Protect Your Family Said the Pope

Hello hello hello!

Is it just me or  is every 1 out 5 people that I know getting sick nowadays? That includes me. I have not been able to report to work for 2 days. The very moment that I sneezed, I knew immediately that I caught my officemate’s virus. As soon as I got home, I drank ginger tea and gargled warm water with salt. On the next day, I was semi okay. Wednesday was a different story. Today, Thursday, I decided to rest (yesterday I worked from home).  Thank you God for the gift of healing.

Moving on to another topic, what did you do during the long Papal weekend? Although we live close to Villamor, we chose to stay home. The pope said, “Protect your family.” If  protecting means praying, preparing for the future, nurturing, prioritizing health, and spending quality time with your family, we did just what the pope said.

First thing we did on the first day of the long weekend, was meet our financial advisor, Efren Cruz. Click here to read our past posts about insights that we gained from him. Financially, so many things have happened since we first met Efren in 2012. We paid off our Pag-ibig loan. I got promoted. Franco moved to an insurance company with great benefits. We just want to check if our finances are in order.

Favorite Moments Last Christmas

Aside from those that I already previously mentioned, here are my favorite Christmas moments

1. When we visited a nearby orphanage and donated Aki’s old bike.

Favorite Gifts We Gave and Received Last Christmas

Yellow!

We did not get to see the Pope but by reading and listening about his visit, I already feel extremely blessed.  I am thankful that God sent a charismatic messenger to us to show how much we are loved.

Still on the topic of Christmas, we were blessed  to be surrounded by generous and thoughtful friends and family. All gifts were very much appreciated. And don’t you just love heartfelt notes? 

Christmas Tradition: Christmas Movie Marathon

Morning!

Yes, I am not yet done with my Christmas series. Year 2014 was a year of blogging backlogs. Hopefully, 2015 will be different.

One of my favorite memories from the last season is enjoying a cup of hot choco, either Swiss Miss or Malagos, while watching a Christmas movie. For my very forgetful brain’s sake, here are the movies that I plan to watch again with Aki come December.

2014 Christmas Decors

I am always amazed when I see houses fully decked inside and out with Christmas decors. The first question that comes to mind is “Where do they store all these after the holidays?!”. We live in a house that is just right size for our small family. Not big, not small but storage space is always a problem. In fact, our third room, the supposed guestroom, was converted into a dressing room slash bodega.

And so when the holiday season rolls in, I just choose which spaces needs to be decorated. I don’t have the time, storage space and budget to holida-fy  our whole little home. This year, I chose the corner under the stairs and bookshelves. I already shared the Christmas trees and books. Let me share how our shelves looked like.

2014 Holiday Giftwrapping

I am pleased to inform everyone that over the holidays, I earned my PhD in ribbon-making. Am so proud!

My initial plan was to mostly use tulle and paper straws but I ended up making lots and lots of ribbon.

These are my faves

Thank You, 2014! Hello, 2015!

From my screen to yours, I wish you a Happy New Year!!!! May 2015 overwhelm us with love, happiness and blessings. 🙂 🙂 🙂

We kicked off the year by…

 

 

A series of decluttering