Favorite Holiday Moments 2012 {Part I}

I know. I know. Christmas posts are so 2 months ago. I was really busy during the holidays and was even busier when I returned to work.

Here is the Part I of my favorite moments last December.

1. Making ornaments for our white Christmas tree. Blogged about it here.

2. N@W Christmas party. It is always fun personally meeting online friends. Plus, Aki got a ninja shirt from the exchange gift. For a time, he wanted to wear the shirt all day everyday. Thank you so much Cheng. Recently, I learned that Laya loved the elephant watering can that we gave her. Yey!

3. In Franco’s family, it has been a tradition to go to Malvar, Batangas to visit Lola Maring, Franco’s paternal grandmother every December 24th.

Here, Franco and Lolo Tay,are in a middle of an exciting chess game. I grabbed the camera and took a couple of shots because watching them made me realize how fortunate I am to be part of closely knit family that really enjoys each others company.

My wish is for Aki to grow up having the same close relationship with his dad.

Oh, it has also been a tradition to have a family picture taken by the entrance door. The family has been doing this tradition even before Franco was born.

4. Before Aki went to bed on the eve of Christmas, we left milk and oreos for Santa. Hopefully next year we will have time to make cookies from scratch.

5. Speaking of Noche Buena, for Christmas last year, I honored Mama Ogie, my maternal grandmother, by trying to replicate her famous spaghetti. Her recipe was adapted from the spaghetti from South supermarket. I haven’t tasted the original South supermarket spaghetti but I remember how everyone loved Mama’s spaghetti. Franco’s family who also loves the South spag, noticed the resemblance and gave my spaghetti two thumps up. I actually think that my version is close to Mama’s but there is something missing. My mom agrees. We just don’t know what is that missing ingredient or step.

6. The day before New Year’s Day, we went to BF to have a family lunch with Tita Sor. My mom, my sister, Jana and Jyl were also there. It is always a riot when these kids get together.

7. There were so many things that I wanted to do during the long break. Of course, I only accomplished half of them. One reason is I spent two days reading and crying over Marley and Me.