This is how we do it(them)...

     While we attended a number of Christmas parties last December, we only felt the Christmas spirit in the comfort of fellow filipinos flats but once you step outside, everything is normal and ordinary.  We planned on dining out for Noche Buena and coincidentally, a family friend called and invited us for dinner and so we joined them.  As for New Year's, we do not have any concrete plans on how to celebrate it since we couldn't have our own fireworks and stuff (during ramadan and hajj, saudis hold scheduled fireworks display and people get to watch them - no firecrackers, fountains, whatsoever).  Our friend invited us over at their house for December 31 and so we got to celebrate it through eating and chatting and by 1am we packed up and left because there's still work the following day.  Though our celebration of Christmas and welcoming 2012 was simple and modest, we still had lots of fun.  Who wouldn't? we're in the company of good friends...yun nga lang kahit anong sabihin, iba pa din ang pasko sa Pinas kapag kumpleto ang pamilya, angkan, ka-barangay, etc, hehe.

Christmas dinner @The Noodle House.  They have the best Pad Thai (at least for me).

 excited for the bottled water..feeling nila liquor, lol.

round fruits for New Year's luck, of course.

girl friends...love tita grace's neck piece! =)

goofing around with pechay leaves, hehehe...

     2011 has been so good to us and I have a feeling 2012 will offer greater things..I'm excited! oh..tangerine is the color of 2012...I love orange! yey! =)

vain...

     I decided to delete some photos stored in my blackberry and as I was browsing, I realized something...I'm fond of taking pictures of my arm while wearing a watch.  Some people like taking pictures of  themselves, particularly their face while I, on the other hand, have a vain arm. LOL

     These were taken when I'm usually bored, hehe. Anyway, I wanted these pics to appear as a collage but I don't really know how to use photoshop, sorry am not techy..

December 25 Photo-Blog

     In early December my kids asked me why Santa doesn't come here in Riyadh.  I told them since this is an Islamic country, Santa's afraid  he might get caught by the Mutawas or religious police.  Last week, out of curiosity, I asked them to write Santa a letter just in case he could stop by, hehe..

Paolo's letter.

Matti's

Sammy's.  I asked him why it's incomplete and he told me he doesn't really know what to ask for..good! lol..

Now we have already given them 3 gifts each even before December 25 so we just decided to buy candies and wrap them as presents, haha..

I wrapped the candies on December 24 as soon as they hit the sack...I placed them in the living room...

When they woke up, they saw the gifts and asked who they are for and I said I don't know, then they watched some tv show...a couple of minutes later they ate breakfast...

I gave the gifts to them after they ate and they were a bit surprised, puzzled in a way...then became giddy as soon as they realized they have gifts...

these are what's inside..Sammy already ate some, hehe...

     What's priceless was the look on their faces when they opened their gifts and how they said the word "WOW" as if they have received the best gift in the whole world.  I have the best boys one could ever dream of (please allow me to brag a bit, hehe). 

P.S.  they were extra happy all through out the day even if we're just at home waiting for their dad to come home. We'll eat out for dinner later. =)

                                                  MERRY CHRISTMAS from our family to yours!!!

     My grown-up Christmas wish is that each and every person in the world be blessed with abundance, good health and happiness!

indecisions...

     Have you ever experienced not being able to make up your mind on what outfit to wear or not and then realizes that the only difference lies between small (very small) details?  I showed my husband the pictures below and asked him which look he prefers and then he looked at me in disbelief and told me they are all the same, lol..

 i know....dirty mirror! eekkk...

Now this should make you laugh somehow...

I love short clips like this! It's really hilarious...watch til 1:01 and you'll  see how I eat chips in real life, lol...

p.s.  I have always loved Juliette Lewis!

                                                         Shit Girls Say - episode 1

Big Bad Watch...

     I don't post pictures of the things I buy in facebook because I feel shy and I don't want my friends and other people who might see it to think that I'm bragging or something.  Although I know some people do that because they want to share their excitement.  So forgive me if I do that here in my blog..hehe. I just feel more comfortable posting and sharing trivial things here because, i don't know, maybe it's the thought that my family and friends don't get to read this blog. =) 

     I love how big my MK watch is.  It really is a statement piece.  There's a masculine feel to it yet it is so beautiful to behold, IMHO. Hubby bought it last November 24.  Yep, too early for a Christmas gift. =)

Meant to be...

     My mom would always tell me that I'm her lucky kid.  Ever since I was a child, often if not always, I would get what I want.  It's as if things and people around me would unintentionally work wonders just so I could have want I want/need. 

     Last September, or maybe October, I saw these striped dresses from H&M and pointed them out to my husband.  But since we're not in the mall to shop, he told me to just buy clothes in December for our Christmas shopping...sad...because I know those dresses won't be there anymore by that time, hehe.

     Then about two weeks ago, I went to H&M to buy new hooded jackets for the kids.  I roamed around looking for the dresses I like but I couldn't see them.  I felt defeated!  While lining up to the cashier I suddenly had an urge to look at a corner next to the counter.  I asked my eldest son to fall in line in my place for a while.  My heart was beating so fast as I approach the corner and there..I saw the dress! It's the last piece but fortunately it's in my size.  And it's on sale!  I also want the other color combination, the pink and orange but it's no longer available...sigh...

black and cream striped dress...

from SR129, I scored it for only SR30...

     But here's the best part...last week, we had our CFC household christmas party and guess what my monita gave me?

yes!!! the pink and orange version of the dress! I couldn't be happier, I was all smile at the party.

there's more..she gave me not one but two dresses, both from H&M.

     Am I lucky or what? =)

Closet Picks...

I just want to share what I wore for the past week...

My husband took outfit shots of me before leaving but he unfortunately deleted them all.  The pic below is the only shot I have showing what I wore (grabbed from fb)...

Blazer: Zara / white organic tee:H&M / jeggings (i think): Penshoppe / shoes: Parisian

 

 

blazer: United Colors of Benetton / top: New Look / pants: Mango / shoes: from brazil (really old) / sunnies: H&M

coat: thrifted / dress: New Look / scarf: H&M / shoes: unbranded (very, very cheap)

 May I just add...for a country not recognizing the Christmas tradition, it's ironic that I have been to three xmas parties already and it's only December 9, lol..

Christmas (Party) Came Early!

     Thursday and Friday came as a handful for us because of the back-to-back parties we attended.  Our energies are sucked right out of us  but our minds and hearts are so happy.  A little bit homesick, but happy.
   
  In as much as I want to share a lot of things that are going on around here in my blog, I feel like I'm a little bit restricted because there are words going around that Muttawas are extra strict nowadays.  But in a way, I'm a little confident that we are not in danger (serious? hehe) because all our activities involve married couples and I'm one hundred percent sure that whenever we do get together, there's no hanky-panky going on..

Anyway, I digress...so as I was saying, I was asked to be one of the ninangs of an adorable baby girl last Thursday.  We were out til one in the morning then the following day we had to get up early for our chapter Christmas party. 

at the reception after the ceremony...

our mouths are full, lol...

after eating, we had a final rehearsal for our presentation for the chapter xmas party...

Friday Party.   I had a different set of outfit prepared for our party and I'm really looking forward to wearing my red pumps but I found out the night before that our unit was supposed to wear purple.  I'm not a fan of the color purple and so I wore the only purple shirt I have.  I got it from New Look last year but never got to wear it until that day.  Notice that I still wore my red shoes..nakaset na kasi mind ko e, lol...

during our dance presentation...

There are two parties more that we're set to attend on the 8th and 9th.

Spokening Dollar...

As far as I know, if there's one person responsible for teaching my kids how to speak in English then that would be me, especially since they are all home schooled.  Speaking of home schooling, they are enrolled in the Philippines in a regular school under the homeschooling system.  Their curriculum is under Basic Education Curriculum of DepEd but they are also under the American Curriculum integrated in the school system.  That means they are following the American English pronunciation of words or in pinoy lingo, slang (tama ba?).  Although our accent is still pinoy english, my kids are very particular with certain word pronunciation and most of the time, ako na ang kino-correct nila! Imagine having 3 boys na as if nakabantay with every word I say.  Here are just some examples...

     Me: We will pay twenty (twen-ti) riyals for the toy.
     Sammy: Mommy, (tweny) po...

     Me:  We have to bring you to the doctor (dok-tor) na, Matti.
     Matti:  (Duc-ter) po mommy...

     Me:  Boys, look at the table, you didn't clean it, there are lots of breadcrumbs (bred-krumbs).
     Paolo: Mommy, (bred-crums) po, silent 'b' po...
     Me: ay, sorry, I forgot!

Naloko na!

I remember when I was still young, my brothers and I would usually correct our mom. She's a lawyer and while she's very good with speaking and writing in english, most of the time she interchanges the use of p and f and b and v.  And that really bothers me, lol.  I remember she would just laugh it off and tell us to mind our own business but I wonder if there are times when she got annoyed at us, hehe...Looking back now, I couldn't help but wonder, karma ko na ba ito? hahaha...

shuriken...

I was supposed to change our beddings and fix our room because my head's starting to throb like crazy - I want our bedroom, especially our bed, to be completely fixed and neat.  But the kids won't leave our room and kept on bugging me.  At first I thought they just wanted to hang around (what is it with kids and big beds? hehe), then they started getting construction papers and scissors..they wanted me to cut 8 squares with the same size for each of them.  Not for a project or anything, but something they saw  in youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IzUXJSvB_g) and they wanted to make their own. And so, with whatever's left of me, I gave in and helped them.  It was worth it though 'cause I really had fun. 

Dydy couldn't concentrate on what he was doing so he stood up from his table and got his camera...

    

Me: dydy, join the fun! He just smiled and took another photo. Paolo: tumawa lang si daddy then back to base again! (base being his working table, lol)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tadah! the shurikens or ninja stars (from the cartoon/psp game Naruto pala 'to)

I really enjoyed making them and was amazed at our finished product.  The blade opens and closes, hehehe...

Guilty...

This is a totally shallow post. 

In my last post I've mentioned that I'll no longer buy anything (major) this coming 2012 mainly because I felt like I have been so materialistic this year.  In a span of 11 months, I bought hubby bought the following (add to that the occasional shopping for clothes and shoes and other stuff):

lv speedy 35  (plus a long champ le pliage tote in old rose)

white blackberry bold 9700

swatch full-blooded caramel

My husband is the sweetest because he's very malambing but he's not the type of guy who'd surprise you with gifts.  With that in mind, I have learned to just ask, hehe.  But we always talk things over first - hindi pwede yung basta na lang bumile kasi gusto.  With the LV bag, I bought it because of practicality's sake (chos!).  I have always been a bag person and when I was younger I have collected a number of bags which I realized are not really for keeps because of the not-so-good quality.  So I've decided that it's okay for me to just have a maximum of 5 bags but would last me a lifetime.  Although I still have 10 bags left, I think. As with the BB, I have never bought a celphone for the past 4 years or so..all the phones I've used are hand-me-downs from my mom.  And it's actually hubby's treat for me for being a good housewife =).  Now with the watch, in as much as I'm a bag(not anymore) and shoes person, I'm also a big fan of watches.  I feel naked without it.  I have quite a few watches but most of them are my mom's.  I asked hubby for the swatch full-blooded because of it's size and I thought it would be good enough in place of the Michael Kors oversized runway watch I was eyeing.  But I felt like it was parang pang teenager.  Then I learned that yun nga, there's a newly opened MK shop here in Riyadh so I begged hubby to give it to me as a christmas gift na lang. But if there's one lesson I learned, it's to never settle for anything less than what you've dreamed of.  Just like with the watch, my husband asked me, "Baket mo pa binile kung di mo pala talaga gusto?" I wasn't able to answer kasi tama naman siya.  So there, instead of saving money (swatch is only $126 compared to MK which is $250), napadoble pa tuloy ang gastos.

So in closing, I want to share what my husband always tells me, "Hindi tayo nandito sa Saudi para sa mga sale!" Korek!

Welcome to the Kingdom, Michael Kors...

Yesterday, I was ecstatic when I found out from a friend that there's already a Michael Kors store here in Riyadh.

the MK shop here in Riyadh **(taken from https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150379772090551&set=a.10150379771905551.613505.200736335550&type=3&theater)

For the past year or so I have been dreaming of the MK8077 runway watch but I always kept on thinking that there's no way I could get my hands on it because 1. I wouldn't be able to go to the US and 2. I don't want to order it online since I don't like the idea of cashing out additional fees for shipping.  But I have already considered asking a friend who is a flight attendant to buy it for me and she agreed, hehe.

MK8077 over-sized runway watch in gold tone

Last night, hubby already gave me a go-signal to buy that watch as his Christmas present for me (smile from ear to ear, plus a funny dance, lol).  But there's a catch...I told him I'm going to make a sworn statement  that I wouldn't buy anything, as in anything, in 2012 ( I'll write about the reason behind it in another post), so help me, God! hehehe.

Now, let the Christmas countdown begin! =)

**Michael Kors shop is in Faisaliah Mall, Riyadh, KSA

Closet Picks

Here's a pic of what I wore last Thursday.  I realized I didn't have a solo shot because we were running late already. Since Sammy's with me, I'll also include his outfit details.

on me: Aiko dress from Iconic, random black pumps, casio silver watch borrowed from hubby plus a boyfriend blazer from UCB I added during the ceremony /on sammy: shirt from Jag, Red Tag jeans, Airwalk shoes from Payless

What We Did

It has been a busy week for the whole family especially last Wednesday and Thursday.  I was stressed out (but in a good way - if there's such a state) preparing the kids stuff.  I was so excited to share the event to our families and friends through photos only to find out during the special event itself that pictures are prohibited to be uploaded in facebook or in any other networking sites...bummer! But I understand, really.  It's for our own protection.  So without elaborating anything, hints are in of the photos (di talaga mapigilan no? hehe)

before leaving the house...

part of the audience...

I feel proud as a mom because my eldest and my second child took part in a ceremony which marks another milestone. =)