cake from Goldilock's. Express dinner feast ready in less than 1 hour.

Dinner went great with videoke party and bowls of Jollytime buttered popcorn re-capping the night!






















Sunday:

We had late night snack from Jade Palace. While watching "Bourne Ultimatum" on DVD, we were munching on siomais, siopaos and beef noodles! Yum, yum!! Sam loves siomai so much that she finished one order (4 pcs) of siomai in one sitting. Grabe appetite!!


Monday:

We had KFC chicken and rolls for snack at Megamall, but decided to buy Jollibee chicken for dinner. Grabe... Fast-food fanatics! Actually, it was Kuya Ico's idea to get Jollibee this time since he didn't join us for snack at KFC. Syempre, we can't complain!

Look how Sam loves Jollibee fried chicken! Pa-simple pa! hahaha!